A new lawsuit filed against Ed Martin and his breakaway group has shined a spotlight on his ongoing financial mismanagement and efforts to divide and destroy Eagle Forum.
The suit was filed earlier this month in federal court by an East Coast public relations firm, Quantum Communications, which claims that Martin’s group hired them and ran up a bill for a whopping $130,000, but never paid.
According to the lawsuit, even though Eagle Forum Education and Legal Defense Fund hired Quantum Communications, the work was done at “the direction of Martin.”
Phyllis Schlafly would have never used donor funds to pay for an expensive DC public relations firm. Even more troubling, however, is that little of the work apparently performed by Quantum Communications was designed to advance the mission of Eagle Forum Education and Legal Defense Fund, but instead appears to support the agenda of a handful of individuals, including some of its directors and officers. Among other things, Quantum Communications was paid to host a fancy reception during the Presidential Inaugural on January 21, 2017, to develop a digital “DeFund Berkeley” campaign, to promote the distribution of 800 books as the only “premium” gift at the Reagan Dinner during CPAC, and “to assist in getting Martin on the Weyrich lunch agenda.
In addition, much of the work of Quantum Communications was focused on providing “litigation support, as a result of a legal dispute between Schlafly’s heirs,” right about the time that Martin and John Schlafly were suspended from their positions as President and Treasurer, respectively, of Eagle Forum by a Madison County Circuit Court. The lawsuit alleges that Quantum Communications was involved in “consultations and communications” with lawyers, created “proposed statements for Andy Schlafly,” and developed “press releases concerning the litigation.” Notably, Eagle Forum Education and Legal Defense Fund was not even a party to the Madison County lawsuit at the time.
You can read the full lawsuit here.
Martin agreed to pay $20,000 per month for these services, meaning that Martin wasted tens of thousands of dollars of donor money on public relations services to destroy the very organization that Phyllis Schlafly spent her life building.
Adding insult to injury, he never paid the bill, despite repeated assurances that payment was forthcoming.
Martin now claims that Quantum Communications is just another “DC swamp consultant.” But, according to the lawsuit, Martin was continuing to direct their work and using their services through March 2017. The lawsuit alleges that, as recently as April 3, 2017, Martin was telling Quantum Communications that he “was in a fight with his board over the outstanding invoices for QC [Quantum Communications]. He subsequently continued to admit the obligation and apologize for the lack of payment.”
Read more in the St Louis Post Dispatch
This lawsuit demonstrates the very kind of mismanagement that led the Eagle Forum Board to remove Ed Martin from his position with the organization in 2016.