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TALK SHOWSGuests to be interviewed Sunday on major television talk shows9 a.m. FOX NEWS SUNDAY (WTTG)
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.); Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.);
Jason Miller, adviser to President Trump’s campaign.
9 a.m. STATE OF THE UNION ( CNN)
Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.); Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-
Ark.); Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House
coronavirus task force; Georgia politician Stacey Abrams.
9 a.m. THIS WEEK (ABC, WJLA)
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.); Treasury Secretary
Steven Mnuchin.
10:30 a.m. MEET THE PRESS (NBC, WRC)
Adm. Brett Giroir, assistant secretary of health and a
member of the White House coronavirus task force; Bass.
10:30 a.m. FACE THE NATION ( CBS, WUSA)
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows; Clyburn; Scott
Gottlieb, a former Food and Drug Administration
commissioner; Neel Kashkari, president and chief
executive of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
All programs will be streamed
live at washingtonpostlive.com, on
Facebook Live, YouTube, and
Twitter. Email postlive@
washpost.com to submit questions
for our upcoming speakers.Monday, Aug. 3 | 11:30 a.m.
EasternThe Path Forward: The Airline
IndustryDelta Air Lines CEO Ed BastianTuesday, Aug. 4 | Noon EasternRace in AmericaBeverly Johnson, supermodel,
activist and chief executive of
Beverly Johnson EnterprisesTina Knowles-Lawson, designer,
activist and philanthropistWednesday, Aug. 5 | 1 p.m.
EasternConservation and SustainabilityMary Robinson, former president of
IrelandChristiana Figueres, former
executive secretary, United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate
ChangeLos Angeles Mayor Eric GarcettiWednesday, Aug. 5 | 4:15 p.m.
EasternA Conversation with Sen. Ted
Cruz (R-Tex.)Upcoming Washington
Post Live eventsCALIFORNIASearch continues
for service membersThe search continued
Saturday for eight U.S. service
members missing after their
landing craft sank in hundreds
of feet of water off the Southern
California coast Thursday.
Helicopters and boats ranging
from inflatables to a Navy
destroyer were searching a
roughly 200-square-mile area
for seven Marines and a Navy
corpsman.
They were aboard an
amphibious assault vehicle that
had just completed a training
exercise when it began taking on
water about a half-mile fromNavy-owned San Clemente
Island, off S an Diego.
The 26-ton, tank-like craft
quickly sank in hundreds of feet
of water — too deep for divers —
making it difficult to reach.
All of the Marines aboard
were attached to the 15th
Marine Expeditionary Unit,
based at nearby Camp
Pendleton, north of San Diego.
They ranged in age from 19 to
their early 30s, and all were
wearing combat gear, including
body armor and flotation vests,
according to Lt. Gen. Joseph
Osterman, commanding general
of the 1st Marine Expeditionary
Force.
The craft was one of 13
amphibious assault vehicles that
participated in the routineexercise and was heading back
to a Navy ship when the sinking
occurred. Troops aboard two
other amphibious assault
vehicles responded quickly but
could not prevent the craft from
going under, Osterman said.
— Associated PressILLINOISChicago violence rises,
January through JulyHomicides and shootings
surged in Chicago in the first
seven months of the year.
From Jan. 1 through J uly 31,
there were 440 homicides in
Chicago, and 2,240 people were
shot, including many of the
homicide victims, according tostatistics released Saturday by
the police department.
There were 290 homicides
and 1,480 shootings, including
fatalities, in the first seven
months of 2019.
July was especially violent, as
the city recorded 105 homicides
and 584 shootings. There were
44 homicides and 308 shootings
in July 2019.
Despite the increase in violent
crime, overall crime, which
includes violent crimes,
burglaries and thefts, was down
9 percent c ompared with the
same period in 2019. The
decrease was driven by a
26 percent decline in thefts and
a 19 percent decline in sexual
assaults, police said.
— Associated PressDIGESTVillaruel-Mariano to tout the
2019 car raffle.
The Messner campaign said
Villaruel-Mariano has received
additional funding from the
foundation, not yet shown in
public tax filings, so her total
scholarship is about $78,000.
“Arnold Acosta is the latest
recipient, who has received
$4,886 from 2019-20 and the
Foundation intends to provide
further support as his studies
continue, as we have done for the
first recipient,” a campaign
statement said. “A third student
was selected, but chose not to
accept the scholarship.” (The
campaign did not supply the tax
forms that would verify these
statements.)
Besides the initial $100,0 00
from the law firm, the only other
contributions listed in tax filings
are from raffle sales that also
promote the law firm in the
Denver area. But administration
expenses (mainly the cost of cars
that are raffled) are a significant
percentage of revenue. Over its
lifetime, it cost the Messner
Foundation more than $45 to
raise $100, according to the tax
records. And just 32 percent of
expenses was spent on charitable
programs.
