June 16, 2021 03:37 PM UTC

Why You Don't Hear From Ryan Call Anymore?

• 6 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

Former Colorado Republican Party chairman Ryan Call, who was a major player in Colorado politics before being ousted in 2015 at the onset of a major scandal that scrambled the state GOP for years afterward, has been relatively quiet in recent years. In September of 2020, Call basically eighty-sixed himself from a future in Republican politics by signing onto a Lincoln Project roster of Joe Biden Republicans.

Well folks, as Colorado Newsline’s Chase Woodruff reports, there may be a more straightforward explanation for Call pulling back from the GOP spotlight:

The former chair of the Colorado Republican Party is facing potential legal disciplinary sanctions over allegations that he “misappropriated” nearly $280,000 from a pro-Donald Trump super PAC between 2016 and 2019.

The allegations against Ryan Call, who served two terms as state chair of the Colorado GOP between 2011 and 2015, were disclosed in a complaint filed against him this month by the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel, a division of the Colorado Supreme Court that handles attorney disciplinary matters. The OARC’s complaint was obtained by Newsline through a public records request…

Filed with the state Supreme Court’s Office of the Presiding Disciplinary Judge on June 2, the complaint alleges that Call embezzled nearly $280,000 from Rebuilding America Now through a variety of methods, including by secretly awarding himself a $5,000-per-month consulting contract and reporting false campaign-expenditure information to the Federal Election Commission. The complaint describes Call’s actions as criminal theft. [Pols emphasis]

“Respondent knowingly misappropriated $278,169.45 from (Rebuilding America Now),” the complaint states. “Specifically, he transferred $278,169.45 of RAN funds to himself, knowing that the funds belonged to RAN, and knowing that he was not entitled to the funds and that RAN had not authorized him to take the funds for his own purposes.”

Call, a formerly prominent figure in Colorado Republican circles who has maintained a low profile since 2019, did not return multiple calls and emails seeking comment.

That’s all bad news for Ryan Call, and it could be just the beginning–as the chairman of the Colorado Republican Party’s independent expenditure committee both during and long after he served as state party chairman, Call faced intense scrutiny from rival factions over his money and strategic management. Revelations that Call was cutting himself in on cash flow from the Rebuilding America Now PAC may mean it’s time for the GOP IEC and every other entity Call had fiduciary influence over to reopen its books–or let infamous red-on-red gadfly Matt Arnold do it for them.

If you were funding Colorado Republicans in the last decade, results clearly show you wasted your money.

Ryan Call may have helped waste money a little more, you know, efficiently.