Michigan GOP budget committee releases financial information that shows the depth of Kristina Karamo's devastation of MIGOP and how Hoekstra has turned the party around

Allegations include grotesque mismanagement, deceit and theft by Karamo and her team. State party is now firing on all cylinders heading into November.

Disgraced former MIGOP Chair Kristina Karamo

LANSING, MI - Members of the Michigan Republican Party (MIGOP) Budget Committee announced some preliminary findings of an internal investigation into alleged financial malfeasance by Kristina Karamo on the Rescue Michigan podcast on August 11, on which this author was also a guest. The findings allege that Karamo, the disgraced former MIGOP Chair, blatantly mismanaged party funds, made large expenses with party funds after her removal from office, caused unpaid Federal Election Commission (FEC) fines, and left substantial debts that Karamo’s team claimed publicly had been paid. Additionally $130,000 is unaccounted for. MIGOP is not alleging that Karamo stole those funds, but their internal investigation is ongoing to try to locate them.

The specific allegations are shocking in gravity and also show that Trump had no confidence in Karamo’s ability to run a functional party or assist with his campaign. Budget committee member Todd Gillman wrote in a statement, “If (Kristina Karamo) had not been removed, the Trump team and RNC was going to use the Illinois GOP to run our state party duties for the election.”

This claim was confirmed to be accurate to Bigger Truth by budget chair Tim Ross and finance chair Warren Carpenter. Gillman was referring to pass-through funds that are paid by the RNC and Trump Victory to state parties in order to hire regional campaign directors, purchase signs, set up local campaign offices and conduct the local business of the campaign.

President Trump was reportedly aware of Karamo’s mismanagement of the party since his visit to the Oakland County Lincoln Day Dinner in early 2023. He did not return to Michigan until after her replacement, Ambassador Pete Hoekstra, was elected on January 20. Since then, MIGOP has already received significant pass-through monies from the RNC and Ross told Bigger Truth that he believes $10,000,000 or more will come to MIGOP in this election cycle.

Had Karamo not been removed and Trump used the Illinois GOP for pass-throughs, they most likely would have hired operatives from Illinois to manage his campaign in Michigan. Instead, MIGOP has already hired local grassroots leaders from throughout the state to lead the party’s election efforts, providing these hires with valuable training that will help them lead the party in future election cycles.

Chair Hoekstra has led a highly successful turnaround operation in just a few months since a judge’s order forced Karamo to stop calling herself the chairwoman. Gillman wrote in a statement, "The party is now running effectively with considerable money coming in, bills getting paid, and Trump field offices getting set up across the state.” The party has raised many multiples of what Karamo raised and is working closely and effectively with Trump and the RNC. Contrary to false claims by Karamo and her supporters, none of the funds raised by Hoekstra and his team have strings attached.

Karamo was removed from office on January 6 of this year by the state committee in a process that painstakingly followed party bylaws. Despite that, Karamo refused to step down for the good of the party. She repeatedly claimed that her removal was “illegitimate and illegal” and, despite doing no public outreach during her 11 month tenure, after she was removed she launched a statewide roadshow campaign titled “Questions, Answers and FACTS with MIGOP Chairwoman Kristina Karamo.”

During those events, several of which were recorded and reviewed by Bigger Truth, attendees were strictly prohibited from speaking out and were allowed to ask questions in writing only, which were selected and read to Karamo by her operatives. Gillman himself was forcibly removed from one of these events for asking questions the Karamo team didn’t like.

After her removal from office, Karamo and her lieutenants drug the party into complete turmoil. They repeatedly claimed that those who removed her were liars, globalists, demonic and more. One of her chief propagandists, Ken Beyers, produced several videos claiming God was on Karamo’s side and those who removed her were evil and satanic. He repeatedly called for her followers to “be the thunder and lightning.”

Prominent national conservative media personalities weighed in, providing support and cover to Karamo. Lara Logan tweeted multiple times that “Kristina Karamo is anointed by God.” Steve Bannon gave her a national platform on his show in late January, calling her the MIGOP Chairwoman, weeks after her removal and after Pete Hoekstra was elected the new state chair. Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point Action invited her to their Las Vegas event in late January that coincided with an RNC meeting at the same time. Turning Point Action then revoked sponsorship of some local events in Michigan that were led by Karamo’s opponents in apparent retaliation for removing Karamo.

None of these personalities ever publicly acknowledged their errors or provided Hoekstra with a platform.

For nearly two months after Karamo’s removal, Michigan effectively had two competing state Republican parties, with two chairs, two sets of executive teams and staff, two separate bank accounts and separate mailing lists and websites. Karamo frequently said she will never step down and at one point she even said she would rather go to jail than step down.

During this time, Karamo spent about $113,000 in legal fees to fight her removal with state party money. Tim Ross suggested on Rescue Michigan that she might eventually be personally liable to repay that to the party.

