Did Putin Astroturf the Libertarian Ron Paul Revolution?

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. And one of Paul's former employees has just been convicted of seditious conspiracy

After college, his first political job was supervising interns in Washington, D.C., for Libertarian Ron Paul, then a Republican congressman from Texas. Rhodes subsequently attended Yale Law School, graduating in 2004, and clerked for Arizona Supreme Court Justice Michael D. Ryan. He later volunteered on Paul’s failed 2008 presidential campaign.

Following his experience with the Paul campaign, Rhodes published one of his first political diatribes. Appearing on his blog in January 2008, the post blasted political opponents’ charges that Paul was linked to hate groups and racists. (The congressman’s Ron Paul Report, in fact, did contain many racist statements over the years, but Paul has claimed that he did not write or read them). Using the fevered language that would become his trademark, Rhodes railed against the “full-blown smear campaign.” Calling it a “lame attempt at guilt by association” and “stupid,” he added, “This only tells me that Ron Paul is a real threat to the political establishment, and they are pulling out all the stops in an attempt to stop the Ron Paul Revolution.” Rhodes went on to disclose that his maternal ancestors were Hispanic and “American-Indian,” and made the argument that because he was “mixed-race” and saw no indication of racism, the claims against Paul had no merit.

https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/elmer-stewart-rhodes