Fake Scott Eckersley Quit MO-7 Congressional Race E-Mail Generates FBI Grand Jury Investigation

Congressman Billy Long may soon discover he doesn't like the FBI as much as he did during the first week of his new job. BBCW acquired e-mail evidence that Billy Long's Congressional campaign and a Chicago political strategy group run by Patrick Binning, a former Springfield, Missouri resident who attended Greenwood High School about the same time Long's daughters did, and who may have ties directly to Long considering social media evidence may be under a grand jury investigation according to the FBI.

The Friday before the election, a fictitious e-mail was sent to various media outlets in Southwest Missouri claiming Scott Eckersley had decided to quit the Congressional race. The e-mail wasn't sent by any representative of the Eckersley campaign, and Eckersley went scrambling to correct the story as the election went into the final weekend. The IP address was traced to a Chicagoland server in the vacinity of Lakefront Strategies, owned by Patrick J. Binning, who had been corresponding with Congressman Long through Social Media and began removing his social media presence when news broke the FBI was involved with the investigation.

Here is part of that e-mail exchange with the names removed to protect the FBI agents.


On Mon, Feb 14, 2011 at 12:39 PM, xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Scott,

I received an e-mail from xxxxxx indicating that she had spoken with you. xxx is completing her reports, which will be forwarded to me for inclusion in my case file. xxx also forwarded additional information you provided subsequent to the interview and informed me you couldn't locate my email, so I wanted to send you a quick message with my contact information.

If you have questions, or have additional information to provide, please forward directly to me, as xxx involvement in this matter will be concluded upon completion of her reports.

Thanks,
xxxxxxx

Special Agent xxxxxxxxxxx
Federal Bureau of Investigation


From: Scott Eckersley
Sent: Friday, March 04, 2011 9:13 AM
To: xxxxx
Subject: Re: Contact information
xxxxx,

I ran across an article that talks about Billy Long's campaign manager James Harris and one of his former employees, Shawn Bell. Shawn Bell is the person who "re-tweeted" James Harris's original tweet that first declared I had dropped out of the race. Harris tried to delete this tweet, but it was captured by Shawn Bell's "re-tweet" of Harris's original tweet.

Subsequently, Bell phoned local bloggers and media asking them to take his name out of their story. He apparently was quoted saying he had parted ways w/ Harris b/c of the "illegal and shady" stuff Harris made him do.

Here is the link with audio:

http://www.firedupmissouri.com/content/engler-and-nieves-rip-harris-senate-floor

Have you spoken with Patrick Binning? Any updates or progress?

Thanks,

Scott


On Mar 4, 2011, at 8:23 AM, xxxxxx wrote:
Scott,

I appreciate the additional information, and encourage you to provide any further information you may come across which sheds light on this matter.

Unfortunately, because we are using the Grand Jury process in the investigation of this matter, I am prohibited by Grand Jury secrecy rules from discussing specifics of the investigation.

I can tell you that I am coordinating the investigation with the local U.S. Attorney's office, as well as with a trial attorney from the U.S. Department of Justice, Public Integrity Section, Criminal Division. Rest assured, our investigation will be thorough and exhaustive in an attempt to prove who sent the fictitious email, the reason for sending it, and under whose direction it was sent.

If you have additional questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me.

Thanks,
xxxxxxxxx