BREAKING: Shelby Busch accuses RNC of filing credential challenges to remove 6 leaders of Arizona delegation to national convention
RNC and Trump's team appear to be working together to show that any effort to suspend the rules or create chaos at the national convention will not be tolerated.
Correction: I corrected this story to show that Michelle Rugloski was not at the June 3rd meeting. Also, after publication, I heard from two other challengers who confirmed the details of this report. I added to the report that Bigger Truth spoke with three challengers, who all confirmed that there were no bribes of any kind offered or implied by the Trump team or RNC.
MARICOPA COUNTY - In the hours before the 5:00pm deadline on Saturday, June 15th, six elected alternates to the National Republican Convention filed credential challenges to remove six leaders from the Arizona delegation that include delegation chair Shelby Busch and rules committee member Joe Neglia.
Leaders from the Republican National Committee and Trump’s team filed these challenges, written by Harmeet Dhillon’s law firm in response to complaints about a training meeting in which Busch, Neglia, and others allegedly discussed conspiring with other states’ delegations to suspend the convention rules on the floor of the convention and other motions that would disrupt the convention and threaten Trump’s nomination.
In an effort to get ahead of the story, Busch released a press release through her X account that makes some startling and baseless allegations against the RNC and members of Trump’s inner circle, further demonstrating her antimony towards Trump.
However, Busch claims the challenged delegates are “1000% for Donald J. Trump.” Busch included with her press release a highly edited six minute audio/video recording from the 2.5 hour June 3rd meeting that shows the attendees discussing their professed support for Trump. Busch’s devotees within the delegation even ordered jackets to virtue signal their supposed support for Trump with “TRUMP BOUND EVERY ROUND” emblazoned on the back.
Busch continues to repeat the “Trump Bound Every Round” mantra, which sources have told Bigger Truth is likely a dog whistle declaring their intention to create a situation where there are multiple rounds. Unless the rules are changed in rules committee or through a conspiracy of states like Arizona that are dominated by Flynn-linked “America First” chaos agents, there will be only one round and President Trump, who has received over 2,200 delegates - well exceeding the 1,215 required to secure the nomination.
Any effort to suspend or change the rules is a threat to Trump’s nomination. Unless the rules are changed, the delegates to the convention are bound to vote according to the outcome of their states’ primary elections or caucuses. According to the recently published rules there will be only one round.
Multiple sources who attended the June 3rd training meeting spoke to Bigger Truth and asked that their identity be protected over concerns about their personal safety at the convention. Sources told Bigger Truth that at the June 3rd meeting, several delegates openly discussed how they could suspend the rules in a conversation that was led by Shelby Busch and Joe Neglia.
According to Busch’s public statement, the following delegates have been challenged: Shelby Busch, Joe Neglia, Michael Schafer, Susan Cheatham, Chris Hamlet and Susan Ellsworth. They all seem to claim in statements on X that their motive was to protect Trump, but it is unclear how suspending the rules would do anything but threaten Trump’s nomination.
The most egregious allegation by the attendees was that Busch discussed having had discussions with members of delegates of other states and that they were planning to create a unified, blank “rule change template form” that they would have their delegations sign in advance so that they would be able to quickly submit a unified set of proposed rule changes across multiple states in case of a chaotic floor debate following a motion to suspend the rules.
They were therefore allegedly planning to encourage their delegations to cast their vote for rule changes that they might think would help Trump but could be used to replace him at the last moment.
Stunning challenges
In Busch’s press release, shared below in its entirety, she admits that the complaints were driven by the RNC and at least one member of Trump’s campaign. Most Republicans fail to recognize how closely Trump’s campaign and the RNC are working together. This cohesiveness is even further proof that there really is no credible “establishment” threat to Trump’s nomination.
A clear example of the unity between Team Trump and the RNC is Chris LaCivita, a veteran Republican political consultant who serves as senior political consultant to Team Trump and Executive Director of the RNC.
When Bigger Truth attended the Genesee County GOP Lincoln Day Dinner on June 14th, RNC Chairman Michael Whatley, who was the keynote speaker, said that he frequently speaks with President Trump. Whatley’s speech was peppered with references to Trump’s certain nomination and eventual general election campaign.
Even more so, President Trump’s daughter in law, Lara Trump, is the RNC Vice Chair. When the leadership of the RNC was replaced with Whatley and Lara Trump, the RNC formed a completely unified front with Trump’s campaign.
The unity between the RNC and Team Trump underscores the gravity of these credential challenges. It is clear that these challenges were conceived and crafted by the RNC and Trump’s campaign, written by RNC’s legal counsel, Dhillon Law, the firm of California RNC Committeewoman Harmeet Dhillon.
