A Bribe Offered, a Bribe Rejected
Liccione Files Election Fraud Complaints with FBI and Florida Secretary of State
August 9, 2024: 5:00PM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
To the voters here in FL's Congressional District 13 and to America at large. My name is John William Liccione and I am The Rebel Democrat Engineer running for Congress where I intend to defeat MAGA Republican Anna Paulina Luna – in a 20-point landslide.
This is a story of personal betrayal, criminal conspiracy, and corruption in our Gulfport City government. Let this be a teaching moment for us all.
Last week I was offered a bribe to join with several Republican (and one NPA) Gulfport City officials, at least one whom is an ardent supporter of my MAGA opponent Anna Paulina Luna, to overthrow the free and fair election of Democratic City Councilwoman April Thanos, and to install in her place the Republican she had defeated in a 20-point landslide: Tom Bixler.
I hereby publicly accuse the following Gulfport City Officials and two others of engaging in this criminal conspiracy:
1. Vice Mayor Ian O'Hara (R)
2. City Manager James O'Reilly (R), an Anna Luna supporter
3. Councilwoman Christine Brown (R)
4. Mayor Sam Henderson (NPA)
5. Tom Bixler (R)
6. Alex Duensing (?) - Tom Bixler's campaign manager and my just-fired campaign strategist
From top left: Vice Mayor Ian O'Hara, Councilwoman Christine Brown, Mayor Sam Henderson, Tom Bixler, and Targeted
Councilwoman April Thanos
I filed a criminal election fraud complaint (pdf download above) accusing these people of this crime with the FBI and the Florida Secretary of State's Office of General Council earlier this week. Attached to the State complaint standard form is my 4 page narrative of how this criminal conspiracy played out over the last several weeks as I would come to realize that I was literally being offered a financial bribe of Republican donor riches, in return for my agreeing to use my Congressional candidacy notoriety to publicly accuse April Thanos of election crimes which, quite frankly, I have seen no proof she has committed.
It was a slow seduction by my own campaign strategist Alex Duensing, a man I had never met until Ian O'Hara introduced me to him at the Gulfport Tiki Bar after I filed to run last June.
Over the course of the Thanos-Bixler campaign, I became friends with Duensing and some time after the Bixler defeat he would suggest I bring him on as my campaign manager. He claimed that in the past he had always worked for Republicans. The first time, I decided not to hire him because he refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement. I would later decide to hire him this June.
In late July, Duensing came to me with supposed election crime dirt on April Thanos and he told me that Tom Bixler would provide me a financial incentive to participate – the delivery to me of campaign donations from Bixler’s Republican donor base.
Duensing brokered a 4-way conference call with my new Campaign Manager Lisa Rose Cottinger (who is also Duensing's domestic partner), and Ian O'Hara. On the call, O'Hara told me that he had the two other votes necessary to remove April Thanos from office and install Bixler. He confirmed the others were Mayor Sam Henderson and Councilwoman Christine Brown. O’Hara told me he wanted me to publicly accuse Thanos of election crimes at the upcoming August 6th City Council meeting.
At that time, it hadn't fully dawned on me that this was another Trumpian MAGA criminal conspiracy to overthrow a free and fair election, playing out before my eyes in real-time, and that they were offering me a bribe to play a leading role as a Democratic Congressional candidate. After we spoke about this scheme, Ian signed off saying "Ok, I have to call some people." I assume he thought I was "all-in" on the scheme, but I really wasn't because the entire thing felt off. Why did they need ME to be “the bad guy.” I’m not even in office…yet.
After getting some legal advice, I would inform Duensing and Cottinger that I wouldn't be a part of it. When I told him that, he said that if I wouldn’t do it, then he’d fly down from Michigan and do it himself. That, to me, was a firing offense. The Gabber had already publicly accused Duensing of offering their reporter Patrick Heinzen a bribe, and I initially saw this as nothing more than Duensing trying to prosecute his own personal vendetta against The Gabber and Thanos.
I decided to fire him, and I began working out with Cottinger what I had hoped would be an amicable departure. And that's when Duensing went off the rails. He broke through her bedroom door as we were negotiating, and chaos would ensue. You can read about his violent act, his false report to the Gulfport Police, and his bogus election fraud complaint against me that he sent to the FL Secretary of State and to the local press.
To the citizens of District 13, and to all Americans, this is a teaching moment and I cannot stress how critical it is that we look at this criminal conspiracy to overthrow THIS free and fair election right here in my beloved little City of Gulfport, and my “creatively non-violent” response to it - as a shining example of how citizens of all stripes can come together and respond in a bi-partisan and non-violent manner and say in one voice: NOT ON OUR WATCH SHALL DEMOCRACY PERISH FROM THIS EARTH!
To my fellow Gulfport Citizens, join me in setting the example for the nation on the most effective, creatively non-violent way we can defend our democracy from all enemies, both domestic and foreign.
I sat in my recliner in my DC apartment on January 6th and sat helpless, thinking there was nothing I could do then to stop the violence and prevent a coup that was occurring right before my eyes just 3 miles down the road. I swore to myself that I would never again stand passively by while our democracy was in peril. I came to believe that we were approaching a tipping point and that in this world, it can be possible that just one man, or one woman, can fearlessly act and in doing so, can change the world.
And THAT is why I chose to run for Congress after moving here in 2023, not even knowing who Anna Luna was and what she was all about with all her pro-Putin votes in Congress. What are the odds I, the Founder and CEO of RussiLeaks, would move HERE to the MAGA Princess of Chaos’ Congressional District?
Luna is the incredibly shrinking Congresswoman. While we together here are “The Pinellas Million,” Luna’s constituency has shrunken to just two: Donald Trump, and Vladimir Putin.
Democracy may very well turn on whether I can defeat Anna Luna in November. I can beat Anna Luna. ONLY I can defeat Anna Luna, above all others in this wide-open 5-way primary race.
And yes, The Gabber, I’m here, I’m in this race, and I am not going anywhere. So how about publishing a correction to your July 12th fake news article that suppressed the knowledge of my candidacy from local voters: And publish it, along with an apology and a full-feature article on this candidate, in your next and final edition before the primary arrives.
So, I ask my fellow Gulfport citizens to join me in signing a recall petition and fire these corrupt City officials and call for a special election to fill their empty posts.
And I ask for your vote in the August 20th primary, and I ask for your donation.
Let's show America how we deal with corrupt government officials and the fake news media when they try to carry out a coup and campaign election interference and voter suppression in OUR town, Gulfport.
Keeping Gulfport weird.
Liccione out.
So, absolutely no evidence, just a claim, by a crooked democrat politician. Nothing to see here folks. Trump 2024!