One of the greatest movies ever made is a Billy Wilder film called Stalag 17. In it a character named Sergeant Sefton in a POW camp is accused of being a German spy. Sergeant Sefton sustains a mass beating after suspicions boil over when an attempted escape leads to the death of one of the POW's. The real traitor partaking in the mass beating knew full well it was he himself who intentionally led to the death of the POW. In the film Sargent Sefton is tasked with finding the real spy all while being fingered himself for the crime, knowing that if he doesn't find out who it is, not only will he be continued to be accused, but others are going to die at the enemies hands. This weekend I witnessed a figurative mass beating of innocent freedom fighters by those, who if being honest about their intent, would have their back.
A close friend reached out to me about a very disconcerting podcast put out by a man I had previously considered to be another close friend, Jason Preston. I started to listen to the podcast and within minutes I noticed outright lies and misstatements of a historical nature that were intended to align proponents of an infrastructure and housing development with the mobs that killed Joseph Smith and ran the Saints out of the United States. My annoyance at historical inaccuracies turned to disgust as Jason Preston and his guest continued to distort, attack, and lie about good people I knew. Before the end of the podcast the absolute revolting darkness and lies being intentionally pushed made me physically ill. It was clear that whatever passionate virtues and movements Jason Preston claimed to espouse, he was only doing so as to weaponize against the very people who have been maligned by sinister forces for actually taking a stand. In the revolting and somewhat incoherent rant put forth on this podcast, Jason Preston and his guest both went out of their way to attack Greg Hughes, Greg Hartley, and Julie Fullmer. The podcast was rife with contradictions, distortions, and outright lies. Each one of those needs to be looked into in more detail than I can do justice, but it's important to call out as best I can.
I need to apologize to my friends, neighbors, and fellow freedom fighters. For quite sometime close friends I trust have been warning me about Jason Preston. Close and trusted friends warned me that he wasn't what he really seemed, that his rhetoric was misguided, and that he may have ulterior motives. I ignored the warnings and continued to support Jason Preston both as a candidate in the CD3 race and as political commentator.
I supported Jason Preston in his race against John Curtis as much as I knew how. John Curtis is one of the most abhorrent elected officials in this country's history and anyone stepping up to challenge that would immediately earn my consideration. I introduced Jason Preston. I advocated for him publicly and privately. I volunteered at events. I found Jason Preston to be a very passionate and seemingly sincere advocate of positions that aligned with my own. I continued to ignore warnings as Jason Preston would always take my calls and continued to make passionate public policy positions.
It's not that Jason Preston isn't measured or careful about what he says. This year I witnessed first hand that he is very measured and very intentional about what he says. He isn't some misguided hothead who has some warped views. Jason is clearly going out of his way to co-opt positions and ideologies, only then to use whatever trust he's gained to attack and lie about anyone who might act on those policies for meaningful change. When kicking off his CD3 race, Jason Preston called out the efforts of the CCP to dominate American markets and the administrative threats to anyone in America to counter those efforts. He's actively called out how Utah is owned by the federal government and overreach. He's called out lockdowns and mask mandates. Since Jason Preston's CD3 race he has consistently gone after and defamed any effort to advance infrastructure that would make Utah competitive in the economic onslaught being waged on the working class. I don't presume to know the entirety of his motives but it's clear he's not acting out of the positions he has claimed to espouse. He's actively advancing the same policy positions as America's China Class and the America Last positions dedicated to eradicating America's middle class.
The narrative put forward in the podcast by Jacob Holdaway and Jason Preston is hard to follow. The points I could gather were:
Jacob Holdaway owns land along Utah Lake that he wants to donate under the auspices of conservation as long as he can still do what he wants with the land.
Julie Fullmer is actively advocating for a development project on Utah Lake. (as she has multiple development efforts in Vineyard not mentioned in the podcast e.g. Top Golf)
Greg Hartley was recruited by the project to help guide the project through the nuances of needed government involvement at the state and federal level.
Greg Hartley knows and has worked with Greg Hughes.
Those pursuing the project were actively working to get as much federal, local, and private support as possible to make the project a success.
There are competing views about the desirability and viability of the project, only one of which is given anytime.
I will need to go into more detail about all these but we need to take a closer look at what Jason Preston said about Greg Hughes. First it's unclear why either of the men keep bringing up Greg Hughes as he's not directly involved in the project in any way. Yet, Greg Hughes is mentioned 11 times. Jason Preston deliberately and intentionally attacks Greg Hughes to defame him on SB54, the Inland Port, his lobbying efforts, his conservative principles and his support of President Trump.
