Our founder and Programming Director, David Seaman, has been a victim of character attack for the past four months - around the time he began publicly discussing "Pedogate," an alleged child trafficking ring involving some top Democratic politicians and financiers in the Washington, DC area. The personal attacks intensified in late February, as Seaman noted in a FULCRUM post here.

On a second fact finding trip to Washington recently, Seaman met with law enforcement and intelligence community contacts, to gain more insight into who or what is driving these attacks against him, and against others in the independent journalism space. Below is a note from Seaman with his response to recent claims about his past.

Note from David 2

This is incredibly tedious, addressing every dire made-up claim from my 20s as if I'm some roaming scam artist rather than a well respected former podcaster and independent broadcast journalist. But I know it's necessary and the right thing to do: we always push back. Here we go-

My brief Congressional run: I was contacted by a man who helped with a Congressional campaign in Texas previously; he was impressed by some of my YouTube videos and blog posts at the time. It was an opportunity to raise awareness for issues I cared about in the national media - and I gave interviews focusing not only on my priorities as a candidate, but on the issues I cared about - Obama's ineffective drone targeting, which was killing some of the wrong people, and Obama's warrantless surveillance of American citizens via various N.S.A. initiatives, which is illegal and a clear violation of the 4th Amendment.

When it became clear the predominantly very blue district I was in wasn't interested in a "kid" and independent running, rather than waste the community's time, with the help of my campaign manager we decided to withdraw my candidacy and close down the campaign. We consulted with the F.E.C., the federal regulatory agency which oversees elections and candidates at the federal level, as to the best way to do that.

After consulting with them, we were sent written notification by F.E.C. officials that we were cleared to disburse all remaining funds raised. Because the amount of money raised was less than the minimum reporting threshold, they made the process easy for us. In accordance with F.E.C. best practices and guidelines, we donated 100% of funds to an accredited charity located in the United States, with no personal connection to me or any of my staff/volunteers. The charity was chosen, in large part, because it had received "A" ratings from a variety of trusted charity watchdog organizations. When the funds were submitted to them, we also specifically requested the money be used on charity programs within the United States, rather than the charity's operations abroad. Charity starts at home.

Politics is not for me - I much prefer picking apart politicians from the sidelines, as I do now, rather than becoming one myself. I do not plan to run for political office in the future.

My Patreon: I receive approximately US $4,700 per month via a crowdfunding page at patreon.com/davidseaman where viewers voluntarily contribute between $1 and $32 per month or more to allow me to continue putting out content I feel is in the public interest. These funds are instrumental in allowing me to cover issues that matter, including Pedogate and political corruption. So far, approximately one half of raised funds have gone to my assistant and production coordinator. She recently fell ill and was hospitalized for six days, but is now out and recovering. We have no reason to suspect foul play. The remaining half of funds have gone to necessary hardware upgrades (better laptop/camera), and necessary research/business trips. When I travel, I always book a "coach" or "economy" class ticket, and at this point travel costs have already dipped into my personal funds. I am grateful for the support from viewers because it's not coming from anywhere else, unlike many media organizations, which are funded by special interests, billionaires, and publicly held conglomerates.

My book: Nearly a decade ago, I was contracted to write a book on Internet marketing. The book, now out of print and not a current source of revenue for me, explained to small business owners and aspiring content creators - coffee shop owners, restauranteurs, actors, etc. - how to generate "buzz" in the local and national media for their businesses. A section of the book was dedicated to how I thought Donald Trump was a genius personal brander, a claim which has proven to be accurate, to say the least. It is offensive and inaccurate to suggest my coverage of the Pedogate scandal in Washington, DC follows the book's precepts - my coverage of Pedogate is guided by a moral compass which all humans possess. Since the publication of that book, I've published books on a number of other topics - including Bitcoin.

My Soros ties: Equally offensive are claims that I am tied to George Soros. I don't like what he's about. Once I wrote in a blog post that he is a "legendary" financier, which is mathematically and objectively true. I have read his books, have gleaned what I wanted from them, and find him to be a man without moral character. I promoted a gold and silver delivery company that Soros is an investor in; Soros has a larger financial stake in Boeing and Bank of America. I was one of more than 100,000 affiliates promoting that gold and silver company, I continue to use their service myself to buy gold and silver, but as I mentioned in a recent video I have publicly terminated all affiliate relationships - including with that company - out of an abundance of respect for supporters who believe I should focus on my journalism, not making a buck. I agree wholeheartedly. There are easier ways to make money and I'm in this to change the game.

Thank you for your support,

David Seaman

Los Angeles, CA

3/14/2017