There appear to be six separate challenges, each filed against one of the above listed delegates. Bigger Truth obtained one of the challenges, filed against Michael Schafer, after it was distributed by AZGOP Chair Gina Swoboda. (An interesting sidenote is that multiple sources told Bigger Truth that at the June 3rd training meeting, Schafer asked Busch and Neglia if he would be permitted to bring his firearm to the National Convention. This is a shocking request, as all participants will obviously be required to pass through Secret Service inspection.)
The challenge reads, in part, “Michael Schafer has supported a plan to unbind delegates on the first ballot for the Republican nomination. This effort is irreconcilable with the delegate qualifications set forth in the Arizona Republican Rules.”
The gravity of stripping delegates of their credentials to effectively bar them from the convention is such that it would not have been taken without first investigating the validity of the allegations against them.
The notice indicates that a Statement of Position will follow no later than June 18th.
Just the most recent in a long series of anti-Republican behavior
Shelby Busch, who Bigger Truth has shown to have received nearly $700,000 from the General Mike Flynn orbit, has worked to make Maricopa County Republican Committee (MCRC) into a top-down dictatorship that has repeatedly removed and replaced legislative district (LD) leaders they cannot control, frequently bending or openly violating the bylaws to do so.
Busch has leaned heavily on MCRC Parliamentarian Joe Neglia to justify her “rules for thee but not for me” approach. At a recent Yavapai County GOP meeting, Neglia showed his own disdain for following bylaws by encouraging precinct committeemen (PCs) to violate bylaws. Neglia said, “The MEMBERS rule! Not the chair, not the board, and especially not the parliamentarian. The Yavapai membership has the power to desregard any rule and do things the way they see fit. Breaking rules like that may bring repercussions, but it is the membership’s right to accept that risk.”
Busch has supported frequent efforts to censure and remove from the party many of the most effective elected Republicans and intraparty leaders in the state. Last week, Bigger Truth reported about two other examples of Busch and her followers actively working against the interests of Republicans in November.
The first was the censure of five incumbent state legislators in purple districts who voted to kill the 1864 abortion bill that would have been the primary driver of Democrats’ get out the vote strategy. These censures are already being used by these legislators’ primary opponents, many of whom identify as Christian Nationalists and would have little to no chance to win a general election in a purple district that is dominated by independents.
The second and more shocking example was when Busch, Neglia, and Michael Schafer, who has also had his credentials challenged, participated in a secret meeting to have MCRC endorse radical, far right, Christian Nationalist candidates over many incumbent Republicans. Such endorsements from the county party that is home to two thirds of the state’s voters would very likely result in flipping the state legislature to the Democrats.
Schafer cited Neglia in his email announcing the secret Zoom meeting that was sent only to their supporters within MCRC. Schafer suggested that Neglia said the endorsements could be approved without their detractors’ knowledge, discussion, or consent.
Flynn’s plans for the national convention
In the wake of President Trump’s conviction, which many legal experts have described as a political persecution, Flynn’s network of independent podcaster devotees began spreading various narratives started by Flynn and his sidekick, Ivan Raiklin. Raiklin gained national notoriety in May after a viral video in which he described his intention to motivate US citizens to engage in “live swatting raids” and citizen arrests of his “deep state target list” that includes the federal judge, Emmitt Sullivan, to whom Flynn pled guilty to lying to the FBI about his calls with the Russian Ambassador after Trump was elected in 2016.
Flynn shared Raiklin’s video with an enthusiastic endorsement, saying “every single person in America needs to watch and listen to this now.”
The primary narrative spread by the Flynn orbit in the wake of Trump’s conviction was the idea that the “establishment” is planning to alter the rules to the convention in order to replace Trump with Nikki Haley or Ron DeSantis. Several members of the RNC have told Bigger Truth that they see no evidence of such an effort at all. Dr. Rob Steele, Michigan RNC Committeeman, said to Bigger Truth, “I don’t see any room for someone not named Donald Trump.”
In this unedited segment of a June 7th X Spaces recording, Ivan Raiklin describes a plan he wanted disseminated to Flynn’s followers regarding the National Republican Convention. It clearly shows Raiklin promoting the belief in an establishment takeover of the convention in a clear effort to manipulate his followers into planning to go to Milwaukee, even if they are not delegates or alternates, and be ready for confrontation with the police as they engage in a harassment campaign against delegates on the rules committee at their hotels.
Emails demonstrate Busch’s agenda
Bigger Truth obtained emails from Busch before and after the June 3rd training meeting that further demonstrate her intention to alter the convention rules.
Prior to the June 3rd training meeting, Shelby Busch sent out an email to all delegates and alternates announcing the purpose of the meeting was to “strategize for the upcoming convention.” She included a forwarded message from MCRC Parliamentarian Joe Neglia, asking attendees to “prepare in advance of the meeting” and gave extensive reading assignments including the convention rules and Roberts Rules of Order.
