Magazine portrays Ali Alexander's life as "a grifter's dream come true," but now he's about to be grilled for his role in staging rally that became U.S. Capitol mob

Ali Alexander (from Dissident-mag.com)

 

Not only does Stop the Steal organizer Ali (Akbar) Alexander have a sketchy personal background, his organizations present a flimsy appearance, too. Dissident-mag.com examines both in a post titled “Stop The Steal”: A GOP Grifter’s Dream Come True."

Alexander reportedly has been in hiding, apparently wanted by federal authorities for his role in spearheading a protest that turned into a deadly assault at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Alexander's time in hiding might be coming to an end. He was scheduled to testify last Friday before a U.S. House committee investigating Jan. 6, but that was postponed. The delay, howver, is expected to be brief, so we can look for Alexander to undergo a grilling shortly.

James Allsup, of Dissident-Mag provides enough background on Alexander, including his ties to Alabama, to remove any surprise that might linger about the Capitol riots. Writes Allsup:

The organizer of “Stop The Steal,” and operator of StopTheSteal.us, is a Twitter personality known as Ali Alexander (real name: Ali Abdul Razaq Akbar). The website lists rallies across several states in which voter fraud has been alleged and encourages Trump supporters to attend. . . . 

An IRS organization search finds no tax-exempt organizations named “Stop The Steal,” and a WHOIS record lookup reveals the site was registered by “Vice And Victory,” an Akbar-owned private company. . . 

Clicking the link redirects users to founders.alialexander.org, Akbar’s personal website. There, users have the choice to donate to Akbar’s personal crypto wallets, or via his personal PayPal and CashApp links. This site is archived here.

Users also have the option to buy him things from his Amazon wishlist, including weight benches, mass gainer supplements, and soap.

On November 7, Akbar tweeted that he “[doesn’t get paid to do this],” a statement contradicted by the hamfistedness of his self-enrichment scheme. . . . 

With donations headed to Akbar’s personal bank account, and not the accounts of any legally registered nonprofit bound by disclosure requirements, it is unlikely donors will ever be able to see where their funds were actually used.

 Allsup asks, "Who is Alexander?" -- and the answer isn't pretty:

Before reinventing himself as “Ali Alexander,” he was Ali Abdul Razaq Akbar- a convicted felon and conman with multiple arrests for burglary and credit-card fraud.

Ali’s crime spree began as early as 2006. According to police reports, he stole “Five MP3 Players, Twenty CD’s, Three Camcorders, Two DVD Players, One Back Massager One Clock, Four Shirts, Two Belts and a Piece of Luggage” from someone he knew beginning on or around November 1 until approximately November 26.

An arrest warrant was issued and he was arrested on January 1, 2007.

Seven months later, on August 18, he was arrested again, this time for credit card fraud and burglarizing a vehicle.

Akbar’s campaign against voter fraud is ironic, considering he was once credibly accused of planning to perpetrate voter fraud on behalf of John McCain. As LibertarianRepublican.net reported at the time, Akbar- then a John McCain campaign staffer- was caught planning voter fraud strategies to use against the Ron Paul campaign in the upcoming Nevada caucuses.

One witness, Joey Dauben, Akbar’s boss at the Ellis County Observer, recalled the events:

I sat in on a meeting in my downtown Dallas office and heard an e-campaign staffer with the John McCain campaign – Ali A. Akbar – openly discuss ways to manipulate, rig and otherwise “take” an election.

At the time, Akbar was the “E-Campaign Coordinator” for the McCain campaign, and served as a McCain campaign spokesman in Texas.

Allsup suggests that Akbar was "groomed to grift" and mentions Alabamians he has targeted -- including yours truly and Siegelman-case whistle blower Jill Simpson:

Akbar’s arrests for fraud, burglary, and theft did not seem to hamper his rise as a low-level GOP fixer. In fact, they may have served to pad his resume.

At the time of his Fort Worth arrests, Akbar’s day job was with the Ellis County Observer, a local news site. According to journalist Roger Shuler, “Akbar’s work apparently involved covering up the misdeeds of a former police chief named Michael Meissner, who was charged with posing as a woman and soliciting photos of underaged boys.”

Akbar, who served as the Observer’s executive editor and webmaster, allegedly worked with Meissner to suppress online records of his crimes.

How did Akbar rise from a small-time fraudster to president of the National Bloggers Club by 2012? By making the right (sleazy) connections.

In a now-deleted YouTube video, Akbar acknowledges having worked for GOP fixer Karl Rove. The specifics of Rove and Akbar’s relationship are unclear, but it has been credibly reported that the two were engaged in a homosexual relationship over a number of years.

Akbar’s profile on a gay dating site was discovered by Alabama attorney Dana Jill Simpson in 2012. Undated screenshots of Akbar’s profile on Grindr, a gay sex hookup app, have also been discovered.

Akbar’s connection to Rove is likely how he was able to insert himself into the orbit of Conservatism Inc. In 2012, he became president of the National Bloggers Club (NBC), which received startup capital from GOP megadonor Foster Friess. Over the next two years, NBC hosted events featuring GOP celebrities including James O’Keefe, Ted Cruz, and Erick Erickson.

NBC, like Stop The Steal, was never registered as a nonprofit organization. . . .

NBC’s corporate charter was revoked in 2014 for failing to pay Texas state taxes.

Despite his sordid personal history and series of failed ventures, Akbar has been able to keep the grift alive. In 2016, a PAC he advised received a $60,000 donation from former Milo Yiannopoulos patron Robert Mercer. . . . 

Ali Akbar’s scheme is perhaps- accidentally- the aptest summation of the Donald Trump presidency: you buy in, thinking you’re getting meaningful systemic change, but you end up beaten by Antifa while a black felon empties your pockets.