The Romney blackmail plot: More evidence, more theory

Well, we've made a couple of small breakthroughs regarding the great scheme to blackmail Mitt Romney over the tax returns that were allegedly stolen from a PriceWaterhouseCooper in Tennessee. (If you're not up to speed, read the immediately preceding post.) I have a strong suspicion as to who engineered this scheme -- and what his true motives might be.

Inside those offices. As luck would have it, a Cannonfire reader -- "ANonOMouse" -- worked in those very offices.

I have no theory about what happened or even if it happened as it's being reported, but I worked in that complex of buildings and the security there is minimal.

The outside doors are key card after business hours and keypad inside doors. Not all inside doors have keypads, some just standard door locks.

I've watched people walk into those building after hours by simply following the key card holder in front of them. It's not exactly where I'd think Mitt Romney would hide his tax returns which may be why they were there.

There are YouTube videos on defeating keypad locks. However, a burglar would still have to know where to find the files; as noted in our previous post, those PWC offices are surprisingly disorganized. One report holds that very important tax documents would likely be digitized and encrypted.

For the reasons listed in our preceding post, I still think that this is an inside job -- that our burglar is actually an accountant or an office worker. An inside job would explain why investigators have seen no hint of a break-in. Even a hoaxer would have to know something about how that office building operates.

Moreover, I think that the person who took those documents (presuming that he is not a hoaxer) is not motivated by money.

Mormon signals. I've identified the recognition signals published in the online messages on PasteBin. Those signals were:

1.all these considerations did not deter me from the path of duty
2.he moment I understood the will of my Heavenly Father

These words come from a famous (to Mormons) passage in the journals of Heber C. Kimball, the revered early leader of the LDS movement. An alleged visionary and prophet in his own right, Kimball led the first overseas Mormon mission in 1837. Here's the full quote:

However, all these considerations did not deter me from the path of duty; the moment I understood the will of my Heavenly Father, I felt a determination to go at all hazards, believing that he would support me by his almighty power, and endow me with every qualification that I needed; and although my family was dear to me, and I should have to leave them almost destitute, I felt that the cause of truth, the Gospel of Christ, outweighed every other consideration.

This text may give us an important clue to the mind-set of the person who engineered this little scheme. I suspect that his motive is not money. He seems to understand that he could pay an enormous personal price for this stunt. It is quite possible that we're dealing with a man driven by a cause -- a cause that, in Kimball's words, outweighs every other consideration.

So why would such a man go to great lengths to create that impression that he is both apolitical and motivated by greed? In part, he hopes to disguise himself; in part, he hopes to expose the true Mitt Romney. Consider: What would happen if Romney offered to pay up? It doesn't matter if the Pastebin messages represent a hoax or a genuine threat; if Romney offers to settle, he will damn himself.

If I were investigating this caper, my first task would be to determine if anyone in that PWC office is, or was, a Mormon. True, a non-Mormon might know of the Kimball quote, but it is much more likely that those words would have emotional weight only for someone raised in the LDS church.

During this campaign season, we've all learned that there is a surprising amount of infighting and resentment within the LDS community, especially over the issue of tithing. These conflicts usually remain hidden from "the Gentiles." Now that we have our first Mormon presidential nominee -- not counting Joseph Smith! -- internal spats will inevitably become public.