Far-right activist Laura Loomer lost her second bid for Congress last month, losing a Florida Republican primary by 7 points. Undaunted, Loomer then refused to concede and claimed, without any evidence, that she was a victim of election fraud.
Last week, five of Loomer’s supporters went further, suing her opponent and Florida’s election commission to demand a redo of the primary to give Loomer another shot.
At least, that’s what the lawyers behind the lawsuit claim. Now, in the latest blow to Republican attempts to prove voter fraud, one of the five supposed plaintiffs listed on the lawsuit told The Daily Beast she had no idea her name was going on the case and doesn’t think malfeasance occurred in the election.
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Theresa Rinaldi, of Orange County, cast her vote for Loomer, but says she was added to the lawsuit without her knowledge or permission.
“I want my name off of that, because I did not witness any voter fraud,” Rinaldi said.
Rinaldi said her troubles with the lawsuit began a few days ago, when an acquaintance who knew she had voted for Loomer asked if Rinaldi would talk to a lawyer about her experience. That lawyer turned out to be John Pierce, a controversial right-wing lawyer with a history of taking on conservative causes.
In their phone call, according to Rinaldi, Pierce never said she would be listed as a plaintiff in any lawsuit. Rinaldi said Pierce spoke rapidly, making it difficult for her to understand what he was saying.
“I felt like he was tricking me in that phone conversation, I really did,” Rinaldi said.
Rinaldi didn’t think anything of the conversation until she read a news report on Friday that listed her as one of the voters demanding a new election.
“When I saw the article, I just about fainted,” Rinaldi said.
Loomer, Pierce, and Jerrod Williams, another lawyer representing the Loomer plaintiffs, didn’t respond to requests for comment. On Twitter, Pierce told his followers that The Daily Beast was writing a “hit piece” about him, but didn’t address Rinaldi’s allegations.
The Daily Beast wasn’t able to reach the other four plaintiffs listed on the suit to find out if they gave consent to be named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
Rinaldi claimed she had a second call with Pierce on Saturday, in which he promised to take her name off the lawsuit.
“Why did you put my name down?” Rinaldi recalled telling Pierce. “I’m not going to lie”
The Loomer lawsuit is the latest twist in Pierce’s career. Once a high-flying lawyer with a large firm bearing his name, Pierce’s career has struggled amid financial woes and restraining order requests made by his ex-wife. In court filings, Pierce’s wife claimed he abused cocaine and threatened violence against her.
After reinventing himself as a go-to lawyer for right-wing causes like former Kenosha shooting defendant Kyle Rittenhouse, Pierce began representing a bevy of Capitol riot defendants. But Pierce lost a number of those clients when he mysteriously disappeared for two weeks in 2021, emerging later with no explanation for where he had gone or why he had left his clients in the lurch.
Rinaldi said she saw Loomer, a right-wing activist with a history of stunts and anti-Muslim comments, on the campaign trail event once before the Aug. 23 primary. Rinaldi wasn’t impressed.
“I didn’t get a great feeling,” she said. “I don’t know, it’s just me, it’s just a gut feeling.”
Still, Rinaldi decided to vote for Loomer over the longtime incumbent, Rep. Dan Webster (R-FL), in hopes of bringing a new voice to Congress. After being named without her permission, though, Rinaldi said she hasn’t heard from Loomer.
“If she’s going to sue, then let her sue,” Rinaldi said.
