Wichita man admits role in alleged dark money conspiracy against Brandon Whipple

Matthew Colborn, a 21-year-old Wichita video producer, admitted to shooting a false attack ad aimed at Wichita Mayor-elect Brandon Whipple during the 2019 mayoral campaign and then publishing it on YouTube “as part of his job,” court records filed by his lawyer Tuesday show.

But Colborn wasn’t acting alone, according to his lawyer.

Whipple is suing Colborn and unidentified John Does for an alleged civil conspiracy to finance, produce, promote and publish a video aimed at harming his candidacy.

It’s still unclear whose idea the video was and who financed it.

Colborn denies having any ownership in the business that bankrolled the video or that he was trying to defame Whipple.

The ad at issue — which was viewed thousands of times on YouTube and at least 41,000 times on Facebook before being removed — used young actresses shot in silhouette to portray interns at the Kansas Legislature apparently complaining about sexual harassment by Whipple. The script cribbed quotations and allegations from a 2017 story in the Kansas City Star and the Wichita Eagle.

Whipple was not the subject of the allegations in the news report, which were actually complaints against Republican members of the Kansas Senate. Whipple at the time was a Democratic member of the state House of Representatives.

In October, Whipple’s lawyer, Randy Rathbun, filed a slander lawsuit alleging a conspiracy between Colborn and supporters of incumbent Mayor Jeff Longwell to fund and coordinate an attack ad against Whipple.

Whipple’s lawsuit claims the video was a coordinated effort to harm his candidacy after an investigative report by The Eagle detailed how Longwell steered the largest contract in the city’s history to his political supporters, golf partners and friends.

Colborn’s lawyer, Ross Hollander, wrote that Colborn had no knowledge of that report and shot the video “at the behest” of others, who are identified in court documents only as “John Doe #1” and “John Doe #2.”

“His videography was done at the behest of the John Does,” Colborn’s lawyer wrote.

Exactly who those John Does are isn’t clear. Colborn’s lawyer does not name them in the response.

State lawmaker linked

Information about the producers and financiers of the video are unlikely to surface outside of Whipple’s civil lawsuit.

The language used in the ad — “stop Brandon Whipple” — doesn’t fit the state’s strict definition of “expressly advocating” for or against a candidate, because it doesn’t use the words “vote against” or “defeat.” Therefore, its cost and funding sources do not have to be reported to the state or made available to the public through campaign finance reports.

The Eagle found that Republican state lawmaker Michael Capps, whom Colborn shares office space with and serves as campaign manager for, is connected to the campaign against Whipple through one of his businesses, Krivacy LLC.

Capps has denied any involvement and has ignored calls for his resignation.

The day the ad was published, Krivacy bought a domain name — protectwichitagirls.com — that matched the title of the ad and a New Mexico shell company that bankrolled the smear campaign: Protect Wichita’s Girls LLC. The website was never activated, and the day The Eagle published an article linking Colborn to the video and Capps to Colborn, Krivacy transferred the domain name to a web hosting company that guarantees its customers anonymity.

Whipple’s lawyer has filed subpoenas for business records from that company that could show who set it up, information that has been shielded by New Mexico law, which doesn’t require closely held businesses to reveal the names of their owners. A subpoena for information about Krivacy has also been filed by Whipple’s lawyer, court records show.

Colborn would not answer questions about the video in October and has not responded to requests for interviews or comment.

His response to Whipple’s lawsuit also admits that quotations and allegations included in the video script were taken directly from a 2017 story in the Kansas City Star.

After filming the ad, Colborn later posted it to YouTube “as part of his job,” according to his written response to Whipple’s lawsuit.

Colborn’s admission, included in a response to an October lawsuit Whipple filed against Colborn and other unidentified parties, follows months of speculation about a smear campaign that became one of the defining moments of Wichita’s mayoral campaign.

It makes Colborn the only person so far to take responsibility for creating the video.

Colborn’s connections

Colborn has been an active young participant in the local Republican party.

Colborn’s media company, Colborn Media LLC, launched in part through the Wichita State University’s LaunchPrep start-up program that pairs early-stage entrepreneurs with experienced mentors to fast-track their businesses on the road to success.

The program paired Colborn, a WSU student, and Capps in the spring of 2018. Capps, who was not yet a member of the Kansas House, had been plagued by financial and legal troubles tied to his business practices for the past decade.

By the time the 2019 mayoral race rolled around, he had been named Capps’ campaign manager and he had entered the orbit of some of the state’s most powerful Republicans.

About a month and a half before the Whipple attack ad was published, a social media photo shows him at Kansas Senate President Susan Wagle’s house along with Capps, Sedgwick County Commissioner Michael O’Donnell, Sedgwick County Republican Chair Dalton Glasscock and several other prominent local GOP stalwarts.

Whipple’s lawsuit claims Colborn had “produced fluff pieces about Mayor Longwell,” who is a Republican, and was tapped as part of a conspiracy to swing the election back in Longwell’s favor.

That argument was later bolstered by Capps, who was called on by the Sedgwick County Republican Party to resign from his House position after his company was linked to the video.

Instead of resigning, Capps went on a right-wing radio program and accused Glasscock, local GOP chair, of approving the Protect Wichita Girls video.

Glasscock was paid $6,000 by Longwell’s campaign to provide media consulting services, but he denies that those services had anything to do with the Colborn video. Glasscock said he did not approve of the video and called it “disgusting.”

Two days after Capps’ accusations, Whipple defeated Longwell by a wide margin.

Whipple declined to comment on the lawsuit Tuesday. Colborn’s lawyer is asking Whipple to drop his claims of defamation against Colborn.

This story was originally published January 3, 2020 at 5:01 AM.