For more than a year, the state’s website for Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody said the Republican is “recognized as a national leader” among her peers.
Until a few days ago, the website supported this statement by mentioning Moody’s appointment to the board of a conservative organization that now faces a coup for its role in the deadly attack on the US Capitol last week: the State Defense Fund. Right.
On the eve of Wednesday’s uprising, the Rule of Law Defense Fund sent automatic calls urging President Donald J. Trump’s supporters to join what was, at this point, a growing movement to overthrow the election by force.
“At 1 pm we will march to the Capitol building and ask Congress to stop the theft,” said a message obtained by the Associated Press. “We hope that patriots like you will join us to continue to fight to protect the integrity of our elections.”
As scrutiny of these messages intensified after Wednesday’s insurrection, Moody’s office erased references to the Rule of Law Defense Fund from its online biography. Its website even promoted the appointment of the council on Friday, according to a Tampa Bay Times Review. By Monday morning, he was gone.
Lauren Cassedy, a spokeswoman for Moody, said she left the board last year and “had no prior knowledge” of the organization’s involvement in Wednesday’s uprising. Cassedy declined to provide the date of his departure or an explanation of why the organization was removed from its website.
“As you know, Attorney General Moody quickly condemned the violence on Wednesday and continues to do so,” said Cassedy.
In a tweet on the afternoon of the riot, Moody called violence against security forces “unacceptable”, adding: “Anyone who attacks a police officer must be brought to justice”. His statement made no mention of the attack on Congress or the United States Capitol.
It is unclear how the Rule of Law Defense Fund, a nonprofit arm of the Association of Republican Attorneys General, became a major contributor to the insurrection last week. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, president of the organization, told the Montgomery Advertiser this team was to blame and promised an investigation.
“It is unacceptable that he has not been consulted or informed about these decisions. I conducted an internal review of this issue, “said Marshall to Advertiser in a statement. On Monday, Adam Piper, executive director of the Association of Republican Attorneys General, resigned, according to NBC News.
The March to Save America website, which organized the Capitol demonstration last week, listed the Rule of Law Defense Fund as one of the participating organizations, according to a graphic deleted on the event’s website that was preserved by the Internet Archive. Other participants included Stop the Steal, an online coalition of pro-Donald Trump conspirators and other far-right activists accused of leading the crowd in an effort to prevent Congress from certifying Democratic Joe Biden’s electoral victory.
The Rule of Law Defense Fund website states that it was created in 2014 to promote “the rule of law, federalism and freedom in a civil society”. Its emergence coincided with the growing politicization of attorney generals in states led by Republicans, who often used their pulpits to challenge President Barack Obama’s democratic agenda, such as the Affordable Care Act.
Attempts to contact the organization through a telephone number on its 2017 income tax return have not been returned.
Moody’s office declined to provide details of its management at the Rule of Law Defense Fund. References to his involvement first appeared in his official state biography in October 2019, according to an archived version of his website.
“Since assuming the position of Attorney General, Moody has been recognized as a national leader having been appointed to the Executive Committee of the National Association of Attorneys General and to the Board of Directors of the Rule of Law Defense Fund,” said biography.
In November, the organization posted on its website a video of Moody leading a panel discussion with two other Republican attorney generals about Trump’s impact on federal courts.
Although Moody has distanced herself from the Rule of Law Defense Fund, she remains closely involved with the related organization, the Association of Republican Attorneys General, a group committed to electing Republican candidates to the offices of state attorney generals.
The Association of Republican Attorneys General donated more than $ 1 million to Moody’s political committee in 2018 – 20% of the total raised by its committee during its successful campaign for the position. In November, she was appointed to the association’s executive committee.
Moody also took a leading role in Trump’s legal struggle to annul the election. She joined 16 other Republican attorney generals who urged the US Supreme Court to open a case in Texas that would have invalidated the election results in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. The Supreme Court dismissed the case.
Moody, 45, is a former judge on the Hillsborough County Thirteenth Circuit Court and once sued Trump in a fraud case linked to a failed pledge to bring a Trump Tower to Tampa, a fact that was highlighted by his Republican opponents. 2018 primary.
But since taking office in 2019, Moody has become a loyal replacement for Trump, campaigning on his behalf and using his office to boost his legal struggles. For example, in May last year, Moody teamed up with 14 other Republican state attorney generals to urge the federal government to drop the case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.