Grifters gonna grift: Millie Weaver edition.

Regular voyeurs might remember ex-Infowars huckster Millie Weaver, who shrieked hysterically about being a victim of the nefarious, sinister "Deep State" when, in reality, her arrest back in August of this year had a much more mundane explanation, as so delightfully explained by Frank magazine.

Despite Weaver being arrested for simple assault and burglary and other unexciting felonies like that, that didn't stop one Ezra Levant from immediately registering a Gofundme fundraiser, whereupon Weaver raked in a cool $175,000 (CAD), despite the obviously misleading pretext of the fundraiser and no subsequent attempt by any of the fundraiser's administrators to un-mislead people.

Fast forward to September 17 (long after it was obvious why Weaver had been taken into custody), whereupon we find Team Member and Rebel News staffer Eitan Gilboord wrapping things up with one more update before clearly wanting to put this whole thing behind him and move on to the next grift:

Notable about the above update is a total absence of any admission that the fundraiser was established on an utterly unsubstantiated pretext, or any explanation as to why Weaver's law firm would need $175,000 given that Weaver's mother had already assured all and sundry that she was dropping the charges.

Perhaps some enterprising journo might want to look into this. It looks like it could be a story but, hey, that's just me.

AFTERSNARK: It's amusing how Rebel News' Gilboord insists that the fundraiser was for the purpose of "protecting ... conservative journalists from false arrest" when the actual indictment has been publicly available for a month and explained the basis for the arrest pretty clearly:

More developments currently developing so stay tuned ...

HERE'S WHAT PUZZLES ME: As you can read above, the fundraiser organizers are adamant that Weaver is the victim of a "false arrest," and the general intimation is that she was the target of a "Deep State" program of political harassment, or something like that. But if one claims that something is a "false arrest," that would suggest that there is no basis for the arrest and that, once free, there is no substance to the charges against you. But if that's the case, then what is the necessity for $175,000 to mount a "legal defense?"

Put another way, it's illogical to insist that there is no legal basis for an arrest, yet still insist you need $175,000 to defend against that arrest, and the fundraiser page says absolutely nothing about the basis for the defense, or gives even the slightest clue about what those allegedly politically-motivated charges might be.

This is just really, really weird.

FRAUD? Commenter asks the obvious question -- does running a public fundraiser with such a misleading pretext as Weaver's rise to the level of fraud? To which I will answer ... I am not a lawyer, much less an American lawyer, so I haven't the foggiest and I will not speculate. 

However, regular visitors might recall that back here, that very issue raised its ugly head when a number of contributors who thought they were donating to confront the dark forces of the anti-Trump "Deep State" learned, to their chagrin, that Weaver's arrest clearly had nothing to do with that, and everything to do with simple domestic assault.

Here's one of the original donors, more than a little pissed after having his nose rubbed in reality:

Whether anything came of that, your guess is as good as mine but, tantalizingly, an American journo and authority in this sort of nonsense has assured me that certain authorities are taking a long, hard look at this and other fundraisers. He's promised to keep me updated, as I will do the same for you.

You're welcome.