Tag Archives: defamation

Mikey Weinstein Rakes in $700,000 in Donations

Late in 2014 Michael “Mikey” Weinstein filed his required IRS documentation for 2013 — and it revealed he had a banner year. For the first time, his Military Religious Freedom Foundation topped $700,000 in total income.

MRFF Total Revenue: $701,535

For his part, Mikey Weinstein gave himself a nice raise (literally, since he says he votes on his own pay package), for his highest take home pay ever from the “charity” he founded:

Weinstein compensation: $299,634

In other words, 42.7% of every “charitably donated dollar” the MRFF brought in during 2013 went to Mikey Weinstein’s compensation. That’s slightly less than the 46.8% he took the year prior.

To be “fair,” Weinstein also claimed an increase in work hours, saying he puts in 105 hours a week.  That’s up from 80 hours a week the year prior, and works out to 15 hours a day, 7 days a week, every single week.  That’s what Weinstein filed; given the low output of the MRFF, it is difficult to say what he actually does for 105 hours a week.  (It is also unclear whether Weinstein dissolved his other company, MIBON Consulting, which presumably also takes up a substantial amount of his time to bring in more than $100,000 a year.)

The general breakdown of funding below his paycheck is Read more

Klingenschmitt Wins Colorado GOP Primary

Gordon Klingenschmitt, the former Navy chaplain discharged over a controversy about “praying in Jesus’ Name,” has won the GOP primary for the US House of Representatives for the 15th District in Colorado.

Klingenschmitt expressed confidence in a November victory, as the district is heavily Republican — and also boasts a significant military population.

Klingenschmitt was also sued, unsuccessfully, by Michael “Mikey” Weinstein and his wife, Bonnie, over “imprecatory prayers.” Klingenschmitt sued the Weinsteins in return, claiming abuse of process and defamation. His suit survived dismissal last January, with the defamation claim being allowed to proceed.

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Report: Mikey Weinstein “Cashing in” using Charity

The Military Times family of papers, which has generally been friendly to Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s campaign against military religious freedom, published an “exclusive” essentially accusing Weinstein of handsomely profiting from the charitable donations he solicits for his MRFF.

Interestingly, the article makes the same points that have been made here for years. In fact, the headline uses the same language that this site used in 2009 (“cashing in”) — language over which Weinstein had threatened to sue because he considered such a characterization to be “defamation.”

The article also notes, as this site has in the past:  Read more

MRFF’s Chris Rodda Sticks Foot in Mouth over Atheists

As noted about a week ago, Dr. James and Shirley Dobson appeared on FoxNews’ The Kelly File, during which host Megyn Kelly described Michael “Mikey” Weinstein as an “atheist,” and Dr. Dobson said he was a well-paid “professional atheist.”

In response to the FoxNews characterization, MRFF researcher Chris Rodda went on the warpath, decrying the “atheist” label and stooping to personal attacks on Megyn Kelly [emphasis added]:

As a former attorney, Fox News’s Megyn Kelly should know full well what defamation is, and she should know full well that what she repeatedly said on last Thursday’s episode of her show The Kelly File was indeed defamation…

It seems “former attorney” Weinstein went out of his way to put out something attacking atheists — and suffered some significant backlash as a result.

After all, Rodda didn’t Read more

Donations to Mikey Weinstein Fall, but His Paycheck Rises

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein recently promised contributors to his “charity” their donations would “represent a…monetary impact” to his cause:

You can rest assured that your generous donation to MRFF would represent a dollar for dollar monetary impact on this Civil Rights/National Security issue that is second to none.

Believe it or not, the awkwardly named Military Religious Freedom Foundation, founded and run by Weinstein (also the sole employee), is a 501(c)3 charity. The advantage of such a designation to Weinstein is he can solicit donations with the same tax benefits to the donors as if they’d given to their local church. The disadvantage (to Weinstein) is he is required to publicize financial documents, which can be quite revealing.

Despite having issues in the past with the public seeing his records, Weinstein has continued to pay himself essentially the same amount each year.  Mikey Weinstein has grossed more than $1.4 million in direct personal compensation (from the donations to his charity) to date.

This year (2012 is the most recent Weinstein has released) was little different. Michael Weinstein’s “reportable compensation” for 2012 was Read more

Lawsuit Against Mikey Weinstein Survives Dismissal

In 2012, Michael “Mikey” Weinstein lost the fifth of five lawsuits he has filed since 2005. None survived to trial. The last was Weinstein v Ammerman, which was a personal lawsuit against former Navy Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt for his “imprecatory prayers.” As with all of his lawsuits, Weinstein promised an “aggressive” appeal when it was dismissed. As with all of his lawsuits, Weinstein never appealed.

The essence of Klingenschmitt’s defense was the only “harm” Weinstein could produce occurred prior to Klingenschmitt’s public prayers. It was said several times that for Weinstein’s case to have merit, he would have needed a time machine.

As a result, following the dismissal of Weinstein’s lawsuit, Klingenschmitt chose to file a lawsuit against Weinstein for “abuse of process” and defamation. The former, because Weinstein allegedly filed his lawsuit knowing it to be false; the latter, because Weinstein allegedly knowingly connected Klingenschmitt with criminal acts he had nothing to do with.

Last week, a New Mexico judge dismissed the abuse claim but allowed the defamation claim to proceed.

A defamation lawsuit filed by a Read more