Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: an election fraud conspiracist, a militia leader, and a disbarred tax attorney walk into a comedy club…
It’s not a joke. This Saturday, former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, extremist podcaster Joe Oltmann, a former Trump staffer, and a trio of anti-tax conspiracy theorists will all take the stage at the Restore Freedom Rally. The event, which promises to teach participants “how to regain your power & freedom: restore freedom and prosperity for yourself and America at the same time,”—potentially by committing tax fraud—will take place at one of Denver’s top comedy venues, Comedy Works in Greenwood Village.
The club rents out its main showroom as well as spaces for weddings and business functions. Reached for comment, a spokesperson for the club offered the following statement:
“Comedy Works is aware of the concerns regarding this upcoming event. We want to clarify that the views and opinions expressed by the event organizers and participants do not reflect those of Comedy Works as an organization.
“Comedy Works Events works with hundreds of clients each year and the booking of this event was made without a full disclosure of the detailed background of the individuals involved.“
The organization behind this all-day grift-a-thon is the so-called “Freedom Law School,” a Florida-based company founded by Peymon Mottahedeh. He claims “not to have filed a 1040 income tax return or paid any federal income taxes” in over three decades. For a couple thousand dollars or more, he will teach you how do the same, ostensibly without going to prison. The New York Times covered him and some of his fellow anti-tax hucksters in a 2009 story titled, “Hell Nay, We Won’t Pay!”
Another of the featured speakers, Peter Gibbons, appears in FactCheck.org’s debunking of the dubious claim that Mottahedeh and others promote, which is that there is no law requiring you to pay income tax. Spoiler alert: there is.
Another red flag appears on the FAQ page of Freedom Law School’s website, where the first answered question addresses why the conviction and incarceration of one of its clients was his own fault and not the school’s.
The rally is free to attend (or livestream), but learning the “secrets” to never paying taxes requires one to sign up for one of Freedom Law School’s plans, which have an income-based sliding scale that starts at $2,000.
Mottahedeh and his other traveling anti-tax bros are joined by Garrett Ziegler, the former Trump staffer who’s best known for his opposition research on President Biden’s family members, and a pair of local conspiracy theorists, Joe Oltmann and Tina Peters, both of whom are best known for their election denialism. Peters’ federal trial on numerous election-related felonies is set to begin July 29 in Grand Junction.
Oltmann is a far-right podcaster who got his start in politics by charging conservative blog readers to send faxes to Congress. During the pandemic he launched a conservative activist group, FEC United, which railed against COVID lockdowns, worked to elect Republicans, and, along with its militia group United American Defense Force, held a “Patriot Muster” in Denver’s Civic Center Park that resulted in the shooting death of an participant by a private security guard.
After the 2020 election Oltmann pivoted to election denialism, as he was an originator of the Dominion Voting conspiracy, a story Oltmann promoted aggressively and for which he now faces a defamation lawsuit. He has called for his political opponents, including Colorado Governor Jared Polis and Secretary of State Jena Griswold, to be hanged for treason. He has continued to be involved in Republican politics. In the past several months months he has interviewed candidates on his podcast, hosted a Boebert fundraiser, and recently announced that he plans to attend the RNC convention next week in Milwaukee.
