“O divine art of subtlety and secrecy! Through you we learn to be invisible, through you inaudible; and hence we can hold the enemy’s fate in our hands.”
– Sun Tzu, Art of War
Would you believe that the big story this week in Lawler land is about a Signal group chat?
In our last lesson on Signal chats, we learned that reckless chat owners (e.g. Trump’s national security advisor Michael Waltz) may unwittingly invite a reporter from a widely circulated publication to participate in a discussion of top secret military operations.
Today we learn how an unscrupulous actor might infiltrate a private Signal chat by using a fake identity. A contrast between the hapless Trump administration and the insidious Lawler campaign.
The story broke on Tuesday that somebody using the phone number of Lawler’s deputy district director, Erin Crowley, gained entry to a private Signal chat hosted by the opposition group “Fight Lawler” — using the alias “Jake Thomas.”
Mysterious Jake asked to join the Signal group on April 30 saying that he and his wife were going to the upcoming Lawler town hall. He referred the group to his Facebook page to establish identity. The page had a number of photos, showed he was following several local political groups and had 26 Facebook friends.
During the subsequent town hall on May 4, members of Fight Lawler communicated with each other via the private Signal group. “Jake Thomas” texted the group while Lawler was speaking, saying that he was lying, and urging them to “boo him off the stage” and walk out of the auditorium in protest. All while the real owner of Jake’s phone number, Lawler’s aide, was walking up and down the aisles to maintain order. The event “devolved into chaos,” to the point that one constituent was physically carried out of the auditorium, and it made national headlines.
After the event, the group discovered that “Jake’s” phone number matched Lawler’s aide, Erin Crowley. They made a number of unsuccessful attempts to confirm Jake’s identity. “Jake” refused to engage via video and ultimately cut off communications.
As reported in the Journal News, Fight Lawler’s co-founder, Ann Starer, “said she suspected that Crowley, or the person using her number, tried to rile up the crowd to discredit Lawler’s opponents and get them to leave.”
It feels more than coincidental that Lawler went on Fox News with Hannity immediately after that town hall to spout about the Democratic “playbook” to “hijack these town meetings,” as Hannity ran extensive video of the unrest. Lawler posted the Hannity clip on social media to raise campaign funds.
The Journal News reporter tried for many weeks to get comment from Crowley, Lawler or Lawler’s communications director on the Signal incident. No response, which is very uncharacteristic for this crew. I guess they’re pleading the Fifth with their silence.
Outrage has built through the week, with the story hitting the front page again today: “Calls for Lawler aide to resign.” By the way, Erin Crowley is also a Putnam County Legislator.
I also refer you to a story of unethical behavior from Lawler’s 2024 campaign, when his team solicited hundreds of supporters to register for the local Working Families Party primary in order to put an unserious candidate on the WFP party line to draw votes away from Lawler’s Democratic challenger.
Lawler’s playbook is clear. Dirty tricks and “shaping the enemy,” as Sun Tzu would call it. Those crazy, radical leftists. It infuses Lawler’s communications, as typified by his campaign spokesperson today, saying, “the Democratic clown car primary continues its race to prove who’s the most radical leftist.” All while Lawler’s tinted-window car picks up shadowy figures with aliases and fake Facebook pages to cultivate unrest. Signalgate 2? No comment.
Dirty tricks, shaping the opposition. The ways of Lawler.
Rule of Lawler 