Rule of thumb: If you secretly start a website with the sole mission of removing a politician from office, don’t name it after a gun. That is what’s happening on the new website for “Project Winchester,” a group, or possibly an individual, that aims to defeat U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo.

The website features a picture of a rifle and, although it has some hunting references, it is littered with subtext (We’re here to stop her) that could lead some loon to interpret it as marching orders to harm Hageman.

It’s pretty irresponsible considering Hageman was forced to cancel in-person town hall meetings earlier this year after Democrat threats of violence. In the United States, discussion, not intimidation, is supposed to bring us to political decisions, but the left loves a protest, and if they don’t get their way, full-on disruption like this.

From the multiple attempts on President Donald Trump’s life last year, to more frequent Antifa protests and violent attacks, the last thing we need is more incendiary rhetoric in America.  

While the gun imagery in this context is beyond irresponsible, Project Winchester may also be flaunting Federal Election Commission (FEC) laws, because it is acting like a political action committee (PAC). It asks for donations, seeks volunteers, claims to be running statewide ads and op-eds, and is organizing town hall meetings.

The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) has filed a complaint with the FEC, seeking an investigation and, if warranted, action against Project Winchester for failing to register with the FEC.

Project Winchester is clearly political, describing itself as a “grassroots campaign to remove Harriet Hageman from office and defend Wyoming’s public lands.”

Statewide advertising alone would exceed the $1,000 threshold triggering registration as a PAC.

The website’s creator went to the trouble of keeping their name private when creating the domain name in June. No contact information can be found on the site. Visitors can “subscribe” by leaving an email address, but there is no place to send even a blind email. The website cookies can see you, but you can’t communicate with Project Winchester through the website or know anything about the humans behind it.

“The importance of this matter lies in the fact that, for good reason, our system and laws do not allow for nameless and faceless political advocacy — you have a right to advocate against someone, but not in secret,” Kendra Arnold, executive director of FACT, said in a statement. “The public has the right to assess the veracity of advocacy based upon the source. Especially with the availability of social media and websites, we have recently seen an increase in attempts to evade this law and stay in the shadows, which makes it all the more critical that the FEC stays vigilant in enforcing this law.”

The FEC told The Federalist it does not provide any information about complaints that may be filed with the FEC, nor does it ever confirm if a complaint has been received.

Project Winchester has made just 29 posts on X since it sprang to life in June. It most often reposts op-eds or other posts from Trevor Neilson, a Wyoming transplant with a political activism background. Neilson did not respond to an interview request from The Federalist.   

According to his World Economic Forum biography, Neilson worked in the Clinton administration, sat on a board with George Soros, and directed public affairs and special projects at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He claims to have founded numerous environmental companies. Neilson has no public facing email address, although he keeps a high profile writing op-eds in opposition of Hageman and working as the President of Prometheus Hyperscale, a speculative data center company with no public facing phone number, planned for Evanston, Wyoming.   

Neilson is also a co-founder of the Climate Emergency Fund, a $5 million nonprofit that pays for protests of climate issues.  

“Three wealthy donors formed the Climate Emergency Fund this year to support ‘disruptive activists,’ as Trevor Neilson, one of the founders, put it,” the New York Times reported in 2019.

It is unclear if the nonprofit’s climate protesters were behind the raucous disruption at Hageman’s town hall meetings this year, or if Neilson is behind Project Winchester, but tit is clear that they share the same goal of getting rid of Hageman.