FROM OUR PRINTED OCT 3, 2025 PRINTED EDITION

Newly Unearthed Documents/E-mails Allege MassGOP Political Director
and Former Governor’s Team Members at Epicenter of 2021 Voter Fraud

‘Team’ Sought to Destroy Republican Party Chair Lyons When He Uncovered Wrongdoing

by Lonnie Brennan

by Lonnie Brennan

The Republican Party’s new political director, Mark Steffen, apparently cut his teeth in dirty politics, working closely with a number of high-level MassGOP individuals to vilify, defame, and otherwise destroy through social media, committee actions, and the use of The Boston Globe, the Boston Herald, and other Boston media outlets and mouthpieces, former MassGOP Chairman Jim Lyons.

Newly unearthed documents and e-mails reveal that four years ago, Steffen apparently illegally registered people to vote, then filed multiple false election documents with the state and the Boston Election Department, the MassGOP, and the secretary of state, amongst others.

In short, the e-mails and supporting 318 pages of documentation obtained thus far by The Boston Broadside show a trail of correspondence and evidence of criminal, illegal voter registration, and then filing of paperwork with the state to place ineligible people in a position to help in an effort to unseat then Chairman Lyons.

On or about January 27, 2021, e-mails from Mark Steffan’s account submitted filings to the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF) and the secretary of the commonwealth, which consisted of:

– Illegally registered voters (using an online system, he registered multiple people to vote and/or changed party registrations, and gave a false address for several persons, some without their knowledge)

– Fraudulently submitted organizational forms for certain Boston Republican ward committees

– Submitted documentation to the state to support his objectives which contained one or more forged signatures

Criminal Activity Was
Unknown Earlier this Year

This spring, the issue of fraudulently submitting documentation to the state and the Boston Election Department briefly came to light in Suffolk Superior Court Case No. 2384CV02746.

In that case, former MassGOP Chair Jim Lyons sought redress for defamation made against him by a certain individual involved in a scheme to defame him. At the time, Lyons was unaware of the depth of the now alleged criminal activities. The judge refused to allow the case of defamation and dismissed it on a technical application of the law. That case is under appeal, and instead of just defamation of Lyons, now the appeals work and Lyons public records requests has unearthed the alleged criminal and conspiratorial activities.

Illegal Use of Online Voter Registration

Documents indicate that illegal voter registration submissions by Steffan via online voter registration included registering Zachary Errabey, Donnie Palmer, Richard Futrell, James Levesque, and Danny Kelly at a 14 Richfield Street in Boston.

The problem with those registrations? Four of the five had never lived at that address, three were living outside of Boston at the time of registration, and at the time of registration, none of the five were anywhere near that address.

Use of Illegally Registered Voters

Steffan then went on to file multiple documents to place these five individuals as voting members of a Republican ward committee. The forms were filed with the secretary of state, along with other forms, including one for ward 18 with at least one alleged forged signature.

When Lyons caught wind of multiple persons conspiring to create and/or stuff votes on one or more ward committees, apparently in an effort to get enough votes to turn party caucus results (by electing a member of the Republican State Committee) to oust Lyons as chair, Lyons attempted to confirm each and every newly submitted form for its authenticity and truthfulness.

Instead of one or two filings which could reasonably indicate a clerical error, Lyons discovered blatant fraud, and wasn’t shy about sharing his outrage at such activities.

How to Fight Back Against Lyons’ Discovery?

When Steffan caught wind that the gig was up – Lyons had discovered Republicans behaving badly – Steffan, along with others cited in released e-mails, revealed a new strategy: Attack Lyons, claim he is a racist, personally and politically destroy him. In short: Deflect, deny, attack, attack, attack.

In an e-mail dated 4/28/2021, Steffan revealed that he became aware that Lyons had uncovered his filing of multiple people who did not live in Boston, or did not live at 14 Richfield St.

Stefan proposed the group go on the attack, writing to his associates: “Lyons is going to challenge all the 14 Richfield voters tonight, is what we’re hearing. We need: [name withheld] to push back and say he and his friends are being targeted by Lyons as Black Republicans….”