On SB54 Jason Preston claimed that it was passed while Greg Hughes was Speaker of the House. While a bill with that designation SB54 was up for a vote while Greg Hughes was Speaker of the House in 2018. It was about Marriage and Premarital Counseling and Education amendments. I doubt that's what Jason Preston had in mind. I suspect what Jason Preston was attempting to refer to was SB54 from 2014 when Greg Hughes wasn't Speaker of the House. Jason Preston was clearly lying about this. What he doesn't go into detail about (because he doesn't on anything he just asserts his off the cuff accusations as true) is what SB54 2014 was and Greg Hughes' efforts to preserve the caucus system. SB54 2014 was an effort to compromise on the well funded CMV (Count My Vote) to preserve the caucus systems. After exhaustive steps were made to eliminate the caucus from a well funded signature gathering effort SB54 was an attempt however to keep the caucus in place and let the parties decide how nominations are made. Phil Wright will attest to what happened afterwards both as Vice Chair of the Utah GOP and the director of Keep My Voice.
"In 2016 when I was Vice Chair of the Utah GOP, Greg Hughes tried to broker a deal with Herbert to repeal SB54. I was working with him, but Herbert refused to budge. Greg is a great guy, a friend of the caucus system and would sign a repeal of SB 54 if elected Governor." Phil Wright
Greg Hughes has never even declared intent to collect signatures for any office he's sought. No one in the state running for any office has been as unequivocal on the subject and backed it up with their actions like Greg Hughes. Unlike Jason Preston who declared intent to collect signatures for his Congressional race to get on the ballot. Jason Preston is deliberately and intentionally lying about this to defame him.
Jason Preston references the Inland Port. He claims Greg Hughes was "removed" from the Inland Port Commission at a time when there was "corruption". Again another defaming lie by Jason Preston. Greg Hughes was never sworn in as a member of this board. He did a look up and found a property he owned was within a 5 mile boundary that would preclude him from serving on the board. Greg Hughes appointed someone else to serve upon the discovery. The Inland Port is something Jason Preston likes to vilify as an evil globalist conspiracy. What he doesn't explain is why evil globalists are so vehemently against the inland port. The Inland Port, like the Erie Canal and the Transcontinental RailRoad, is a vital effort to advance the logistics infrastructure in this country and promote working class jobs across the entire country. Utah has rail lines to every west coast port. Making Utah the key to pushing goods to the Pacific as aggressively as goods have been pushed from the Pacific. Jason Preston uses hot button issues to gain trust and following, then goes on to promote America Last policies in Utah. Jason's second home in Florida has ports, but it's apparently only bad when Utah does it.
One of the most outrageous and disturbing attacks on Greg Hughes and the one I have the most first hand account of is his continuous and relentless support of President Trump.
Jason Preston quote
"Greg Hughes I mean I gotta tell you how all the stuff behind Greg Hughes for the conservatives out there who who just went well he ran pro-trump how do you address all these other things right and what are we going to do is turn a blind eye and say well we're going to just pretend because he says the right things I'm tired of politicians who talk the talk when it's expedient to get in office"
This quote from Jason Preston, as incoherent babbling as it is, is an extreme and outrageous insult not only to Greg Hughes, but his supporters as well. It's completely detached from reality and exposes Jason Preston for who he really is. Greg Hughes has built up a loyal following because of the positions he has taken and the actions he’s followed up with to instantiate those positions.
In 2016 being a Trump supporter in the state of Utah was very dangerous. Not just politically but physically as well. Antifa thugs were after anyone wearing a MAGA hat and they were egged on by the far left, the establishment GOP, and the grassroots GOP. Donald Trump had come in third with 14% percent of the caucus vote. Utah's delegation to the 2016 National GOP Convention made a spectacle of themselves yelling on the floor in an effort to stop Trump from being the nominee. A delegation who, at the time, went out of its way, for the first time anyone can remember, to exclude the current Speaker of the House because he was unapologetic and brazenly supporting Trump. The Lieutenant Governor, Spencer Cox, was tweeting whatever berating insults his wife could come up with. Mike Lee had come out in support of Evan McMullin. Jason Chaffetz had disappeared after the Access Hollywood tape surfaced. Utah's suppression pollsters were predicting a win for Evan McMullin in the Presidential race, denying Trump Utah's electoral votes and aiding Hillary Clinton's efforts to take the White House. Mike Pence was holding a rally on October 26th, 2016. There was a stack of signs just inside the doors that read "TRUMP HERBERT 2016" signs they weren't handing out, because Governor Herbert had denounced any support of President Trump. That's when I learned who Greg Hughes was. He was there, he spoke and he was the highest elected official in the state still backing Trump and he wasn't shy about it either. Trump won, but that wasn't the last we heard of Greg Hughes backing Trump when it was dangerous.
