Texas Tribune / Jordan Vonderhaar
Former state consultant Matt Rinaldi spoke to demonstrators on the Governor’s Mansion in protest of Gov. Abbott’s govt orders to shut companies and mandate masks through the COVID-19 pandemic.
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For greater than three months, Republican Celebration of Texas Chair Matt Rinaldi has vigorously attacked critics of Defend Texas Liberty, and rebuffed calls to distance the state celebration from the highly effective group over its ties to white supremacists.
As he did so, Rinaldi was additionally working as an legal professional for one of many group’s two billionaire funders, Farris Wilks, in accordance with filings with the Securities and Alternate Fee.
Since 2021, Wilks has given almost $5 million to Defend Texas Liberty, which final yr was the state celebration’s largest monetary supporter. With Rinaldi’s assist, the group has sought to purge the Texas GOP of extra average voices by bankrolling far-right causes and first candidates.
Authorities watchdog teams and a few Republicans have been closely crucial of the connection between Rinaldi and Wilks, a prolific donor.
“In my twenty years of involvement with the Texas GOP, I’m not conscious of something even resembling the connection between a state chair and a significant donor that Matt Rinaldi has with Farris Wilks,” mentioned Mark McCaig, a former member of the Texas GOP’s govt committee and Rinaldi critic who first observed the SEC filings on Friday. “It’s actually cheap to ask whether or not chairman Rinaldi is working in direction of the betterment of the celebration, as he pledged he would do in 2021, or if he’s extra excited about selling the agenda of Farris Wilks on the expense of a unified and purposeful celebration.”
Rinaldi’s work for Wilks started as early as September, in accordance with the filings. Since then, Rinaldi has recognized himself as an legal professional for Wilks on two different varieties, together with one which was filed in November, as almost half of the Texas GOP’s govt committee referred to as for the celebration to chop ties with Defend Texas Liberty and its then-president Jonathan Stickland.
The calls have been prompted by The Texas Tribune’s Oct. 8 report displaying that, two days prior, Stickland had hosted the infamous white supremacist and avowed Adolf Hitler admirer Nick Fuentes for almost seven hours at his workplace constructing in a distant, Tarrant County enterprise park. Rinaldi was contained in the one-story constructing for about 45 minutes whereas Fuentes was inside, however has mentioned he had no thought Fuentes was there and denied that he met with him.
Texas Tribune / Azul Sordo
Texas Republican Celebration Chairman Matt Rinaldi is seen coming into the workplaces of Pale Horse Methods in Fort Value on Oct. 6, 2023.
“We have been simply borrowing a convention room,” Rinaldi mentioned on the time. “I utterly condemn (Fuentes) and every thing he stands for. I’d by no means in 1,000,000 years meet with that man.”
Since that assembly, Rinaldi has routinely attacked those that’ve been crucial of Defend Texas Liberty or its funders, together with Wilks. After Home Speaker Dade Phelan and 60 different Home Republicans referred to as for lawmakers and candidates to redirect donations from Defend Texas Liberty to pro-Israel charities, Rinaldi spent weeks attacking Phelan and calling for him to resign.
Publicly, Rinaldi has additionally been silent about Defend Texas Liberty because the Tribune extensively reported on ties between the group and different white supremacists and Fuentes acolytes, as an alternative attacking the group’s detractors.
And in December, because the Texas GOP’s govt committee debated a normal ban on associating with antisemites, neo-Nazis or Holocaust deniers in response to the Defend Texas Liberty scandal, Rinaldi pushed again towards the thought with out publicly mentioning that he had labored for Wilks as lately as that November. The proposed ban was finally rejected.
Rinaldi and a spokesperson for the Texas GOP didn’t reply to requests for remark Friday morning. Wilks couldn’t be reached for remark.
Defend Texas Liberty is funded nearly fully by Wilks and one other far-right oil billionaire, Tim Dunn, who’ve collectively given the PAC roughly $15 million since 2021 to assault fellow Republicans, together with Phelan, as weak and insufficiently conservative. Defend Texas Liberty is a key a part of a sprawling community of political teams, campaigns, nonprofits and media web sites which have obtained greater than $100 million from West Texas oil billionaires as a part of an ongoing venture to drag Texas to the far proper. Since Rinaldi was elected chair in 2021, the state celebration has obtained $392,000 from Defend Texas Liberty and the 2 billionaires. Final yr, the group was by far the largest donor to the celebration, giving it $132,500.
Rinaldi is a former state consultant whose ultraconservative legislative profession was closely sponsored by Wilks and Dunn earlier than he misplaced his Northwest Dallas County seat to Democrat Julie Johnson in 2018. In 2021, he was elected because the successor to controversial, former Texas GOP chair Allen West and, because the celebration’s chief, Rinaldi has been an important ally of Defend Texas Liberty, serving to assault the group’s Republican opponents and backing its candidates.
Anthony Gutierrez, govt director of the watchdog group Frequent Trigger Texas, mentioned Rinaldi’s authorized illustration of Wilks was “surprising,” particularly in gentle of the continuing scandals involving Defend Texas Liberty that Rinaldi has been concerned in.
“Everyone knows cash equals energy in Texas politics and billionaires just like the Wilks (brothers) use their wealth liberally to bend public coverage to their liking on a regular basis,” he mentioned. “But it surely’s nonetheless fairly surprising.”
The Texas Democratic Celebration additionally blasted the revelations in a Friday night assertion, calling Rinaldi a “stooge” who’s “up for rent.”
“We have seen the devolution of the Texas GOP in actual time with Rinaldi on the helm of that chaos, and now we all know why,” celebration chair Gilberto Hinojosa mentioned. “Rinaldi is within the pocket of Nazi billionaires who’re paying him to infiltrate the Republican Celebration of Texas. … Rinaldi’s legacy displays that of a speaking head for the extremist proper that has led his celebration immediately into the bottom.”
Disclosure: Frequent Trigger has been a monetary supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan information group that’s funded partly by donations from members, foundations and company sponsors. Monetary supporters play no position within the Tribune’s journalism. Discover a full listing of them right here.
This text initially appeared within the Texas Tribune. The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and interesting Texans on state politics and coverage. Study extra at texastribune.org.
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