“The car raffles have not
generated the hoped-for revenue,
given the expense of car
purchases, covering the winners’
tax liability, and raffle
promotion,” the campaign
statement said.
The law firm and Harden did
not respond to requests for
comment.
“Corky believes in supporting
and mentoring young people
from diverse backgrounds
pursuing various careers. That’s
why the Messner Foundation was
established in 2009 with a
generous $100,000 donation
from Messner-Reeves, LLC, of
which Corky Messner is
Founding Partner and CEO,”
Michael Biundo, senior adviser
for Messner for Senate
Campaign, said in an emailed
statement. “While the
Foundation’s scholarship
program that started in 2016 is
fairly new, it has already had a
positive impact on the lives of
young people and has fulfilled its
stated purpose, to follow the
student through their education
life cycle.”The Pinocchio Test
Messner claims that the
foundation selects worthy
students for scholarships every
year, that the goal of the
foundation is to help low-income
students and that the foundation
was mostly funded by his own
money.
But in the first 10 years of the
foundation’s existence, only one
student received a scholarship
from Messner’s foundation —
and even more money was given
to an elite private school that
Messner’s sons were attending at
the time. The foundation was
essentially dormant after being
founded, despite Messner’s claim
nine years ago that scholarships
would start. The law firm is listed
as the source of the original
$100,000, while tax forms show
the only other funds have been
raised with car raffles that,
incidentally, also promote the law
firm. There are no records of
personal contributions from
Messner, though, to be sure, he is
the founding partner of the law
firm.
The campaign now says that a
second student has begun to
receive scholarship money and
that the scholarship program
only started in 2016. That may be
the case. But for years Messner
and the foundation have
suggested that many students
had been the recipients of funds.
Messner earns Four
Pinocchios.
[email protected]$113,000 in expenses, including
$84,000 for the cost of the car, a
Tesla. It ended the year with
$146,000 in assets — but still had
offered no scholarships.
The campaign, saying “it took
several years to come up with a
sustainable funding source and a
process fair to applicants,”
supplied to The Fact Checker a
letter to the IRS in 2016 seeking
approval for the scholarship
program and a letter showing IRS
approval in 2017.
The Messner Foundation in
2016 extended its first
scholarship: about $5,500 to
Majarlika Diane Villaruel-
Mariano, a local high school
student who attended the
University of Denver. That same
year, the foundation’s assets were
boosted by another car raffle, this
time for a $63,000 Jeep.
In 2017, Villaruel-Mariano was
given about $17,500 by the
foundation.
In 2018, the foundation gave
Villaruel-Mariano almost
$25,000. All told, she received
about $48,000 over those three
years. No car raffles were held by
the foundation in 2017 or 2018, so
with the last available tax filing,
the foundation’s assets stood at
about $148,000.
In other words, over the first 10
years, the foundation made
grants to only one student.
Villaruel-Mariano would not
discuss the scholarship or
respond to emailed questions.
“You should talk to them about
that,” she said in a brief telephone
conversation. The Messner
campaign later provided a quote
from Villaruel-Mariano: “Thanks
to the support from the Messner
Foundation, I will be the first in
my family to graduate with a
college degree.... I am grateful
to Mr. Messner for his support
and guidance.”
The Denver Scholarship
Foundation, which promotes 500
different scholarships, at one
time listed Messner as a potential
source of funds. “One student will
be selected from the pool of
applicants and will have access to
funding for up to four years for
undergraduate studies,” the
notice said. “Awards for
subsequent years will be awarded
based on reapplication.”
But now the organization no
longer lists Messner.
“ We removed it in 2018
because we couldn’t verify that it
was still an active scholarship,”
said Latia C. Henderson, director
of marketing at the Denver
Scholarship Foundation. “We aim
to only include verified
scholarships in our directory, so
it’s been removed for now.”
By coincidence or not, the
revival of the car raffles in 2019
came just as Messner was
considering jumping into the
Senate race.
“He has spent a great deal of
time and his own money working
with an army of consultants as he
considers his future,” said a May
28, 2019, email seeking financial
support for the Messner NH
Exploratory Committee from one
of his law firm partners, Michelle
Harden. The day after sending
that email, Harden appeared in a
television interview withwould start in 2011.
Philip Hackney, an associate
law professor at the University of
Pittsburgh who examined the tax
filings for The Fact Checker, said
the tax law for private
foundations requires that
5 percent of the assets be
distributed every year.
Otherwise, the foundation must
pay a fine equal to 30 percent of
the amount not distributed. “I’m
troubled by the fact that they did
nothing for the first four or five
years,” he said. “That doesn’t pass
muster.”
“The Messner Foundation has
always been viewed by the IRS as
being in good standing and we
have adhered to the advice of our
accountant in that regard,” a
campaign statement said.
