Koch Industries' New-Found Crew Fan Wants You To Know She'd Never Travel More Than 50 Miles with Niraj Antani
Koch Industries' New-Found Crew Fan Wants You To Know She'd Never Travel More Than 50 Miles with Niraj Antani
Cheyenne Foster would prefer we don't talk about her day job, but questions remain.
There’s a specter haunting Columbus—the specter of a D.C. United Fan and Koch Industries flunky trying to bamboozle Crew fans into thinking she’s on our side:
Ohioans will be pleased to know while they spent the pandemic working and trying to dodge the failed public health policies of our state government, a D.C. swamp figure was busy composing a ballad of a soccer chant. No wonder she was “unsure how to share it with y’all” in the era of social media.
Long-time readers of the Rooster might remember Cheyenne Foster from a previous dispatch by our industrious correspondent Max Littman, who wondered if she violated state ethics laws when she, an unregistered lobbyist in the state of Ohio, toured two MLS stadiums on the same day with one of the state’s most revolting state senators.
It was something I had tried to forget until yesterday:
Everything about this statement is wrong, right down to the accusation we “complimented” her soccer vlogging.
I don’t hate Niraj. I detest him. Correspondent Littman accurately reported that Foster was a federal lobbyist before noting she was unregistered in Ohio which means anything outside of random soccer chatter with a sitting state senator would be a states ethics violation.
Littman asked about the origin of the two-city trip and was instantly blocked.
The Rooster once again attempted to get to the bottom of the case yesterday when the good name of the humble newsletter was besmirched by somebody who works for “the most elaborate, comprehensive dip into American politics since Standard Oil and the robber barons a century ago,” according to University of Minnesota political scientist Larry Jacobs.
What follows is an equally passive-aggressive email exchange and some commentary from yours truly.
Ms. Foster —
Thank you for your attention to this pressing matter. Naturally as a citizen of Ohio, you can understand my alarm at the prospect of one of the state's senators potentially violating state ethics laws and I was hoping you could assuage some of my fears about our good friend Niraj Antani.
Feel free to answer any combo or none at all. I won't finish writing until 10 p.m. ET tonight (8/23).
1. How long have you known Niraj Antani, whom you describe as an acquaintance?
2. Were you representing yourself or your employer during your visit to Cincinnati and Columbus' soccer stadiums with Niraj?
3. Who paid for your plane tickets?
4. What did you guys talk about while you visited?
5. How did the trip come to be?
Lastly, this doesn't relate to Niraj but to the overall theme of the article:
6. How did you come to shoot a music video on the Crew's new field? Specifically, who in the front office granted that permission, and did you pay for the privilege?
Thank you for your attention on this matter,
D.J. Byrnes
God forgive me for saying “thank you for your attention” in the first and last sentence of the opening salvo. In my defense I didn’t think she would ever answer. But she did!
Thank you DJ. In reading through this, I realize the term “good friend Niraj Antani” is a bit misleading, as I’ve read The Rooster Newsletter refer to him as the following:
“with a ten-cent haircut”
“known sex pest”
“anti-vax”
“hated by everyone”
The Rooster has also published phrases that describe their bloggers as having “disgust for this cretin.”
Let the record show that when I say “my good friend Niraj Antani,” what I really mean is, “I’ll see that poorly-tailored bum in the darkest pits of Hell!”
Speaking on behalf of myself and my YouTube channel only, if those statements above were proven true, I don’t think either of us would/should refer to him as a “good friend.”
Good to know that the allegations — "“if they’re true” — wouldn’t prevent her from calling him a good friend during her day job, which once again is lobbying for a right-wing criminal syndicate.
Niraj is a personal acquaintance that, per your findings on Twitter, I met in 2012.
God, this is getting brutal for our boy Niraj. He claimed she “flew out to see him” (more on that later) but she’s suddenly pretending that I’m the one who reminded her of where she met this odious man:
Somehow, her response gets better. We’re about to see how a professional bullshit artist gets away with bamboozling journalists that attend their same cocktail circuit.
I represent only myself and my YouTube channel in my travels for soccer, including the trip in question (and for all statements made in this email). I travel to Ohio often and was very excited to tour both stadiums, as I’ve toured several other MLS stadiums in this capacity. I’ve explained in videos that it’s as simple as a cold call/email to front offices to coordinate them. That kind of access isn’t as coveted as you’d think (great news for an amateur vlogger like myself). Niraj and I were able to attend at the same time but I did not fly out specifically for it/him as his tweet suggests.
I had other meetings on the trip related to my upcoming video at Historic Crew Stadium. Molly who works in PR for the Crew was very kind to work with me on this project and when I traveled back to Columbus in August, and the front office even provided stadium ops staff to help me on the day of shooting. I, as “Between Clean Sheets” have established enough of a rapport to work on creative content like this and I feel blessed to do so.
Soccer was the only topic at hand among Niraj and I and per state law, no ethics were violated as I was there in a personal/soccer capacity, paid for all my own travel and meals, and never traveled with Niraj personally (more than 50 miles is the threshold for an ethics violation).
I appreciate a citizen’s concern and as an advocate for free speech, I commend the blogging of your findings. But more than anything, I’m happy to clear up any of your concerns and get you back to more important matters.
Ah, that old P.R. classic: Trying to bury the opposition in a avalanche of word salad before trying to sneak the football over the goal line while the ref is looking the other way.
It is a violation of state ethics for an unregistered lobbyist and a sitting state senator to discuss anything related to their day jobs. After that robust defense of her own her humble vlogging career, I’m honestly to believe that these two political careerists discussed nothing other than soccer during their two spontaneous tours of Ohio’s newest MLS stadiums, that are separated by 106 miles, on the same day?
I wanted to make sure I had the story right:
So you didnt travel with him to Cincinnati and back? Last question I promise.
She wanted me to know she would never be caught dead traveling more than 50 miles in a car with Senator Antani.
As stated in the first reply, to travel with him more than 50 miles would be an ethics violation. I traveled alone, rented my own vehicle; coordinated all my own travel, both between cities and within each city. And on top of that, my travel was specific to my work in soccer.
Thank you,
Cheyenne
This is the arrogance we get from scumbag lobbyists when we let money run wild in politics.
Oh, traveling more than 50 miles with a state senator? Don’t be preposterous, haha, that would be an ethics violation! Totally not suspicious that I have that figure memorized, either.
We’re to believe Niraj Antani, sitting State Senator, and an unregistered Koch Lobbyist, who have known each other, admittedly, since at least 2012, coincidentally appeared in two MLS stadiums on the same day after traveling separately for at least 212 miles.
No, that clearly didn’t happen, because that would be an ethics violation.
So did you fly into Columbus and meet him in Cincinnati or vice versa and traveled on your own between the two locales? Why do you think he used the verbage that you “flew in to come with”?
Look how happy Niraj looks. I almost felt bad for him reading the verdict:
I’m really unsure what he meant by his tweet, honestly. And I expressed that to him. But I flew in/out of Columbus and again, paid for all my own accommodations.
Thanks again, DJ.
Well, no matter how many elections Niraj ends up winning, at least he will always be that socially stilted nerd whining about “Dormcest” and begging his peers to bang somewhere else. Time and change will surely show, indeed.
THOSE WMDs. The legacy of food at Southern gas stations is rooted in black survival… Whole milk mounts its triumphant comeback… How to work with somebody who creates unnecessary conflict… The hardest part of making a video game is everything… Tender, melt-in-your-mouth Instapot brisket.