A look at the group accusing Rep. Lauren Boebert of working as an escort and having abortions
PUEBLO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) -- Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert (R) is fighting back against accusations that she previously worked as an unlicensed escort and that she has had multiple abortions.
While allegations are made against public figures all the time, the reason these claims may be garnering more attention is because of who is making the claims.
The allegations come from the same liberal SuperPAC responsible for releasing an explicit video of North Carolina Congressman Madison Cawthorn.
Now the group American Muckrakers accuses Boebert of working as an unlicensed escort through the website SugarDaddyMeet.com.
Thursday, KRDO spoke with the man who runs fireboebert.com and heads the American Muckrakers.
"Our focus is on holding candidates accountable," David Wheeler says of the SuperPac. "The real story is, is she a hypocrite, and has she had abortions?"
FEC filings show the American Muckrakers has taken over $190,000 in donations in the last year and a half.
Boebert's camp calls the accusations "baseless with zero facts," even saying they are likely pursuing legal action.
Fireboebert.com has screenshots of a woman in lingerie, allegedly taken from SugarDaddyMeet.com, that Wheeler claims are of Boebert. A representative for the congresswoman, however, says it's not Boebert, and another publication has identified the pictures as being someone else.
"That may be the case, and we have information to the contrary," Wheeler says of the denial. "Our source said she took a screenshot of that three years ago from SugarDaddyMeet.com and we believe our source."
The timing of this release comes two weeks before the Colorado Republican primary elections. Just last week, The New York Times reported that the Colorado Attorney General was investigating Boebert for inflating her mileage while on the campaign trail in 2020 in order to get higher reimbursements back.
The New York Times' original source for the story was reportedly the American Muckrakers.
Wheeler and his team also contend that Boebert has had multiple abortions, another claim her team denies. A spokesperson for Boebert told KRDO that the suggested dates of the abortion don't line up with her other pregnancies. That's something Wheeler admits is possible.
"We take the fact that they're asserting some parts of our story aren't correct, very seriously," he said. "We have corrected several facts in our press release and updated put it on the site."
University of Colorado at Colorado Springs political expert Josh Dunn says the fact that Boebert is even acknowledging the claims, and has hired a lawyer is a bit abnormal.
Fact Check: Not true.
— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) June 15, 2022
Fake News. Four Pinocchios.
Also…
Y’all need Jesus!
"Our standards for defamation for public figures are extraordinarily high," Dunn added. "So that makes it very difficult for them to win libel and slander cases against people who make these claims."
Still, Wheeler says he's confident that the American Muckrakers got this story right.
