Protesters to return to Leonard Leo's Northeast Harbor house Saturday

NORTHEAST HARBOR, July 21, 2023 - The forecast is for rain to lift tomorrow by 4, so it will be a perfect day for bananafish, or a protest.

That would be the one in front of the residence of Leonard Leo, at 46 South Shore Road. The protests are now so frequent that organizers have taken to theme each one. This one will focus on democracy and climate. Creative costuming has given the gatherings an aura of a Sixties-like “happening.”

Just as the reversal of Roe Vs. Wade has backfired against him, Leo’s aggressive use of force in this previously quiescent village has turned into a spectacle drawing national attention.

Jane Mayer, the celebrated New Yorker writer, was actually the first to break the story this week of the lawsuit filed by a protester against the two police officers - Kevin Edgecomb and Nathan Fromby - who arrested him in front of Leo’s house last summer.

Mayer, whose widely acclaimed 2016 book Dark Money disclosed fundraising schemes of the Koch brothers, covered the protest here on the anniversary of Dobbs vs. Jackson in late June, along with ProPublica and MSNBC.

“Even an exclusive summer oasis is no refuge from the divisive partisan politics poisoning much of the country,” Mayer wrote yesterday. “Until recently, the only thing anyone thought about here was their backhand,” Alison Schafer, a fifth-generation summer resident, told her. “But, since Leo arrived, the town is in turmoil.”

Soon after Dobbs Vs. Jackson, “dozens of local protesters began appearing outside Leo’s house nearly every weekend, carrying posters decrying the corruption of the judiciary and encouraging sympathizers who drove by to honk their car horns.”

(Northeast Harbor does not have a noise ordinance.)

Mayer wrote:

“On July 31st, Anna Durand, a local inn owner, was on her way to one such protest with her son Eli Durand-McDonnell, a twenty-three-year-old landscaper. Durand is a longtime progressive activist in the community, and she conceded that ‘there are plenty of people who’ve made objectionable fortunes here’ whom she deplores but ignores. But she believes Leo is uniquely deserving of condemnation because, in her view, he has ‘specifically made it his life’s work to take people’s rights away.’ As she and her son drove down the town’s main street, she spotted Leo, who was walking with his family: ‘I was, like, ‘OMG—there he is!’ 

‘From her car, she yelled, “Leonard Leo!” He said, ‘Yes?’ She later recalled, ‘I always wanted to say such a profound statement if I saw him.’ But, in the moment, she said, ‘I just yelled, ‘You’re a fucking asshole. You’re going to Hell. Your whole family is going to Hell. It was so satisfying. I drove away happy.’

“Before she drove off, however, Durand-McDonnell, who was in the passenger seat, chimed in. ‘You’re a fucking fascist,’ he recalled shouting at Leo.”

As reported, the lawsuit served on July 12 uncovered an audio recording of Leo essentially instructing the officers to arrest Durand-McDonnell based only on his version of what happened. “I think it’s time for us to press some charges,” the recording of Leo stated.

The lawsuit stated that “Prior to arresting Durand-McDonnell, Lt. Edgecomb told Leo that ‘So what we’re going  to probably do is arrest him, take him to jail so that he has bail conditions not to be in or  near 46 South Shore Road. If I could make it my way, he wouldn’t be allowed in Northeast Harbor, but bail commissioners don’t do that often - all the time.” 

“Lt. Edgecomb further went on to criticize statements made by the protestors stating that ‘even some of the stuff I heard them say is, you know, it’s like really, guys?’”

The lawsuit accuses the two officers of the Bar Harbor and Mount Desert Police Departments of perpetrating a “retaliatory arrest to silence Durand-McDonnell’s free speech” while acting “at the direct behest of Leo,” whom the suit describes as “a powerful and wealthy conservative political activist who has used millions of dollars as political speech to influence American politics and courts.”

Mayer wrote:

“No one is more identified with the Court’s conservative turn than Leo, and arguably no issue has been more ardently championed by the Federalist Society than the right to free expression enshrined in the First Amendment of the Constitution. Supreme Court Justices who are associated with the Federalist Society, and whose appointments Leo had promoted, have ruled in favor of the First Amendment right of religious opponents of same-sex marriage to deny some business services to couples of whom they disapprove, and of the right of rich political donors to spend unlimited amounts of money on campaigns as a form of speech. “I think the left misunderstands what we define as rights in our country sometimes, because frankly, those are defined by the Bill of Rights,” Leo said, in an interview this week with the conservative news site Maine Wire. “Most of these rights that we’re talking about in the Bill of Rights are freedom from government oppression, freedom from government interference, they are political and civil rights.”

Matthew Morgan, Durand-McDonnell’s attorney, argued that shouting an expletive from a car fell well beneath the threshold needed for such a disorderly-conduct charge, which, under Maine law, requires a law-enforcement officer to witness “fighting words” likely to provoke physical violence. As Morgan put it in a phone interview, “You have the head of the Federalist Society getting a guy arrested for carrying a sign in front of his house. It’s quite an irony.”

Last May, district attorney Robert Granger dropped the charges against Durand-McDonnell, stating he had real crimes to deal with.

In an e-mail to Mayer, Leo ascribed the district attorney’s decision to drop the charges to a “lack of resources.” He also stressed that he had “relied on the police to figure out how best to resolve this.” And he emphasized his contention that “Mr. Durand went out of his way to harass my wife and young daughter as we were walking along the street, accosting them directly after addressing me and then standing outside our house to be there when we returned. I informed the police because his repeated incidents of erratic and aggressive demeanor had escalated into targeting my family.” And, he added, “I hope Mr. Durand gets the help he needs to properly distinguish between First Amendment speech and menacing attacks on innocent bystanders.” Eli Durand-McDonnell, for his part, offered some pointed, if less off-color, words than those he used last summer. “I think this case sums it up perfectly,” he said recently, sitting on a public bench along Northeast Harbor’s main street, a few yards from the scene of the alleged crime. “The rules don’t apply to Leonard Leo. He can use this insane amount of money and influence and be a big shot, and throw his weight around. And, if he doesn’t agree with what someone else says, it’s no longer free speech.” 

Yesterday, the Washington Post reported Leonard Leo helped fund media campaigns lionizing Clarence Thomas.

The protest organizers urged participants to park in public spaces and walk so not to interfere with neighbors. The QSJ reported earlier that there is a 33-foot public right-of-way for protesters to stand on the shoulder of the road even on land owned by Leo.

>
> https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/a-new-lawsuit-alleges-that-leonard-leo-called-for-the-arrest-of-a-pro-choice-protester.
>
> Protest this Saturday at 4, South Shore Road and Maple Lane. Climate and Democracy themes this time. Public welcome and you are welcome to spread the word. If you do, please encourage people to park in one of the town lots and walk to the protest area.  Our network wants to be respectful of neighboring properties.