'Self-assembling tentacled nanobots,' a sovereign citizen Jedi master and the next phase in local activists' campaign against the Wenatchee School District
May Tussey and Matt Van Bogart, two of the 19 individuals who filed Luis Ewing’s lengthy “FOIA" requests to the Wenatchee School District.
On Feb. 20, 2022 local political activists delivered stacks of documents prepared by a man named Luis Ewing from Moclips, Washington to the Wenatchee School District at that month’s school board meeting. Every packet contained the same two requests. In total each packet contained 21 pages. At least one copy of the packet was also sent to the private addresses of Wenatchee School Board members and Superintendent Paul Gordon.
Nineteen local political activists affixed their names to these identical packets of documents, including former Wenatchee School Board Candidate Matt Van Bogart and political organizer May Tussey, who is also one of the plaintiffs in a new lawsuit against Confluence Health over vaccine mandates. She also applied to be on the board of the Chelan Douglas Health District, according to The Wenatchee World.
The packets Matt, May and their co-requestors submitted allegedly contain public records requests, yet the bizarrely-written requests are a dizzying odyssey for anyone not steeped in the world of Q-anon-style online conspiracy theories.
Similar documents have been filed with other school districts in the state, and read like Q-Anon Mad Libs.
“I, we request that this Wenatchee School Board make available for public inspection and photocopying the results of any … ‘Double Blind Placebo Test’ … that establishes and proves that the Covid 19 virus is in fact naturally occurring ‘virus’, ‘bacteria’, or some other ‘man-made disease’ that contains ‘completely unnatural man-made phospholipids’, ‘messenger RNA’, ‘SARS-Co-V-2 spike protein’, ‘graphene oxide’, ‘graphene hydroxide’, ‘graphene oxide poisoning’, ‘polyethylene glycol’, ‘nanoparticles’, ‘self-assembling tentacled nanobots’, ‘parasites’, ‘aborted fetal cell cultures, specifically PER.C6 or HEK-293 that were isolated from terminated fetal cell lines; or any other ‘toxic ingredients,’” number 15 of the second part of the request reads.
Ewing, the man who prepared the requests these local folks attached their names to calls himself a “tribal court lawyer” and a “federal lawyer.” However he is not a member of the Washington state bar. In his cell phone voicemail responder he states that “I am not an attorney” and would never belong to the “criminally corrupt” state bar.
According to the Spokesman Review, Ewing used a website called “Washington Parent Alliance” to disseminate the documents and prior to producing documents to help folks looking to harass their local school boards he offered to work on behalf of marijuana defendants. In his voicemail responder he also plugs his website ultimateusers.com, which features an image of the White House covered in pot plants, as well as a website that aims to “expose” CPS, or child protective services.
His public Facebook posts help bring the man’s personality further into focus.
He’s clearly referencing a reaction to one of the records requests he prepared.
This type of rhetoric is pretty typical of the far-right sovereign citizen set who believe they have the right to drive without a license on public roads funded by other peoples’ tax dollars but not pay taxes themselves.
I reached out to Ewing via email and phone but he did not get back to me. However, he did respond to the Spokesman-Review after they requested an interview.
“There is really no need to discuss anything until after I have forced the State of Washington to Reverse, Cancel and Withdraw all Vaccine Mandates, and all Mask Mandates in all 295 School Districts for the State of Washington. … Until I succeed which I will there is NOTHING to talk about,” he wrote.
I also reached out to all 19 local folks who submitted Ewing’s documents with their names attached to the top. Most of them put their email addresses on the paperwork, but some did not. So for those who only put their home addresses I sent them a letter requesting an interview. I figured me contacting them at home wouldn’t be an issue for them since they were so comfortable sending public records requests to the home addresses of our superintendent and school board members.
I also had my source with access to Grace City Church’s membership directory cross reference the names on my list. It turns out 11 of the 19 individuals are in there.
It wasn’t a huge surprise, since folks like Matt Van Bogart and May Tussey have not done much to hide their affiliation with Grace City.
Here’s the email I wrote to Matt Van Bogart:
“Hello Matt,
It has come to my attention that you and 18 other people filed the exact same public records request with the Wenatchee School District. The paperwork was prepared by Luis Ewing of Moclips, Washington. I have some questions about the FOIA, how your group got organized and connected with Ewing and what you hope to accomplish.
I'd also like to know how Grace City Church fits in, because I notice that at least 11 of the 19 are members.
