Most people can not afford to donate $42,947,000 to political candidates and causes in a two year period. Most can not write checks in one sitting for almost $600,000 to a political Party. Most could not spend $700,000 to defeat a conservative member of the State Assembly (nor would we if we could). Charles Munger has done all these things.
An anonymous blogger has created “Munger Games” and reports periodically on the spending and doings of Charles Munger, Jr. For instance the support of a Democrat, by endorsement and giving money from the Party County treasury, running for Supervisor in Santa Clara County, while Munger served as chair of the Santa Clara GOP.
Now a lawsuit, filed by the Vice Chair of the California Republican Party, Harmeet Dhillon to find the name of the owner of the web sight and the names of the writers.
Kind of reminds me of the founding of our nation. The Federalist Papers were written by anonymous people. The authors used the pseudonym “Publius”, in honor of Roman consul Publius Valerius Publicola The Papers were used to inform the public about the need for freedom and supported a revolution. What if King George could have gone to court to get the names of the authors? That is why we have the Bills of Rights, to protect free speech.
Criticize Charles Munger And He’ll Subpoena Your Gmail Account
Munger Games, 9/29/13
It’s a shame that anyone considering criticizing Charles Munger Jr. and his quest to re-make California Republicanism has to consider hiring an attorney in order to engage in a little free political speech.
Readers know that Munger’s attorney, CRP Vice Chair Harmeet Dhillon, is acting as Munger’s proxy and suing The Munger Games in an attempt to silence us. First she subpoenaed the company that hosts this blog, trying to force them to cough up confidential information about us.
Most recently, Dhillon subpoenaed Google, asking the internet giant to turn over confidential account information for one of the Gmail accounts we use to distribute our blog posts.
Dhillon’s pretext is that our use back in February of a headshot of her from her failed 2008 Assembly campaign is a copyright infringement. This is ridiculous, as this photo is freely available online, is used by several other sites without legal repercussion, and the use is allowed under common use copyright doctrine.
We are fighting this attack on free political speech. A motion to quash the pernicious Munger/Dhillon subpoena has been filed with the U.S. District Court of the Central District of California. We quote from it here:
Although this lawsuit is held out as an ordinary copyright infringement case, its existence and narrow agenda are quite sinister. The suit has a single purpose: to harass and bully anonymous political commentators who write critical articles on an internet blog. Plaintiff Harmeet Dhillon (“Dhillon”), a San Francisco litigation attorney, filed the suit so that she can serve subpoenas forcing these anonymous bloggers to reveal their identities. The authors would then be subjected to financial and political retaliation for their articles. Dhillon’s actions are the quintessential conduct that is banned by California’s anti-SLAPP law.
These political bloggers are writing revealing articles about one of the richest activists in California politics, Charles Munger, Jr.[1] Munger is the chairman of the Santa Clara County Republican Party. Since January 1, 2012, Munger reportedly donated more than $42,000,000 on his political projects.
Many people believe that Munger has used his enormous family fortune to do great damage to California and to its politics. A political blog was created in January 2013 to educate readers about Munger’s activities. The blog is called “The Munger Games” [2] and is located on the internet at www.mungergames.net. The blog is a pure exercise of First Amendment rights to write anonymously regarding Munger’s political tactics and the harm they are causing to California. Munger does not like the articles and wants them stopped. However, he cannot punish the authors until he learns their identities.
In order to learn the bloggers’ identity, this lawsuit was filed by his attorney, Dhillon. Dhillon is the current Vice Chairperson of the California Republican Party and a long time unsuccessful candidate for public office.
Mungergames.net ran an article about Dhillon on February 12, 2013 and posted a publicity headshot photograph of her that was found on the internet from a previous political campaign. Cigel Decl, Exhibit “D”. Dhillon and Munger formed the strategy that she would sue the website in order to learn the identities of its bloggers. However, Dhillon knew she had not registered a copyright on the photograph. In order to heighten the indignation in her pleadings, she delayed her filing for a short time while she rushed out to register the copyright. She then filed her copyright lawsuit on April 2, 2013 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The suit was filed by Dhillon’s own San Francisco law firm, Dhillon & Smith LLP. Cigel Decl, Exhibit “E”.
Despite all of Dhillon’s indignation in her pleadings, she knows that she has a de minims damage claim. Dhillon spent all the time and money to sue in federal court for actual damages of only $250.00.
Once the suit was filed, Dhillon and Munger quickly and aggressively revealed the real reason for filing this lawsuit, which is to force the bloggers to reveal their identity.
We have attached the motion to quash, which you can read by clicking this link.
Whether you support or oppose, in part or in whole, what Charles Munger, Jr. has in mind for the GOP in California, his litigious bullying, his attempt to bludgeon a critical voice into silence, ought to give pause to every GOP activist and donor. Even though our criticism has been fact-based and reasonable, Munger has responded by lashing out with litigation.
Ask yourself: is this a reasonable response to legitimate criticism? Is this how an adult comports himself in the political arena? What does this resort to bullying and intimidation say about Munger’s character, temperament and judgment? Do you want the financial and political reins of the California Republican Party to be held by such an individual?
Charles Munger has tens of millions of dollars. For him, funding this sort of litigious terrorism is proportionally akin to what the average person spends at Starbucks — if that much. Today, we’re the target. Tomorrow, it could be the privacy of your Gmail account he is trying to invade, your blog he is trying to squash and your free speech he is trying to muzzle.
