BY: Keith S. Shikowitz Editor/Investigative Reporter and Robert Jowaiszas Investigative Researcher
The general public has lost faith in the national legacy media because of all of the now proven false stories that they have been promoted over the past 10 years. These same people are now more reliant on local and social media for their news. The history of local newspapers is one of covering local stories with truth and accuracy.
Politics is a dirty business and anyone who gets involved has to expect a lot of mudslinging and accusations from the opposition. Today, this mudslinging has reached a new low level with the opposition to President Trump, and anyone associated with him or the Republican Party being called Nazis, Gestapo, King, authoritarian and that he is going to end all elections and kill the American Democracy.
Locally, this opposition has fallen on Erin Crowley, a paid staff member of Congressman Mike Lawler (a staunch supporter of President Trump and his America First policies) and a Putnam County Legislator. After the Somers Westchester County Town Hall, on May 4, 2025, according to a DCCC press release using a story from LoHud reporter David McKay Wilson, as the only source of the information stated, “A mobile phone number belonging to Rep. Mike Lawler’s deputy district director was used to infiltrate an anti-Lawler’s organization’s private Signal chat group and urge disruptive behavior at a Town Hall.”
The one thing that people who have attended Lawler’s town halls have noticed, is that all of the people who are opposing him are there with the sole purpose of disrupting the event. They are also the same people attending each meeting regardless of the location. If there are so many people opposing Lawler throughout the district, why would Rockland constituents need to go all the way to Putnam, and Dutchess County events. There should be enough people living in those counties who can do the same job of disrupting and protesting for that side of the political aisle.
There are questions about the federal legal status of The Fight Lawler group whose co-founders Maureen Morrissey and Ann Starer, are also key figures in Indivisible Rockland and Westchester. They describe the group as a private, volunteer-run effort aimed at opposing Congressman Mike Lawler in New York’s 17th Congressional District. Its organizers communicate through private Signal chats and coordinate public events through the national organizing platform Mobilize.us.
While Fight Lawler claims to be grassroots and volunteer-based, the scale and consistency of its operations raise valid questions about how it is funded and whether it is operated under any formal legal structure. We have emailed multiple times and even left messages but there have been no responses to our inquiries.
How is the group funding its use of Mobilize.us and other digital platforms? Although Mobilize offers free access to some users, larger operations often require paid accounts. Is Fight Lawler operating under its own subscription, receiving assistance from a larger group like Indivisible, or using pooled private funds?
Is Fight Lawler registered with the Federal Election Commission or IRS in any capacity?
If the group is spending more than $1,000 in activities opposing a federal candidate, the law requires registration as a political action committee (PAC). If the group claims to be nonprofit in nature, has it filed with the IRS as a 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4)?
Given that Fight Lawler directly targets a sitting member of Congress and plays an increasingly visible role in local politics, the public deserves clarity. Is this truly a small, private volunteer movement—or a coordinated political operation that falls under campaign finance laws?
Fight Lawler needs to publicly respond and must be open and transparent. This will be the only way they can lend credibility to their accusations aimed at Crowley.
The accusation adds that the phone number attached to the aide, Crowley, didn’t just use the alleged fake identity to infiltrate a group chat of constituents who opposed him, she allegedly attempted to manipulate them into disrupting one of Lawler’s town halls and inciting chaos in the room—where multiple attendees were forcibly removed by police after Crowley’s apparent comment in the chat.
DCCC Spokesperson Riya Vashi said “Mike Lawler’s taxpayer-funded staff allegedly spying on his own constituents isn’t just gross, it’s a disgraceful abuse of power. If true, Lawler owes voters an immediate explanation for his staffer actively trying to stage chaos at an official town hall for his political gain.”
She added, “Mike Lawler eagerly ran to Fox News to attack his own constituents for opposing him — but now that reports show his own staff member was allegedly one of them it’s suddenly crickets. If he has nothing to hide, why won’t he answer a single question about it?”
A valid question about the release of this accusations in this story is, if this event took place on May 4, 2025, why wait two months to publicize it by the DCCC and multiple media outlets all echoing the LoHud David McKay Wilson story practically word for word?
She was asked, if it’s found out that Erin Crowley never did that would you apologize?
Vashi answered, “I mean, if, if they fully answered and came with proof, like, yeah, we’d let it go. But I don’t foresee that happening.”
Wilson, in an email to a reader said about the chat site which Crowley allegedly infiltrated, “It was a group of retired suburban women running the Signal chat group. It wasn’t a sophisticated operation, and their verification system was flawed.”
This statement opens up the question of the legitimacy of the accusation and identification of Crowley as the “infiltrator.” It could have really been this Jake Thomas who was the alleged person in the chat.
The one thing that these people are not acknowledging is that not answering is not a sign of guilt or having anything to hide. Which is what they are saying about all of the people being questioned by Congressman Comer’s committee looking into the Biden Autopen scandal and his cognitive abilities who are not answering questions by falling back on their rights under the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination.