The 2013 tax form listed the
assets as $100,374. “It’s a
particularly small foundation,”
Hackney noted.
Finally, in 2014, a
disbursement was made. But it
was not for a scholarship for a
low-income student. Tax records
show the foundation made a
$50,000 contribution to the
Colorado Academy, one of the
state’s elite private schools, for
“construction of athletic
facilities.” (The campaign says
the money funded a baseball
field.)
The donation to Colorado
Academy — which Messner’s sons
attended from kindergarten
through 12th grade — cut the
foundation’s assets in half.
That contribution was among
$700,000 in donations that
Colorado Academy received that
year. The school in 2014 had an
endowment of $22 million,
according to its tax filings, and on
its website boasts that its
“verdant 94-acre campus is
delightful, whatever the season.”
The Messner campaign says
the scholarship program had not
started yet. “It was a
discretionary donation that
predated the creation of the
Foundation’s scholarship
program,” a campaign statement
said. “Corky believed the gift [to
Colorado Academy] was in
keeping with the Foundation’s
stated mission to cultivate the
next generation of business and
community leaders, and
appropriate for a college-
preparatory school that attracts
gifted scholar-athletes.”
But the 2014 website of the
Messner Foundation, showing
photos of Black and Hispanic
students, claimed: “The Messner
Foundation identifies
underprivileged high school
students.... The Messner
Foundation not only helps its
Scholars financially, but provides
life experiences as well.”
Starting in 2015, the
foundation began to raise money
by holding raffles of luxury cars.
In an announcement pegged to
the firm’s 20th anniversary, the
law firm claimed it would “raise
significant funds that will have a
lasting and measurable impact
on the lives of students selected
as Messner Scholars.”
But it was an expensive
proposition. The foundation in
2015 earned almost $210,000 in
raffle-ticket sales but had“My intent w ith
that foundation
is to help y oung
people who are
growing up in
the inner city or
otherwise in
difficult
circumstances
and help them go
to college with
scholarships.
And, you know, we have a
process, a c ommittee that looks at
applications and makes t hose
selections each year. One of the
reasons I did this, quite frankly,
was I grew up in a blue-collar
family and we didn’t have much.”
— Bryant “Corky” Messner,
GOP candidate running for
Senate in New Hampshire,
during a Merrimack County
(N.H.) Republican Committee
Happy Hour, May 27Messner, who has been
endorsed by President Trump, is
seeking the Republican
nomination for the Senate race in
New Hampshire. He built a law
firm in Denver and was the
general counsel for Chipotle
Mexican Grill, amassing a net
worth of between $14 million and
$53 million, according to his
financial disclosure report.
As part of his campaign, he has
touted an organization, the
Messner Foundation, that he says
selects low-income students
every year to receive college
scholarships. “You know, it’s
mostly my personal money,” he
told Republicans watching a
“Beer Caucus” Zoom call in May
with his rival, retired Brig. Gen.
Don Bolduc. “You know, we do
some things in the law firm
around the country to raise
money for the foundation. But
ultimately we don’t raise that
much, so it’s essentially my
money that goes into it to help
these kids.” He said the
foundation was started “maybe
10 years ago.”
On its website, the Messner
Foundation solicits donations
and applications from students
by claiming it “identifies
deserving high school students
who have demonstrated
leadership traits and gives those
students the resources and
connections they need to
flourish. The goal of the Messner
Foundation is to cultivate the
next generation of business and
community leaders.”
But documents filed with the
IRS, for the years 2009 to 2018,
show a different story.The Facts
The Messner Foundation was
created to celebrate the 15th
anniversary of Messner’s law
firm, Messner Reeves LLP,
according to an interview
Messner gave to the Denver
Business Journal in 2010. “The
first scholarship winner will
begin college in fall 2011,” the
article said. “The foundation will
combine the scholarships with
mentoring and guidance
programs.” Messner is quoted as
saying that he “wanted to start a
vehicle to help young people who
are similarly situated as I was.”
In marketing the scholarships,
the Messner Foundation is
closely associated with Messner’s
law firm. A Messner partner
hawks the scholarships on
television. The foundation has
raised money by raffling off
expensive vehicles, most recently,
last year, a nearly $59,000 Range
Rover.
Indeed, the foundation was
originally funded by a $100,
contribution by Messner Reeves,
according to the 2009 tax form
filed by the foundation. No other
substantial contributor is listed,
though Corky Messner is listed as
the president of the foundation
every year.
Then, oddly, the $100,000 just
sat there — year after year. A few
hundred dollars in interest was
earned. But no money was
distributed, despite the
announcement that scholarshipsGOP Senate candidate’s sketchy claims about his foundation
The Fact
Checker
GLENN
KESSLERMERRIMACK COUNTY (N.H.) REPUBLICAN COMMITTEE
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