WASHINGTON -- A super PAC formed by controversial activists who played a role in President Donald Trump's successful election is shutting down, which means Josh Mandel won't have its support.

The shuttering of Rev 18, shorthand for "revolution" and 2018, may have little practical effect, however, on the candidacy of Mandel, the single candidate it had so far announced it would independently support. Mandel, Ohio's state treasurer and a Republican, is mounting a rematch of his 2012 attempt to defeat incumbent U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat.

The PAC formed in late August but its founders by then were known as agitators for their use of social media and incendiary messages. That reputation was burnished by one of the activists, a writer and blogger named Mike Cernovich, when he propagated a false claim that Hillary Clinton was involved in a pedophile ring operating in a pizza shop's basement.

Another of the founders, Jack Posobiec, was involved in the grassroots group Citizens for Trump (which is also the title of a book he later wrote), helped spread the so-called Pizzagate story and organized the "DeploraBall" to celebrate Trump's inauguration. The Daily Beast called him "one of the right's leading agitators and conspiracy theorists."

And the third partner in the new PAC, Jeffrey Giesea, is an entrepreneur known as an expert on memetic warfare, or the use of jokes, citations and Internet trolling by governments and terrorists to spread propaganda and wage wars of ideas. Giesea helped create the "troll army" that boosted Trump in the election, according to a December article in BuzzFeed.

But the trio is breaking up the PAC. In a Twitter message, they said they have too many other things going on in their lives and the PAC started as a side project and demands more time than they have to give. They said they will refund donations. They said there is no personal animosity among them.

Mandel's campaign declined to comment, saying it had no ties to the group and its decision was up to its founders.

But the campaign of Brown, the senator the trio would like to see ousted, said the breakup changes nothing. Mandel took the side of Cernovich and Posobiec in a dispute with the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights group, when the ADL labeled Cernovich and Posobiec members of the "alt-light" -- a less explicitly racist faction of the loosely affiliated alt-right movement that nevertheless "embraces misogyny and xenophobia." And Mandel steered clear of renouncing the PAC's support, said Preston Maddock, Brown's campaign spokesman.

Sad to see @ADL_National become a partisan witchhunt group targeting people for political beliefs. I stand with @Cernovich & @JackPosobiec https://t.co/N3nC78t4CS — Josh Mandel (@JoshMandelOhio) July 20, 2017

As individuals, the PAC's founders "still can use their social media footprint" to support Mandel, Maddock said.

Reached by phone, Posobiec confirmed to cleveland.com that Rev 18 is disbanding but would provide no additional details.

When asked if he still supports Mandel, Posobiec said, "Personally, yes."

And asked whether he or other members could still use their social media know-how to support candidates, he said absolutely.

"We're not going anywhere," Posobiec said.