Libertarian chair resigns under embezzling cloud to take job in Trump administration

The chair of the Libertarian Party's National Committee suddenly resigned last month as embezzling allegations swirled around her — and she quickly accepted a job in Donald Trump's administration.

Angela McArdle stepped down from the national organization on January 24, three days after Jack Porter, a former Libertarian candidate for Iowa governor, went public with his investigation into a company called Freedom Calls LLC. He claims the party chair had used it to direct more than $45,000 in party funds to her domestic partner Austin Padget, who had apparently set up the company, reported Reason.

"Porter discovered that McArdle's domestic partner and father of her child, Austin Padgett, was the incorporator of record for that entity," Reason reported. "The operation's website says it offers phone banking, canvassing, and website and email services, but the 'Who are you?' squib merely says they are 'a radical group of individuals who've come together to change the system. We are futurists. The tech industry is full of disrupters and secret dissidents.' No names are provided. Porter says he could find no Federal Elections Commission records of any other entities paying Freedom Calls."

"The LNC had previously decided to suspend a series of monthly payments directly to Padgett in January 2024," Reason added. "The payments to Freedom Calls began the following month."

The party requires that contracts or agreements for payments with legal relatives, domestic partners and business associates be disclosed to the committee and then approved by a vote, which didn't happen in this case. McArdle levied a series of accusations against other party members on her way out the door before eventually finding herself a job with the Trump administration.

"The LNC is reacting as best they can in the face of constant attacks by unstable litigants like Caryn Ann Harlos, and my cyber stalkers Todd Hagopian and Jake Porter," McArdle told Reason in a statement. "I have retained an attorney to deal with the aggressive cyberstalking by these men."

"I will be working with new appointees in the Trump administration to find out if the FBI and State Dept have been involved in the attacks on the LP and me," McArdle added. "There are lots of unclassified documents on Reason Magazine and yourself, Brian Dougherty [sic], in the State Dept archives. We know the feds have a strong interest in disrupting the Libertarian movement, especially at a moment like now when we have freed Ross Ulbricht - the biggest political victory the LP has ever achieved."

McArdle claims that she persuaded Trump to pardon Ulbricht, the founder of the Silk Road online black market, and she angered other Libertarians last spring by inviting the now president to speak at their national convention.