Michael “Mikey” Weinstein has kept a running tally since his group was founded of how many “clients” he has. The goal was obvious: He had to make it seem it wasn’t just one man’s vendetta against Christianity.

Last month, Weinstein hailed the “milestone” that he now “represents” 65,000 people.

On any level, the claim is farcical.

As has been noted here for years, Weinstein’s organization doesn’t even define what a “client” is. Only one time in recorded history — way back in 2009 — has Weinstein publicly described a client, and that was when Matthew LoFiego of the Military Officers Association of America had to “press” him on the topic (because Weinstein wasn’t forthcoming):

Callers are only asked to provide their service and rank, but from this data, MRFF claims to support 13,000 clients. I pressed Mikey to define what he considered a client, which he stated represented anyone in current service to the military that has lodged a complaint or asked for advice.

That definition doesn’t match Weinstein’s own current claims. Weinstein now says

MRFF now represents 65,000 and counting active duty U.S. marines, sailors, soldiers, airmen, cadets, midshipmen, national guard, reservists and veterans, including matters involving High School JROTC around the nation, about 95% of whom self-identify as practicing Christians.

Further, it’s ridiculous — and borderline unethical for an attorney — to claim he currently “represents” some guy who called him once in 2008, yet that is what Weinstein seems to do to boost his credentials.

As a point of contrast, the Freedom From Religion Foundation (with whom the MRFF is often confused) only claims “more than 30,000 members” — but it clearly has an actual “become a member” option.  Using another rather useless metric, the FFRF boasts 470,000 followers on Facebook.  Mikey has 4,700.  Weinstein claims to “represent” more than twice as many people as the FFRF, yet his actual following appears to be 1% of the FFRF’s.

How does that make any sense?

As with “clients,” Weinstein does not define what he means by “represents” — an ethically ambiguous term when used by someone who hypes his credentials as a lawyer.

Similarly, if the MRFF really has 65,000 “clients”, why is its budget so small? If each client gave the MRFF just $50, Weinstein would have instant access to $3.25 million — yet his most recent year only had $700,000 in contributions, and much of that came in large grants — not from “clients” but from other charities.

Again, by contrast, the 30,000 member FFRF (which has a paid membership) reported $5.2 million in contributions. (And, by the way, they paid both of their co-presidents a combined salary that was still less than Weinstein’s; and, by the way, they actually filed their tax information on time).

In other words, Mikey Weinstein’s claim of 65,000 clients is completely meaningless. It seems he wants to claim a large following because he thinks it makes him look legitimate, or perhaps because he thinks it makes him look popular.  Instead it makes him look like a desperate high school kid with low self-esteem.

Kind of sad, when you think about it.

Interestingly, Weinstein blames the election of President Trump for an uptick in “clients.” Guess what Weinstein said in 2009?

Weinstein [said] the number of complaints and inquiries has increased dramatically since the election of President Obama.

Weinstein tried to say President Trump’s election was somehow a direct cause for getting more “clients” — yet President Obama’s election did precisely the same thing? Sounds like Mikey plugs and plays words into dramatic claims that say whatever he feels like, regardless of the truth.

It’s almost like Weinstein has fill-in-the-blank complaints and press releases and he just hits “send” every few months.

Almost like Mikey’s Mad Libs, right, Chris Rodda?

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