Members of MassGOP State Committee & Former Chair Make Legal Filing Against Treasurer, ‘Conspirators’

Minority Members of State Committee Seek to Be Heard in Court – Disagree with Letting Those who “Damaged” the Party Get Off the Hook

by Lonnie Brennan

JUNE 2, 2023 – MIDDDLESEX SUPERIOR COURT: An attorney on behalf of former MassGOP Chairman James J. Lyons and approximately 30 members of the 80-member MassGOP State Committee – the governing board of the Republican Party in Massachusetts filed legal documents today to hold MassGOP Treasurer Patrick J. Crowley and his “co-conspirators” accountable for “damages to the Party.”

The filing, a “Motion to Intervene,” was made to allow a minority of the State Committee to make pleading on behalf of the party, following what many have termed the brooming of a lawsuit brought by then Party chair Lyons against Crowley. Crowley for his part was one of many members of the group who boycotted – in some cases for a year or more – state committee meetings, and took actions which the plaintiffs claim were aimed at and resulted in damaging the Party.

“What we’re doing is we’re going to carry forward the lawsuit against Crowley, and find out what these people did, why they boycotted meetings, why they went out on this effort to destroy my reputation, and to show in fact that the Party was damaged,” Lyons said in a phone interview.

“All you have to do is look at the fundraising for the first quarter of the years in the state account, where we raised $210,000 on average in both 2021 and 2022, and this year we raised $38,000,” Lyons said. “The Party has been damaged by the very people that are now running it.”

In the 50-page filing on Docket No.: 2281-CV-00992, the plaintiffs summarize and assert that “The Treasurer, Mr. Crowley, is part of a group which has sought to handicap the Republican Party as a politically competitive entity. He deliberately obstructed the financial affairs of the Party. He, and others, have sought to dissuade donors from giving to the Party, instead diverting political donations to the independent groups who have supported candidates from the opposing party.”

“Every volunteer, every candidate who has run for office in the last three or four years, has been damaged by this concerted effort to destroy the Party, because they didn’t like the fact that conservatives were trying to stand up and fight,” Lyons said. He noted that while the initial filing contains 21 names, approximately a dozen more will be submitted in a subsequent filing, as sworn affidavits are competed.

Upon edging out Lyons in the chairmanship race this past January by just a few votes, new chair Amy Carnevale issued a gag order to all MassGOP staff (she had it handed out to staff immediately after the vote). Within days, she terminated the Party’s executive secretary (thought to be loyal to Lyons), and re-engaged Crowley as Party treasurer. A paper trail has slowly been accumulated linking the actions of Crowley, the boycott of a year of meetings which “inflicted chaos” into the operations of the State Committee, and links many into the actions to destroy Lyons, smear his reputation, and cripple the Party’s finances, as previously noted.