{"id":135180,"date":"2025-10-15T15:17:32","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T23:17:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/10\/15\/gop-operative-lawyer-out-of-a-job-after-offensive-and-racist-messages-revealed\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T15:17:32","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T23:17:32","slug":"gop-operative-lawyer-out-of-a-job-after-offensive-and-racist-messages-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/10\/15\/gop-operative-lawyer-out-of-a-job-after-offensive-and-racist-messages-revealed\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP Operative\/Lawyer Out Of A Job After Offensive And Racist Messages Revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, Politico released a bombshell expose<\/a> on a young Republican group Telegram chat with wildly offensive rhetoric. It\u2019s being referred to in the press<\/a> as the \u201cI love Hilter\u201d chat because\u2026 yeah, that\u2019s one of the things they said. Along with multiple variations on the N-word, \u201cthe watermelon people,\u201d pro-slavery chatter, talk about raping their enemies, slurs galore, putting their political opponents in gas chambers, and much more. Politico calls it \u201can unfiltered look at how a new generation of GOP activists talk when they think no one is listening,\u201d and it\u2019s truly a horrifying collection of id gone wild.<\/p>\n

The private chat reportedly got leaked to Politico as the result of a Young Republicans internal feud. The chat included a variety of Young Republican leaders in New York, Kansas, Arizona and Vermont, including William Hendrix, vice chair of the\u00a0Kansas Young Republicans; Bobby Walker, head of the New York State Young Republicans;\u00a0Peter Giunta, the former chair of the New York State Young Republicans; Annie Kaykaty, New York\u2019s national committee member;\u00a0Alex Dwyer,\u00a0the chair of the Kansas Young Republicans; Samuel Douglass,\u00a0a state senator\u00a0from Vermont;\u00a0Luke Mosiman,\u00a0chair of the Arizona Young Republicans; and Rachel Hope, the Arizona Young Republicans events chair. And, of course, there are some attorneys on the chat. Michael Bartels, senior adviser in the office of general counsel for the U.S. Small Business Administration and Joe Maligno, id\u2019d himself as\u00a0the general counsel\u00a0for the New York State Young Republicans.<\/p>\n

Politico notes Bartles was mostly quiet in the chat. But Maligno used racial slurs and joked about Nazism, saying, \u201cGas chambers don\u2019t fit the Hitler aesthetic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Life\u2019s coming fast at the members of the group. The Young Republican National Federation\u00a0called<\/a>\u00a0on them to \u201cimmediately resign from all positions.\u201d New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, called for them to be kicked out of the Republican party, \u201cThis bullshit has to stop.\u201d New York Republicans Rep. Elise Stefanik and state Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt renounced the chat. The Kansas Republican party\u00a0deactivated<\/a>\u00a0their state\u2019s Young Republican organization. Douglass, the Vermont state senator, is facing calls for his resignation.<\/a> Vermont Governor Phil Scott\u00a0condemned<\/a> the messages. (Vice President JD Vance turned it into an opportunity to attack Democrats<\/a>, because of course.)<\/p>\n

And, yes. Several members have already lost their jobs. Many of them were out of work as Politico investigated<\/a> the story. Now, only a day later, there\u2019s more fall out.<\/a> Maligno *was* the Associate Court Attorney to Hon. Mary A. Kavanagh, but no more. A spokesperson for the\u00a0New York State Unified Court System confirmed he\u2019s no longer an employee.<\/p>\n

Bartels, the only member of the group chat to be confirmed as a member of the Trump administration, still has a job<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The post GOP Operative\/Lawyer Out Of A Job After Offensive And Racist Messages Revealed<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Yesterday, Politico released a bombshell expose<\/a> on a young Republican group Telegram chat with wildly offensive rhetoric. It\u2019s being referred to in the press<\/a> as the \u201cI love Hilter\u201d chat because\u2026 yeah, that\u2019s one of the things they said. Along with multiple variations on the N-word, \u201cthe watermelon people,\u201d pro-slavery chatter, talk about raping their enemies, slurs galore, putting their political opponents in gas chambers, and much more. Politico calls it \u201can unfiltered look at how a new generation of GOP activists talk when they think no one is listening,\u201d and it\u2019s truly a horrifying collection of id gone wild.<\/p>\n

The private chat reportedly got leaked to Politico as the result of a Young Republicans internal feud. The chat included a variety of Young Republican leaders in New York, Kansas, Arizona and Vermont, including William Hendrix, vice chair of the\u00a0Kansas Young Republicans; Bobby Walker, head of the New York State Young Republicans;\u00a0Peter Giunta, the former chair of the New York State Young Republicans; Annie Kaykaty, New York\u2019s national committee member;\u00a0Alex Dwyer,\u00a0the chair of the Kansas Young Republicans; Samuel Douglass,\u00a0a state senator\u00a0from Vermont;\u00a0Luke Mosiman,\u00a0chair of the Arizona Young Republicans; and Rachel Hope, the Arizona Young Republicans events chair. And, of course, there are some attorneys on the chat. Michael Bartels, senior adviser in the office of general counsel for the U.S. Small Business Administration and Joe Maligno, id\u2019d himself as\u00a0the general counsel\u00a0for the New York State Young Republicans.<\/p>\n

Politico notes Bartles was mostly quiet in the chat. But Maligno used racial slurs and joked about Nazism, saying, \u201cGas chambers don\u2019t fit the Hitler aesthetic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Life\u2019s coming fast at the members of the group. The Young Republican National Federation\u00a0called<\/a>\u00a0on them to \u201cimmediately resign from all positions.\u201d New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, called for them to be kicked out of the Republican party, \u201cThis bullshit has to stop.\u201d New York Republicans Rep. Elise Stefanik and state Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt renounced the chat. The Kansas Republican party\u00a0deactivated<\/a>\u00a0their state\u2019s Young Republican organization. Douglass, the Vermont state senator, is facing calls for his resignation.<\/a> Vermont Governor Phil Scott\u00a0condemned<\/a> the messages. (Vice President JD Vance turned it into an opportunity to attack Democrats<\/a>, because of course.)<\/p>\n

And, yes. Several members have already lost their jobs. Many of them were out of work as Politico investigated<\/a> the story. Now, only a day later, there\u2019s more fall out.<\/a> Maligno *was* the Associate Court Attorney to Hon. Mary A. Kavanagh, but no more. A spokesperson for the\u00a0New York State Unified Court System confirmed he\u2019s no longer an employee.<\/p>\n

Bartels, the only member of the group chat to be confirmed as a member of the Trump administration, still has a job<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @[email\u00a0protected].<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, Politico released a bombshell expose on a young Republican group Telegram chat with wildly offensive rhetoric. It\u2019s being referred to in the press as the \u201cI love Hilter\u201d chat because\u2026 yeah, that\u2019s one of the things they said. Along with multiple variations on the N-word, \u201cthe watermelon people,\u201d pro-slavery chatter, talk about raping their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":135181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-sbk6B8.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}