POLK COUNTY CITIZENS DEFENDING FREEDOM – OFFICIAL STATEMENT

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Over the last nine months, the Office of the State Attorney has been conducting an investigation surrounding text messages that were sent to Polk County residents regarding School Board candidate Lisa Miller and her campaign during the 2022 General Election. According to the Complaint Affidavit sworn by State Attorney Investigator David Lopez, “[s]ome of the text messages allegedly contained false statements” regarding Lisa Miller and all of the text messages failed to “include the phrase ‘paid for by’ as required by Florida State Statute 106.147(1)(a).”

We are happy to report that the investigation has concluded, that innocent parties’ names have been cleared, and that State Attorney Brian Haas has charged James Earl Dunn, Jr., with seven counts of violating section 106.147, Florida Statutes, in connection with this matter.

We would like to express our deepest gratitude to State Attorney Brain Haas and the investigators who worked diligently to uncover the source of the texts. We would also like to publicly thank Polk County School Board member Lisa Miller, who was the subject of the text messages, for her determination to expose the truth.

During the course of the 2022 election, two Polk School Board County candidates hired Dr. James Dunn, a political consultant from Texas, for consultation in their school board races. County Citizens Defending Freedom (“CCDF-USA”) never employed Dunn, in any capacity.

However, when the text messages in question were initially sent to Polk County voters, suspicion was cast on CCDF-USA, whose mission is to empower and educate citizens to defend their rights and freedoms, as well as conservative candidates running in the school board race. CCDF-USA began an investigation to determine where the texts originated, and CCDF-USA offered to disclose all the information from its investigation to the Office of the State Attorney. CCDF-USA has continued to check in on the progress of the state’s investigation as it proceeded.

We are grateful to live in a county and state where law and order prevail. We appreciate the dedication of local law enforcement and our State Attorney that investigated this matter.

The diligence of our State Attorney, his investigators, and Lisa Miller’s determination to uncover the truth in this matter has led to Dr. Dunn being charged with seven counts of violating section 106.147(1)(a), Florida Statutes, which requires “[a]ny text message . . . supporting or opposing a candidate, an elected public official, or a ballot measure, and any electioneering text message or telephone call, [to] include the phrase, ‘Paid for by,’ followed by the name of the person or organizations sponsoring the message or call or, in the case of a text message, a working hyperlink or a uniform resource locator (URL) to a website containing the required disclosure.”

In addition, in his sworn Investigative Report, State Attorney Investigator David Lopez concluded that “there is no evidence of any criminal wrongdoing of Lisa Miller, Bob Miller, Jill Sessions, Terry Clark, Rick Nolte, Gow Fields, Steve Maxwell or the CCDF.” To the extent that anybody is making statements to the contrary, such statements are not based in truth or fact.