One source who has attended multiple national conventions reviewed this email and commented, “Why study all this unless they are planning to use it to disrupt the convention? None of these people have even been to a convention! They don’t seem to know that the purpose of the convention is nothing more than to nominate Trump and get excited to help him get elected in November. That’s the only purpose, but they seem to have another purpose.”
At the meeting, sources said that Joe Neglia and Busch led a discussion about how to change the rules. Busch released a six minute video on X that was highly edited from the 2.5 hour meeting to include a few seconds of Neglia discussing the following slide from the perspective of what “the establishment” might do. However, Bigger Truth’s sources, who multiple other sources around Arizona have confirmed to Bigger Truth that they are extremely reliable, insist that Busch and Neglia were also talking about how they could suspend the rules and that they were working with delegations in other states to do so.
After the June 3rd training meeting, Busch sent another email to delegates and alternates, where she discussed her plan to communicate with delegations from other states. This is significant because it takes 8 states working together to bring a motion to the floor to suspend the rules.
Busch appears to have been signaling her intention to conspire with other states when she wrote, “I am working on building some relationships with other states and hope to start scheduling some committee and delegate calls and Zooms.”
Unhinged confirmation of Bigger Truth’s account
On June 7th, Laura Loomer posted to her 930,000 X followers about what happened at the June 3rd meeting, and the response from Busch and her and Flynn’s followers on X and beyond was apoplectic. Bigger Truth received multiple demands to reveal its protected sources. Neither Bigger Truth nor its sources have ever been in communication with Laura Loomer.
Several messages in the Telegram channel created for the Arizona delegation expressed defiance and anger from Busch and AZGOP Chair Gina Swoboda. Many of the messages were directed at Bigger Truth and its sources. Bigger Truth does not have direct access to that channel but has obtained some screenshots of various messages. This one is of particular note as the author of the post, who clearly sides with Busch, confirms the accuracy of Bigger Truth’s account of the events in the meeting.
The author wrote, “The information we discussed at the meeting was confidential, and it is appalling that it was shared with the public…” This is a stunning admission that the author complains that it was shared, not about its accuracy.
Shelby Busch responds with shocking accusations
In Busch’s press release, after claiming she is “1000% for Trump” she makes false accusations against as many people as she can, including Trump’s team and the RNC.
The overriding theme of the press release seems to be that “the evidence will show” that she and the other challenged delegates are innocent. But she provides none of this promised evidence. She echoes Ivan Raiklin’s false flag claims that the challengers are part of “an anti-Trump establishment group.” Then she even claims the challengers come from the “McCain and Romney factions of the party.” The six challengers do not appear to support McCain, who is deceased, or Utah Senator Mitt Romney. In fact, all six challengers publicly support Trump. She then ties the challenges to unnamed operators who she claims are within the RNC.
Where the press release goes completely off the rails in the third from the last paragraph, on page two. Busch claims that John Findlay, of Team Trump, has offered bribes to some of Busch’s allies in an effort to persuade them to challenge Busch and the other electors.
This is a stunning and direct attack against President Trump’s campaign. It is certainly not consistent with being 1000% for Trump.
It also appears to be untrue. Three challengers Bigger Truth spoke with said there were no offers of bribes of any kind from the Trump Team nor from the RNC.
Busch wrote, “We guess Arizona ELECTED their true America First Trump Delegates instead of allowing your SELECTION, Mr. Findley (sic).”
AZGOP Chair Gina Swoboda responds
Busch closed her press release by writing, “We will fight these unfounded claims, be extremely vocal about the truth, defend all claims with evidence and never surrender to the false witnesses.” It’s interesting that she talked about “defending all claims with evidence” but made many claims in her press release without providing evidence except for a highly edited six minute recording.
“I stand with the delegation,” Gina Swoboda wrote in a post to the delegation Telegram chat. “Unless and until I am shown a single shred of verifiable evidence that any member of our duly elected delegation did anything to in anyway (sic) undermine the nomination of Donald J Trump I will not be moved.”
As of this writing, Swoboda has not reached out to the delegates and alternates who came to Bigger Truth about the June 3rd meeting. Bigger Truth emailed Swoboda the night before publication to ask if she had plans to speak with them, Findlay, Dhillon, or others at the RNC or Trump’s team and she did not respond.
But the bigger question is this: if Busch is really 1000% for Trump, wouldn’t she be willing to put the interests of Trump and the party ahead of her own personal interests and just quietly step down? Or is she only for Trump when it benefits her? Will she continue to try to take the party - and Trump - down with her?
Thanks for you for your reporting here. I listened to your podcast for members and it helped fill in the tactics against us. Very insightful. I pray for more truth telling to rise above the narratives and operations of wolves. Grateful to be awakened after attending too many paytriot events with the well networked deceivers.
Wow! This is great news!! Thank you Scott