The second time I saw Greg Hughes was at a protest event outside Ben McAdams' office after McAdams had voted to impeach President Trump. Greg Hughes was there with Greg Hartley and a bullhorn. I got there late because I had to leave work to attend. There were groups of small Trump supporters, but they weren't alone. A well funded left wing counter protesters with freshly printed signs that read "I'm a Republican and I support Impeachment" There was plenty of regime media there as well to cover the event. I engaged with a few of these people holding signs. It became clear that people holding these signs weren't Republicans. This was a coordinated effort to suppress and downplay any Trump support in the state of Utah. The few Trump supporters that could take off work on short notice and make a public showing was miniscule but it was enough to concern the establishment that they had as many people up there to upstage the event as possible. Everything was being done to downplay Trump's support and attack anyone supporting President Trump, especially Greg Hughes. Who was the focal point and target of the subsequent regime media hit pieces. This protest was small but it was a lot more consequential than people realized. It showed that Trump had grassroots support in this state and they were willing to act. I would later learn after this Greg Hughes would lose major donors from backing any efforts of his in the future. The word was out, stop Greg Hughes.
The third time I encountered Greg Hughes was shortly after he announced his campaign for governor. There was a small meeting held on a Saturday morning. My wife got a text about it that day. I explained to her "this is the guy" she didn't know what I meant and was confused why I was making signs. We showed up with signs that read "Hughes Trump 2020" and "Hughes for Governor '' Sarah wore her new KAG hat. Greg Hughes was introduced by Chris Herrod and there were about 20 people. We were the only ones with visible support for President Trump and Greg Hughes. It was in that meeting I brought up that Greg Hughes was the highest ranking elected official in the state to support Trump in 2016. It's important to note Greg Hughes didn't bring that up, his staff didn't, no one else there did. I was the only one to bring that up. I would later learn of a lot of things Greg Hughes did for the state of Utah that I was really appreciative of but didn't know he was the one who did it. It's important to note that there wasn't some coordinated politico effort to highlight this when I showed up. As far as I could tell, in the 2020 governor’s race, I was the first person to bring up that Greg Hughes was the highest ranking elected official to support Trump in 2016. It wasn’t Greg Hughes, it was an over opinionated county delegate whose political experience to that point was to volunteer for Mike Kennedy’s bid against Romney and picketing Mitt Romney's campaign events two years prior.
Greg Hughes has never relented on his support of President Trump. In 2020 he went to Clark County Nevada to go door to door to find and expose voter fraud to no fanfare. He hosted Steve Christiansen on the largest local radio talk show in the state to bring up election audits in Utah based on what Steve Christiansen had observed in the audits in Arizona. Last week Greg Hughes was on the radio calling out the political prosecution of President Trump.
This narrative of political expediency for Greg Hughes' relentless support of President Trump is a concocted one that ignores what anyone supporting Trump in the last 8 years has gone through. Jason Preston is more than ignorant of this; he strings people along and finds ways of attacking using the same talking points by the likes of Spencer Cox and Aimee Winder Newton. The closer anyone looks, the more the pattern emerges.
Another interesting target of Jason Preston's tirade is Julie Fullmer. I don't know Julie Fullmer as well, but from the start it's clear both Jacob Holdaway and Jason Preston are lying about who she is and what she's doing. Jake Holdaway makes a very specific point of Vineyard being a "small little city" or "small little Vineyard" No where does Jason Preston or Jacob Holdaway ever mention that Vineyard has grown over 10,000% in the last ten years. It's one of the fastest growing cities on the planet. No where does this come up, not even once. It is evident there is a targeted narrative that is intentionally deceptive. What should a mayor be doing when you have a city with over 10,000% growth? You need to maximize economic and infrastructure development as much as possible. Julie Fullmer has done exactly this. She has to, if she doesn't Vineyard will turn into a dilapidated area once the economic winds in the area change and the city will be left without the ability to provide critical resources such as police, fire, roads, etc. Failed boom towns are very real. When North Dakota's population boom happened there wasn't housing, hospitals, or roads. You can see all throughout California and cities like Detroit how awful failed cities without infrastructure or economic opportunity become. You don't have a thriving city, you end up with a ghetto. Julie Fullmer is employing whatever means necessary to make sure that doesn't happen. Whether it's encouraging the opening of Top Golf or pursuing every infrastructure development possible to keep the city a float. It's clear from the attacks on Julie Fullmer she is pursuing every avenue possible to advance her city's infrastructure and economic development as possible. We aren't used to elected officials doing this, but before America was decimated with lopsided free trade agreements and open borders meant to undercut the working class that's what elected officials did. That's what Donald Trump and the America First movement is about. So why is Jason Preston attacking it?
