On Wednesday, May 10, 2017, another campaign finance lawsuit was filed against Jay
Manning in Thurston County Superior Court (see complaint filed yesterday linked here – Thurston Superior Court #17-2-02568-34). Jay Manning, in his capacity as director of the political action committee (PAC) called “People for Thurston PAC” committed a variety of campaign finance violations during the general 2016 election season. This is the second lawsuit filed against Jay Manning for campaign disclosure violations this year. The PAC he directed was funded almost entirely by JZ Knight, a local racist cult leader from Thurston County who claims to channel a 35,000 year old homicidal Lemurian warrior spirit named “Ramtha.” Although the Washington State Democratic Party divested itself of her/it’s large campaign donations in 2012, the Thurston County Democrats eagerly grabbed $215,000 in campaign donations and candidate support since 2014 – including the $56,000 Knight/Ramtha gave to Jay Manning’s cult SuperPAC in 2016.
Jay Manning – controversial insider and JZ Knight defender
Jay Manning had a long and distinguished political career until his recent serial violations of the campaign finance laws. Jay Manning worked in the Washington State Attorney General’s office for many years before being appointed Director of the Washington State Department of Ecology. During his tenure at Ecology, Manning was known for harassing farmers and property owners around the state – particularly in Kittitas County. Some of these efforts laid the groundwork for the very controversial Hirst decision by the Washington State Supreme Court last October, which ignored history, the law, and the legislature to invent new water law in the state. After his controversial and destructive tenure at the Department of Ecology, Manning then became Chief of Staff for Governor Gregoire.
Currently, Manning is a partner in Cascadia Law Group, a left-leaning law firm that specializes in harming property owners and farmers, while claiming environmental credentials,- continuing the trend he helped facilitate while Director of the Department of Ecology. Manning also currently is Chair of the scandal-plagued Puget Sound Partnership Leadership Council and has been appointed by Governor Inslee as a Trustee for Eastern Washington University. Jay Manning is the consummate political insider in Olympia.
Manning likes to jet set around the world on the taxpayer dime speaking about global climate change and similar related topics. Apparently, he is also a trusted confidant for local racist cult leader JZ Knight, who was a client of Manning’s law firm at some point (Manning convinced the Public Disclosure Commission to approve hiding his law firm’s client list from public scrutiny on his financial affairs documents earlier this year, but in the hearing, he did admit that Knight had been one of his clients). Manning is not just a political insider, but also a close confidant to the spirit world of Ramtha. Manning was trusted by Knight/Ramtha to run the cult-cash funded People for Thurston PAC in 2016 in Thurston County in an effort to elect Democratic candidates Jim Cooper and Kelsey Hulse and defeat Independant candidates Gary Edwards and John Hutchings.
JZ Knight, Ramtha, and Jay Manning all failed in their election efforts. Along the way, it appears that multiple campaign finance violations of Washington State law were committed by Manning.
As discussed in this article, Jay Manning was sued by the Washington State Attorney General (Thurston Superior Court Case #17-2-00373-34) which was settled February 13, 2017 for a total of $6,385 in fees and fines. This case involved Manning’s failure to submit his Financial Affairs documents to the Public Disclosure Commission as required by law for his position as Trustee at Eastern Washington University (and also for his role at the Puget Sound Partnership). Part of the fine was deferred, but with the recent lawsuit filed in Thurston Superior Court today, it appears likely that Manning will be required to pay the deferred portion of that fine to the State soon as well.
JZ Knight/Ramtha – Racist speeches, major donor to Democrats and recent Trump supporter
The most bizarre part of this case is clearly the weird racist Cult leader JZ Knight and the 35,000 year old homicidal Lemurian warrior spirit named “Ramtha” she claims to “channel” who has prophesied and warned about the impending invasion of the lizard people who live under the glaciers at Mt. Rainier. In addition to being one of the largest donors to the Washington State Democratic Party until they divested from her funds in late 2012, she was also a major donor to President Obama’s election campaign in 2012 and 2008.
JZ Knight is no stranger to controversy. She is a serial litigant – attacking former followers who leave the cult and anyone who dares to expose the truth about her strange, drunken antics while channelling Ramtha. In 2012, a series of videos were released by this author which showed JZ Knight/Ramtha making racist and derogatory statements about Jews, Catholics, Mexicans, gays, and organic farmers. While Knight/Ramtha claimed they were “edited,” she/it refused to release the “unedited” videos which supposedly would have placed the racist speeches in proper context. Knight/Ramtha successfully threatened lawsuits against Youtube, Vimeo, and all other video hosting companies who would dare to show these videos, claiming they were “copyrighted.” Knight even attempted a failed and aborted litigation against this author in Federal Court in 2014-2015, which she dropped once it became clear she was going to lose.
JZ Knight is also the largest donor to the Thurston County Democratic Party in history. The Thurston Democrats still refuse to condemn the JZ Knight/Ramtha overtly racist speeches and have squandered the large sums of money JZ Knight/Ramtha has sent to them in recent years. It is probably no coincidence that the Thurston County Democrats are also in court for campaign finance violations brought by the Washington State Attorney General’s office (TC Court Case #17-2-00972-34). Additionally, the two JZ Knight/Ramtha supported failed Democratic Commissioner candidates were also charged with serious campaign finance violations. Failed candidate Jim Cooper is still in court (TC Court Case #16-2-04960-34), and Kelsey Hulse paid $2,920 in fees and fines on March 6 earlier this year as part of her legal settlement (TC Court Case #17-2-00848-34).