I’d like to interview you about it. Do you have time today or tomorrow to chat?”
Matt did not respond to my email, but another one of the 19 did. Her name is Wendy Priest and she declined to be interviewed. But we did carry on an email conversation for a couple days. It offered me the opportunity to ask the question I am keen to ask all of the requestors, which is:
“Does Grace City Church attract rightwing activists, or create them?”
This is also a question I would like to ask GCC Pastor Josh McPherson, if given the opportunity. He’s on record urging his followers to run for elected office, but I would like to know if Grace City offers up their Sunnyslope compound as a place for political organizing and if these 19 requestors met there to strategize this move.
How did I find out about this?
Sources. One of whom is Matt Van Bogart himself. He has been bragging about harassing the school board with public records requests since he lost to Maria Iñiguez in November 2021.
And since public records requests are themselves public records all I had to do was file a request to see the requests.
Are these large duplicate requests a strain on public resources and a waste of taxpayer dollars?
I asked Diana Haglund, spokesperson for the Wenatchee School District, about that and she will get back to me this coming week. So I will follow up with the School District’s official response in a future post and will probably cover this topic on my show, minus any mention of Grace City Church.
As for “frivolous” records requests, one New Jersey town is suing a woman for filing what its lawyers call “voluminous OPRA requests” that have “been unduly burdensome, time consuming and expensive.”
Transparency in government is important. It’s essential for citizens to have the ability to see what our elected officials are doing in our name and with our tax dollars. However the public records request process can be weaponized and wielded against rank and file public employees who are just trying to do their jobs to the best of their abilities, for the most part.
It’s a complex issue that may never be resolved to the satisfaction of both those who work in the public sector and those who seek accountability and transparency in government. And I won’t pretend to have the answer to this challenge.
But I do know that it’s a system that works best when both the requestor and representatives of the public agency in question act in good faith. And the question of whether or not Van Bogart, Tussey, and the other 17 requestors are acting in good faith is very much up for discussion here.
That is why I wish at least one of these individuals would respond to my requests for an interview.
The Q Anon Connection
Ron Watkins, one of the folks behind the Q Anon cult phenomenon, is running for Congress in Arizona. And he’s taking aim at school boards, instructing his followers to weaponize public records requests, according To Vice News.
Watkins associate Miki Klann “serves” papers to Scottsdale Unified School District Board meeting at its January meeting.
A similar scene to what transpired at the Feb. 20, 2022 Wenatchee School Board meeting happened at the Scottsdale Unified School District in January. And according to Vice, one of Watkins’ followers “established Telegram channels for all 50 states to allow people to coordinate harassment campaigns across the country.”
Back here in Washington, the Central Valley School District was also “served” with stacksof records requests at their February meeting. Those documents were also prepared by Luis Ewing.
Since neither Ewing or any of the requestors who filed his paperwork in their names will get back to me (save for one) I can’t ask them if they were inspired or instructed by Ron Watkins and his followers’ antics in Arizona. But the similarities in tactics, vernacular and tone are striking and should not go ignored.
It was Matt Van Bogart and his fellow rightwing activists’ decision to ambush the Wenatchee School Board last August, refuse to follow the rules of the meeting and shout at and bully our elected representatives with the blessing of Pastor Carey McPherson of Grace City Church that started me upon the path of finding out more about what is motivating these people.
Carey McPherson preaching a sermon titled “Permission to Protest” the Sunday before the school board ambush.
This “harassment-by-document” strategy, as the Spokesman-Review’s Shawn Vestal calls it, is just the most recent tactic employed by Van Bogart, Tussey and other rightwing activists who seem to be receiving considerable aid and comfort from the powers that be at Grace City Church.
And since they are staying the course – I will too.
If you’d like to view an entire “FOIA” prepared by Ewing and submitted by Matt Van Bogart, you can do that right here. I’m happy to provide all 19 unredacted versions of the requests to other members of the media, but only if they agree to credit me for breaking this story first.
And if you’d like to read more about Van Bogart and his antics, here are few good articles to start with:
Why not mention the GCcult connection on your show? 11/19 seems pretty noteworthy, beyond realm of coincidence, and it's in the public's interest to be aware of the local influences driving activity like this.
Why not mention the GCcult connection on your show? 11/19 seems pretty noteworthy, beyond realm of coincidence, and it's in the public's interest to be aware of the local influences driving activity like this.
Unbelievable. What happened to these people? So easily brainwashed.