JR, a constituent in the 17th Congressional District said, “This is the usual double standard that the Democrats live by. If a Democrat does something, it’s okay. If a Republican does or is accused of the same thing, it’s criminal and a threat to our Constitutional Republic.”
The problem is that there is no solid forensic evidence that the alleged phone number belongs to Crowley. Lawler’s office has not commented on this accusation.
In an interview Vashi said that Lawler went on Fox a bit before that town hall and was saying that, you know, there was expected to be chaos, which there was, and, as you mentioned, Indivisible, they do plan to organize and make their voices heard at these things, and they had signaled.
The first three town halls Lawler held had protestors from Indivisible Rockland and Westchester creating havoc and chaos to the point where people had to be physically removed from the event for disrupting and not following the rules set down at the beginning of the event even before Lawler’s opening statement and questions. They also did not comply with and defied law enforcement requests to peacefully leave. So, his stating that they were expecting chaos was a legitimate concern.
The interviewer asked, “Who was saying it was Crowley, and you know I think as he mentioned in that article it was showing up as Jake Thomas? It was then pointed out that her name and number can be spoofed and that the phone numbers alone are not definitive proof.”
She acknowledged the possibility stating, “Oh of course, of course, and I think that’s, you know, that’s why even in our press releases we say alleged.”
Morrissey, a retired educator from Mount Kisco, teamed up with Ann Starer to launch Fight Lawler, a grassroots group aimed at holding Rep. Lawler accountable for what they say are his inconsistent positions—on immigration, the SAVE Act (voter laws), and federal programs—calling him “obfuscates” and “anti‑immigrant”.
Lawler in a press release counters this position. “Now, onto the substance of their false attacks. Let me be crystal clear: I have consistently lived up to my pledge never to cut Medicare or Social Security. In fact, last Congress, I helped champion passage of the Social Security Fairness Act to end the unfair reduction of benefits for millions of Americans, including teachers and police officers. Now, they are collecting more of their hard-earned money to help with their retirement.”
He added, “Likewise, I will never cast a vote that takes Medicaid away from eligible recipients who rely on this vital program, such as seniors, children, the intellectually and developmentally disabled, single mothers and families facing tough times. Rather, my commitment has always been to strengthen these programs by cracking down on scam artists exploiting them at taxpayer expense.”
A person who said they have followed Congressman Lawler, and asked not to be named because of the possibility of being doxed and physically attacked as people have been across the country, since he was running for the New York State Assembly and has been to his town hall meetings, said, “The one thing I can say about Congressman Lawler is that he has not been inconsistent in his views and answers to questions. All someone has to do is watch all of the interviews he has done, including with the local media and they will see that accusations of inconsistency of his positions are, to use the current vernacular, “fake news”. He is not anti-LEGAL immigrant. He is anti-ILLEGAL immigrant.
Another point that was made is that if Crowley is a paid Lawler staff member, why would she take a chance on losing her job by inciting people to cause havoc and chaos at one of his town halls? It doesn’t make any sense.
The person added, “He has fought for the people of his district, whether in the NYS Assembly or in Congress. There is a phrase, half a loaf is better than none. This refers to the idea of compromise, something the people on the left don’t understand. The one thing that people don’t understand about our government, on any level, is that this is the way it works. You go in asking for the world and you hope to come out with at least one continent. Sometimes you can’t get everything you want, but you get the best you can for your constituents. They also say that, if people come out of a negotiation and no one is completely happy with the end product, it is a good and fair deal.”
If you look at the news you find that the problem is that there are people out there who believe that you have to go into a negotiation with the idea of all or nothing and if you make a deal and don’t get everything you said you were shooting for then you are inconsistent and have betrayed your constituents.
In an interview Morrissey spoke about the Crowley situation. She constantly pointed to the Wilson article. When asked if they gave Mr. Wilson any kind of proof, any pictures, that kind of stuff, she replied, “His article delineated out everything that we gave him. Yes, we gave him, we showed him the proof, and he did his own digging. So yes, absolutely we have proof of everything that’s in that article.”
She continually refused to show the “proof” they claim they have that it was actually Erin Crowley and not Jake Thomas “infiltrating” the chat.
After being asked again if she had pictures and data and logs and why he doesn’t put that up because the only words they use are allegations and allegedly. Her response can be interpreted, that this is simply a political hit job. “I think that’s a legality thing and yes, we have everything, but unless it comes down to a legal issue, which I’m kind of hoping it does. We’re kind of hoping this blows up and takes Erin Crowley down and Mike Lawler with her. So yes, we have everything. We’re holding on to it close to the vest until it’s needed to accomplish our goal.”
Starer says, in a story by Jessee King of WAMC, Northeast Public Radio, she initially didn’t think anything of it, except that she didn’t think walking out was a good idea. But while the messages she saw appeared to be from Thomas, another member of the group already had the phone number associated with Thomas’ account in her contacts, so his Signal messages showed up on her screen with another name: Putnam County Legislator Erin Crowley. Crowley, a Republican, has been Lawler’s deputy district director in Carmel since 2023. Starer says she remembers seeing Crowley at that town hall, and others in the group recalled seeing Crowley point at individuals in the crowd for removal.