Charges of racism and worse were subsequently planted in various media, all placing Lyons on the defense.

Postings on Facebook and other social media by one operative, Douglas Bennett, charged Lyons as a racist. A letter was created attacking Lyons and disseminated to all Republican State Committee members, charging that Lyons was a racist. Steffan directed others to forward the letter to upper Republican Party officers, including Ronna McDaniel, then national chair of the GOP.

Baker’s Crew at Work

Associates of former Mass. Governor Charlie Baker, including paid employees, operatives, and lawyers, advanced the attack against Lyons.

Simon Cataldo and Michael J. Sullivan from the firm Ashcroft Sullivan LLC worked to craft and then re-crafted an attack release to The Globe against Lyons. Their focus was on accusing Lyons of being a racist.

In one e-mail of April 23, 2021, sent at 12:46 p.m., Cataldo corrects his colleagues, addressing a typo in the original hit-piece.

On April 25, 2021, at 12:13 p.m., political operative Sean Powers replied to an inquiry by Cataldo and Sullivan, copying colleagues Mathew Sisk, Brian Wynne, Jim Conroy, and Steffan, stating that he really doesn’t have any residents of the ward committees who “are willing or that we feel comfortable speaking to the [Globe] reporter.” He sought directions from the lawyers.

A piece was developed, and a letter, both of which twisted and deflected from the criminal activities, to charge Lyons with Asian hate and racism.

A general scramble apparently took place, according to the e-mail chain, concluding with a recommendation that one member of the forged army against Lyons “not attend” the impending caucus. Cataldo shared via e-mail: “This is a major bummer because it proves Lyons right way. (sic) Totally unforced error” as he did not live in that ward, and Lyons has found out.

April 28, 2021

On April 28, 2021 at 1:28 p.m., in an uncovered e-mail, Steffan summarized that no one he filed false documents for is willing to go on record stating they lived at the false address, but if they got kicked off the ward committee, he had lined up several people to quickly take their places.

By 1:49 p.m. that same day, Powers sought to get a conference call together to strategize a plan, as Atty. Sullivan admitted in an e-mail at 1:46 p.m. that not only does one person not live in the building, but doesn’t even live in that ward of Boston. Atty. Sullivan strategized at 1:51 p.m. that “why do we want to be on the defensive or trying to justify something we cant (sic) justify,” referring to being unmasked by Lyons about the false registrations.

Illegal Voter Registration, False Ward Committee Filings with the State, False Ward Committee Filings with the Boston Election Department, False Committee Filings with the Secretary of State, and a Link to Current MassGOP Chair Amy Carnevale

Uncovered Since This Spring

Fast forward four years, and at press time more than 300 pages of unearthed exhibits, e-mails, and summaries, thus far, point to the imminent request by Lyons for a criminal complaint against Steffan and perhaps others, for

• alleged violations of Massachusetts election and criminal laws, specifically M.G.L. c. 56, § 8 (false statements in voter registration),
• M.G.L. c. 56, § 1 1 (filing false election documents), and
• M.G.L. c. 267, § 1 (forgery of documents with intent to defraud).

Digital Fingerprints

Of ongoing interest was documentation that includes a letter which “according to the PDF document’s digital file origin history” was created by current MassGOP Chairwoman Amy Carnevale, as well as the sharing of strategy to destroy Lyons, which included names such as Sisk, current Vice Chair Judy Crocker, and others.

The apparent Carnevale letter, Lyons pointed out, “was an attempt to provide cover for the fact that the ‘team’ had put a plan in motion to boycott” a meeting [and deny the ability of the body to meet a quorum, required to conduct business] of the MassGOP, in an attempt to further destroy Lyons. “Information obtained through discovery” has “exposed a concerted plan to destroy Lyons’ reputation and unlawfully interfere with the operations of the MassGOP,” Lyons had submitted in the complaint. ♦

Note: We will be sharing documents and updates as this case proceeds through state investigations.