Finally, on February 27, less than a week before the March 2 presidential primary state caucus, a Michigan judge issued a temporary injunction against Karamo, demanding that she no longer call herself the chairwoman, cease conducting party business, and surrender all assets and bank accounts to the official MIGOP under its official chairman, Ambassador Pete Hoekstra.

In June 2023, Karamo’s team decided to transfer the party’s bank accounts from Comerica to West Michigan Credit Union. Karamo’s then Chief of Staff, Joel Studebaker, reportedly has family ties to the credit union. When that transfer took place, the amount deposited into West Michigan Credit was $130,000 less than what was withdrawn from Comerica. So far, the investigation has yet to reveal any record of what happened to that $130,000. On a call to district chairs across the state on August 11, Hoekstra stressed that the party is not alleging that Karamo stole these funds - they are still trying to locate them.

One of the most shocking revelations of the investigation is that the Karamo administration “left behind a mail bag full of unopened mail that contained $15,000 in small dollar donations that hat to be returned with an apology letter.” Most of these donations were personal checks from small donors that were mailed to the MIGOP PO box. Karamo’s team had the key to the PO box, but never once during her entire administration did they check the box.

“Karamo made a big thing when she ran for state chair that she was going to get small donors involved,” Gillman told Bigger Truth, “Then she doesn’t bother to open the mail and take the checks to the bank.”

Hoekstra’s team has opted to keep Karamo’s treasurer, Jennifer Standerfer, on as treasurer. Standerfer has been cooperating fully with the party’s internal investigation. Gillman said in his statement that she “was set up as the fall guy and lied to by the [Karamo] administration.”

Gillman, Ross, and Jessica Barefield were on the budget committee for the first half of Karamo’s tenure. They resigned when they chose to go public as whistleblowers prior to September’s Mackinac Conference with accusations of severe financial mismanagement and lack of reporting. Their letters of resignation helped provide political momentum that ultimately led to Karamo’s removal as state chair.

Karamo’s financial mismanagement has led to major ongoing expenses for the state party. The FEC has fined MIGOP about $50,000, and additional fines are likely forthcoming. The party has retained legal representation to defend itself and Jennifer Standerfer against forthcoming charges. MIGOP Finance Chair Warren Carpenter told Bigger Truth the final cost of FEC sanctions, including legal fees, will run between $250,000-500,000.

In addition to the missing $130,000, Karamo also left the party saddled with substantial unpaid debts. Karamo and her lieutenants frequently and falsely claimed that she inherited a party saddled with debt. When she began her tenure in February 2023, she inherited a bank account with approximately $300,000 in cash and what is generally believed to be a little more than $300,000 in debt in the form of a line of credit with Comerica. She apparently spent the cash fairly quickly then increased that debt to over $500,000 before she stopped making payments.

Her attorney, Dan Hartman, who was also MIGOP General Counsel during her tenure and is now Tina Peters’ attorney in her ongoing Colorado criminal defense, went so far as to sue Comerica, claiming they shouldn’t have to pay it because it was set up before Karamo became the party chair.

When accounts were finally transferred to Hoekstra’s control, one of his first actions was to drop that lawsuit and pay nearly $50,000 in fees and late payments to bring that debt current. The party continues to pay hefty monthly interest and principle payments on the line of credit.

Budget Chair Tim Ross told Bigger Truth that he thought the most shocking revelation was an outstanding $90,000 debt owed to the Grand Hotel for the Mackinac Conference. He said it “reveals flat out lies by the [Karamo] administration.” He said, “After the conference, the budget committee (at the time) was told that the conference made about $30,000 profit and that everything had been paid for with the exception of a small bill for food and beverages. Dan Bonamie, then the chair of the budget committee, stated on a podcast that all bills [from the conference] had been paid.” This was clearly untrue.

Kristina Karamo has continued to seek to rebuild her following, with the apparent help of shadow operator Mike Labadie, the subject of prior reporting by Bigger Truth with self-professed ties to the intelligence community. With the help of Joel Studebaker, Ken Beyer, Anna Kamp, Samantha Strayer, Lori Skibo and others, they have launched various projects, including moveitchristian.com, which aims to recruit Christians to become precinct delegates, promoting narratives that insist that they are the only real Christians in the party and are therefore morally superior and everyone else in the party is evil. These Christian Nationalist endeavors within state parties are widely criticized by many Christians, including this author, as not representing authentic Biblical Christianity.

According to the most recent public disclosure filings, The America Project, a 501c4 nonprofit organization formed by Mike Flynn and Patrick Byrne, gave $700,000 to an organization headed by Karamo’s former chief of staff, Lori Skibo.

County conventions are coming up on August 15 statewide. The next state convention will follow on August 24 in Flint. All precinct delegates are encouraged to attend county conventions, where they could be elected, if they so choose, to be a delegate to the state convention. County chairs must be notified by delegates of their desire to be considered to become state delegates by August 12. The purpose of the convention is to select nominees for state supreme court and college boards, and to build momentum towards Republican victories in November. Any efforts by Karamo’s followers to disrupt the convention will be widely discouraged.