When questioned about the possible motive for this attack by King, a constituent said, “This seems like a bitter radio personality who is upset about the fact that their federal cash flow has been stopped by President Trump as of a May 1, 2025, executive order.”
Lenny Harrington, who is running against Crowley for her seat in the Putnam County Legislature, said in a letter to the editor of the Mid-Hudson News, “I am deeply troubled by the allegations that Erin Crowley, Putnam County legislator and Congressman Michael Lawler’s deputy district director, used a fake name to infiltrate a private Signal group chat and then urged disorderly behavior by members of our community at Congressman Lawler’s Town Hall meeting. The actions that have been reported show a shocking lack of integrity.”
The question was posed, “Why at the same time conveniently would Lenny Harrington write a letter to the editor that would be in the Mid-Hudson news. So as a third party, you can see it looks very suspicious. It sounds like a political, you understand what I’m saying, a political hit job.”
Morrissey’s answer can lend credence to the political hit job possibility. “I do 100%. We don’t really care what it looks like at this point, and Lenny was not the only one who’s running against Lawler who put things out there. You can search for other, you know, possible candidates who’ve also shared this in the emails, but we don’t really care what it looks like at this point. We’re not worried about it. And yes, again, the third party would probably be useful and hopefully when it gets to that point where legal issues are needed to be addressed.
Yeah, that’s what I was saying that would be like a slam dunk for you then I guess it wouldn’t be like for me saying oh that looks very suspicious and all that kind of stuff,
“We have the slam dunk whether you know whether it goes anywhere. I mean that remains to be seen, but we’re trying to make it go somewhere, so we have the dunk.”
In order to get into a chat group, you have to be vetted and accepted, if they were suspicious of the number as being Crowley’s and they knew the numbers, like how was she able to that easily get in and why did they accept it?
“Yeah, I, I like I said, the details we’re going to hold on to for now, but it was definitely human error. It was definitely a mistake, obviously.”
She very abruptly ended the conversation when directly questioned about how this just looks too much like a political hit job, you know, by all the anti-Lawler groups.
“I’m going to end this conversation because I’m in the middle of things, but we don’t care what it looks like because we have the evidence. I can’t emphasize that enough to you and anyone else who asks. We don’t care what it looks like.”
When pressed to present the evidence she had she again fell back on the Wilson article and refused to give their “proof”. “Everything that we’re willing to share at this point is in Dave Wilson’s article. We’re hoping it blows up. We’re hoping there’s more to share.”
The Wilson article did not present evidence, phone number or other solid proof either. “This is akin to the Russia hoax in 2017. The Democrats claimed they had a ton of evidence that Trump was colluding with Russia to win the election. In reality, they had NO proof of any collusion between Russia and Trump. If they really have actual evidence of Crowley being the one who made the call and not this Jake Thomas, then why hold onto it and not be transparent like they ask Lawler to be and open it up to the public?” said a constituent.
The story began with a Lohud article by columnist David McKay Wilson, citing claims by Maureen Morrissey and Emily Feiner, co-founders of the “Fight Lawler” group, which is affiliated with Indivisible Rockland and Indivisible Westchester.
According to the group, a user registered on the site under the alias “Jake Thomas” using a phone number that activists say raised red flags. Feiner claimed she questioned the user multiple times about their identity, suspecting the number belonged either to someone in Lawler’s office or to Democratic candidate Liz Crowley. However, the user was still granted access.
Morrissey later admitted that the mistake was due to “personal error” in oversight — not Feiner’s — further complicating the narrative.
In a press release, despite the lack of forensic evidence, the article was picked up by Politico, Newsbreak, which echoed the original Lohud reporting without conducting independent investigations. When a reader asked Wilson how he verified the claims, he reportedly said the site was “not sophisticated” and “co-founded by two suburban retired women,” adding that the verification system was flawed.
Meanwhile, Wilson’s own professionalism came under question after a video surfaced on Facebook via Putnam County Uncensored, showing him and candidate Lenny Harrington — who is running against Crowley — at a recent Putnam County Legislature meeting. In the video, both men appeared engaged in behavior that some described as unprofessional, prompting one commenter to write that it looked like “amateur night.”
The constituent also feels that the timing of the Lenny Harrington letter to the editor was not continental. “It was designed to raise his profile but also left him open to criticism for echoing unverified claims in an effort to take down his opponent for the Putnam County Legislature seat, Erin Crowley.”
Whereas our system was built on differences of opinion, the current opposition has created a toxic political climate where truth is less important than narrative and anyone involved in local government can become a target overnight. Voters say they no longer trust which voices are generally community driven and which are coordinated opposing political efforts in disguise as reality. The lack of transparency about the source and failure to identify that Fight Lawler founders were political activists has left readers questioning media’s objectivity. The Crowley accusations have sparked public doubts in the middle of a local campaign.
This is a continuing investigation and as information is gathered and presented further stories will be written.