How do I know who Julie Fullmer is? Julie Fullmer first came to my attention in 2020 at the height of the COVID lockdowns. We were locked down in the second half of March 2020, the two weeks to slow the spread had passed in April and it became evident that the actions being taken weren't about public health. They were about control. In April of 2020 a former police officer led a protest event, shortly after one mayor stepped up to host an event in their city. That mayor? Julie Fullmer. People were being arrested for being public alone. It wasn't a safe move, so in violation of county health orders Julie Fullmer stepped up and didn't flinch; she stood to the lockdown measures more than any elected official in the state. She teamed up and led the most successful protest event in state history. I document subsequent efforts to stop anyone trying what Julie Fullmer did in my blog titled "A Disturbing Anniversary" . Julie Fullmer didn't stop after that. She hosted more events with threats to her and her city from the administrative state. She never backed down. She even confronted them to their face when they tried encroaching on one of the protest events. No one in the state has walked the walk on standing up for individual liberty more than Julie Fullmer. A lot of people have opinions, especially after the fact, but no one Utah comes close to doing what she did. There was nothing politically expedient about it and she's still on the radar today as someone who won’t cave to regime demands. Is this why she's being targeted by Jason Preston?
What about Greg Hartley? This is the guy that so connected to Greg Hughes that Jason Preston thought he needed to bring him up over and over. If you're going to pursue a massive and complex development project that requires navigation through the myriad of government obstacles and hoops you need someone that knows what they are doing. Hiring Greg Hartley doesn't make you a criminal, it makes you smart. No one knows that space better than Greg Hartley. He's a great guy and his connection to Greg Hughes only instantiates that. You can disagree with him, but don’t label his involvement as criminal because of that disagreement. That's what the cabal is doing to Donald Trump.
Who is this Jacob Holdaway? He goes on at length to tell you who his parents and grandparents are. That's enough right? Let's evoke Kirtland and Nauvoo. Not confiscated by the feds by the way, he just made that up, run out by mobs, something completely different. He's setting the stage to connect people's pioneer ancestry with his efforts on the property. What are his efforts? He tells you in Jason Preston's podcast. He wants to donate his property and still do what he wants with it. Seems like he wants to keep it and not pay taxes on it like the rest of us, in addition to the tax deduction from the donation. It's clear what he's about. Takeaway the veneer and listen closely you can hear him giggle about his little scam. He contradicts himself over and over in his narrative. Jason Preston seems eager to label everyone else a criminal but not point out any of the contradictions in his story. He states he first learns of the project when he gets leaked documents in 2022. Then goes on to talk about billboards up about it in 2020. The first bill related to it passed, publicly, in 2017. It was being widely discussed in 2018. I asked elected officials about it as a county delegate. At the end of the podcast he says he just wants to meet with someone, after telling you over and over about his meetings with elected officials and people involved in the project. Pulling up random letters saying elected officials had no idea what was happening, then saying they were silent. He mumbles and his way in and out of different stories it becomes impossible to tell what incident he's talking about at any given time. This looks intentional, like he's deliberately mixing certain events to make it seem more dubious than it is. Jacob Holdaway even lets slip a mention of Spencer Cox in this podcast with Jason. That someone mentioned to him he could trust someone because they were appointed by Spencer Cox. That should give you insight on who we are dealing with. The extreme irony shouldn't be lost that while Jason Preston is talking about political expediency and what politicians will say, they both fail to mention that Jacob Holdaway is in fact running for political office himself. The city council of Vineyard. Talk about conflict of interest. He's trying to keep control of real estate while not paying taxes on it and maximize his own tax deduction. Jason Preston and Jacob Holdaway are clearly lying about their intentions here. That's when they both start to get sanctimonious about their hoodwink they are pushing on people.
Stalag 17 is one of the greatest movies ever made. In it you can see parallels between the suspected traitors fingered as being so by the traitors themselves. We need to pay closer attention to those that would build up our trust then go on to attack those who have earned it through their actions. Clearly the trust Jason Preston has worked to build up in Utah’s grassroots movement is being used to attack actual freedom fighters in our state. The question is why? We need to take a much closer look at Jason Preston what he does after he triggers Spencer Cox, he then goes on to attack Spencer Cox’s opposition. Who is Jason Preston and what is his real agenda?