Leaders of No Labels, a political party that failed in its bid to nominate a third-party presidential candidate, is taking its opponents to federal court.
Unsealed documents and emails revealed Democratic operatives worked to undermine No Labels with efforts that included harassing and intimidating the founder, Nancy Jacobson, and her husband, Mark Penn, a former adviser to Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Political operations groups such as Third Way and Investing in US are working to counter the legal discovery.
Strategists intended to “socially stigmatize” the couple, including stunts such as hiring clowns “to hangout on their block” in the Georgetown area of Washington, D.C., according to the filings. They also reportedly posted fliers in their neighborhood attacking the couple, sent a “truck carrying musical performers” to their home at 6 a.m., and flew a banner plane over Harvard University’s graduation to attack Penn, who is chairman of the Harris Poll operated by the university.
These efforts were outlined in a May 3, 2023, email sent by Melissa Byrne, a former organizer for Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaigns. She had also suggested using a mobile billboard to target the couple at the White House Correspondents’s Association dinner, according to the unsealed documents.
“There is no place for MAGA hate in Georgetown,” the billboard stated over photos of President-elect Donald Trump and the No Labels leaders.
Emails were sent to Dmitri Mehlhorn, a former top strategist for Investing in US, who then forwarded them to Lucy Caldwell, an anti-No Labels strategist.
Mehlhorn denied having endorsed these proposals.
“As a venture investor I received thousands of proposals for political work. I forward them to my advisers for initial review,” Mehlhorn said in a statement to the Washington Post about the “social stigmatization” memo. “If No Labels thinks that means I endorse those proposals, they are even dumber than I thought, which is saying something.”
Days later, Caldwell shared with Mehlhorn her own proposal targeting No Labels. This led to a meeting in June at Third Way’s offices with several former U.S. senators, anti-Trump Republican activists, and other Democratic operatives.
“Think of those tactics as flame retardant/super-scooper planes — that is, the last resort for when the fire is burning out of control and we have exhausted the options of our earlier phase,” Caldwell wrote.
Caldwell also suggested creating a targeted ad strategy to make ballot-access efforts more difficult and using “allies connected in media/etc.”
Pat Dennis, president of the American Bridge 21st Century, reportedly offered to help place stories and alleged misuse of donor funds by No Labels and also seek out operatives within No Labels to leak sensitive information to reporters.
“The goal is to poison the well for No Labels with their key stakeholders and destabilize their efforts internally and in the minds of the public,” Dennis wrote in his email to Caldwell. “Spread fear, uncertainty, and doubt about their operation, and within their operation.”
“These operatives had the gall to say they were fighting to protect our democracy. In reality, they undermined it at every turn with frivolous lawsuits, character assassination, and outright lies designed to prevent No Labels from exercising our constitutional right to get ballot access,” Dan Webb, a No Labels volunteer legal adviser, said in a statement. “If you are wondering why Americans are losing faith in our democracy and so many of our country’s self-anointed elites, this is Exhibit A.”
In January, No Labels leaders called on the Justice Department to investigate an “unlawful conspiracy” to undermine their efforts, but the Justice Department did not respond to their requests.
The emails and correspondence between anti-No Label operatives were made possible by a civil trial in Delaware when anti-No Label activists were attempting to buy a NoLabels.com domain. Purporting to be the official page for No Labels, the website included information that the party was supporting Trump.
District Judge Gregory Williams issued a temporary restraining order over the trademark violation and forced the website’s removal.
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Third Way founder Jonathan Cowan and employees Matthew Bennett and Emily Cain have all denied being involved in the creation of NoLabels.com, and they have called the subpoenas into their emails and documents a violation of their First Amendment rights.
No Labels was unable to successfully find a presidential candidate as big names such as former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV) declined their offers.