In a fit of cosmic rage, JZ Knight/Ramtha has joined forces with the troubled Thurston County Democratic Party and has filed another frivolous lawsuit against this author over her anger about robocalls which correctly and accurately identified JZ Knight’s racist history (she used her son and another follower as plaintiffs). Most of her/it’s bottomless well of cash is obtained by followers who pay for the opportunity to listen to Ramtha’s timeless wisdom (and the odd endorsement of Donald Trump and alien flying saucers) as well as a secretive corporation she/it owns called “The Blu Room” (trademarked) which claims cosmic healing through use of UV blue light immersion in hidden rooms. While Knight has been investigated by Federal agencies in the past, it is not clear that her belated endorsement of Trump will be enough to fend off the inevitable future investigations of her weird actions to control the local political process through the secretive assistance of Jay Manning and others.
This is only the early stages of fully understanding the Jay Manning/JZ Knight/Ramtha political triangle and the various violations of the law committed by them to hide the truth. These are two (maybe three depending on how you categorize “Ramtha”) experienced political operators who know how to weather legal storms and exert influence by throwing money at their problems. However, even a bottomless pit of cult cash can’t bury the truth forever. This is just the beginning…
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OUR CONSTITUTION BEGINS WITH THE PHRASE “WE THE PEOPLE.” IT WAS THE FOUNDER’S INTENT THAT GOVERNMENT BE CREATED BY THE PEOPLE, TO SERVE THE PEOPLE. IT WASN’T THEIR INTENTION FOR THE PEOPLE TO SERVE THE GOVERNMENT. IT WAS ALWAYS INTENDED THAT GOVERNMENT WHICH FAILED TO SERVE THE PEOPLE SHOULD BE “ALTERED OR ABOLISHED.” UNTIL WE RETURN TO THE FOUNDER’S INTENT, WE REMAIN WE THE GOVERNED…
(Full Disclosure: Ramtha and JZ Knight sued the author in 2014 in Federal Court for providing videos of various racist tirades she/it made in previous years to her/it’s followers as part of a public record to the Thurston County Commissioners (whose political campaigns she/it funded). Ramtha/JZ Knight claimed that the videos were selectively “edited.” She/it refused to release a full unedited video to prove the clips were edited out of context. Finally, she/it wisely chose to drop the hopeless lawsuit in 2015 since it was obvious all JZ Knight/Ramtha claims were bogus. Additionally, all the referenced PDC complaints were filed by the author against Jay Manning and the JZ Knight/Ramtha PAC he managed. The author also filed the PDC complaints which led to AG litigation against the Thurston County Democrats, failed commissioner candidate Jim Cooper, and failed commissioner candidate Kelsey Hulse. The author was hopeful to see common sense restored to Thurston County once again despite the large sums of money spent by JZ Knight/Ramtha and supervised by Jay Manning. The author has been informed that Ramtha recently travelled through space and time to berate JZ Knight for wasting her money on the Democrats in Thurston County. Life truly is stranger than fiction).
Lawsuit and other pending complaints:
February 3, 2017 – Attorney General lawsuit against Jay Manning (Thurston superior Court)
February 9, 2017 – Jay Manning Stipulation and Agreed Judgement (Thurston superior Court)
May 10, 2017 – Jay Manning lawsuit “State of Washington, ex rel. Glen Morgan vs. Jay Manning”
Complaint #9044 – Jay Manning / People for Thurston PAC
Complaint #9995 – Jay Manning / People for Thurston PAC
Complaint #10006 – Jay Manning/ People for Thurston PAC
Complaint #11384 – Jay Manning/People for Thurston PAC
Complaint #11386 – Jay Manning/People for Thurston PAC
Complaint #12110 – Jay Manning/People for Thurston PAC
Complaint #12633 – Jay Manning – F1 and Illegal Lobbying complaint
Jay Manning fined $4800 by Attorney General for violating campaign finance laws
Jay Manning skates away from transparency thanks public disclosure commission
Can political insiders violate campaign finance laws with no consequences?
AG press release about Jay Manning settlement
Sampling of AG and Prosecutor documents to Jay Manning
170105 – AG2JManning – 3 CAN notices
Ltr – TCP – 20161020 NP – People for TC PAC
Ltr-20161202 -AG2PDC People TC (3 complaints)
Background articles on Attorney General lawsuits:
Can political insiders violate campaign finance laws with no consequences?
PDC – Jay Manning 2012 Donation Report to Bob Ferguson for Attorney General campaign
State of Washington vs. Jim Cooper (TC Case #16-2-04960-34)
State of Washington vs. Kelsey Hulse (TC Case #17-2-00848-34)
State of Washington vs. Thurston County Democrats (TC Case #17-2-00972-34)
Background Articles on JZ Knight/Ramtha Campaign Finance Scandals
Thurston Democrats ripped off “Ramtha” and wasted donor money
NPR – Ramtha Channeler JZ Knight channels $54,000 into Olympia elections
Seattle Times – Guess who’s a big Trump Fan? Ramtha – as channelled by Democratic Donor JZ Knight
Ramtha, New Age Cult Leader, Unleashes drunken, racist, homophobic rants to large following
Western Free Press – C’mon JZ Knight, how many accents does Ramtha have?
Seattle Times – State Democratic Party will donate money from JZ Knight after offensive comments
Ancient Warrior Spirit endorses Democrats
Seattle Times – Democrats again under fire over JZ Knight donations
NPR – Washington Democrats reverse course, shed JZ Knight contributions
Seattle PI – Democrats do penance for JZ Knight donations
Will County Commissioner Candidates return racist Ramtha $$?
JZ Knight Tirade Videos Submitted to Politicians she supports
The Olympian – Romero to give away JZ Knight Campaign Cash
Thurston County Dems Accept Money from JZ Knight Again
Anti-Semitic Cult Leader who channels ancient Lemurian warrior is “Democrat in Good Standing”
Thurston County goes Independent, first time in state history