When Utah-based attorney Mark Naugle first opened the folder on his computer, he thought perhaps he might find evidence of church leaders’ private complaints about the recent spike in member resignations, or the alleged uptick in LGBTQ suicides. Or even hints of church efforts to ruin his reputation within Salt Lake’s tight-knit legal community on 200 East.
Instead, he found a series of private emails between Pres. Thomas S. Monson and his second in command, Pres. Russell M. Nelson, in which the prophet confessed a strong “calling” to support Sen. Bernie Sanders in his quest for the White House.
“Russ, his vision for America today reminds me of the early days in Salt Lake,” Naugle claims one of the emails said. “Sometimes, it’s as if I can hear the voice of Brigham himself coming from Mr. Sanders. I harken unto his message.”
Naugle says the stash of stolen emails were sent to him anonymously and that when he first received them, he had no idea who might have hacked into the LDS servers. “I assumed it was one of my clients,” he said. “So many of them feel such a deep sense of loss over the same-sex family policy.”
Over the past three months, Naugle has helped over 1,400 LDS members get themselves removed from the church’s membership registry in protest over the controversial church policy that first came to light last November. He says several of his younger male clients were so upset over the church’s ruling that even after they had resigned their membership, they threatened to get even.
“One of my clients used to work on the geek squad at The Church Office Building,” Naugle said. “Now that I’ve had time to make some inquiries, I believe I now know who provided the original information that allowed the perpetrators to gain access to the servers. But I still don’t know who actually executed the hack.”
Utah Deputy Attorney General Brian Tarbet announced that his office had opened an investigation into the matter. “This has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that it was the LDS Church who was hacked,” he said. “We take all cyber threats seriously.”
The entire contents of the email trove, comprising 1,342 individual emails between the two church leaders, were published anonymously early Monday morning on the BitTorrent network and simultaneously sent to Naugle from a bogus gmail account. Tarbet said their initial investigation had turned up few “breadcrumbs.” “The trail has gone cold,” he said.
Several LDS historians who have studied the contents say they reveal that Monson holds a surprising softness for the Vermont senator. “A true tenderness of spirit,” said Martha Wilson, an employee of the Tanner Humanities Center. “At one point, after exhausting all his more intellectual arguments, he tells Nelson, ‘Ah, heck, Russ, Bernie’s basically as old as I am. He deserves our support, one codger to another.’”
LDS Church officials refused to comment for this story.
A note for Mr. Naugle:
Though I don’t have anything to do with the Sex Preference people of late, I do feel a sense of connection with their troubles with the church. Example: I have been laughed at and Ridiculed by church members all my life because I’m a Non conformist. I do things differently and I don’t fit in with the church crowd. Recently I went through the entire B of M Word for Word comparing a First Printing replica with the Modern version. I produced from this study project The Most Advanced B of M in Existence today! Combining the Original text with hundreds of pieces of Fine Art and Tons of Computer links. I did it in four months of intensive work. I published it at: Smashwords.com as a FREE eBook for all! And do you know what, The Church hates it! I have been Banned from showing any of the pictures from my FREE eBook at church. Or of even telling anybody about it at church. They are embarrassed by Joseph Smith’s Simple country boy style of English. They prefer and want all members to use only the PhD created works of the Corporation.
Another area in which I differ greatly with the Corporation that calls itself a church is that in 1991, here in Ogden, Utah, Church members, Using Church Facilities, began a Lying Boycott of my family Friendly convenience store. They ran this boycott for over 10 years! I was run out in about 2001 with a loss of two families and over $400,000.00 plus interest in lost income. I have sent letters to each of these so-called Prophets and always they just refer me back to my Stake President to determine if I am any threat to them. Today I am Dirt Poor and I write eBooks, deliver newspapers, and do home maintenance to try and scratch out a survival wage only. I don’t believe that they ever will make Restitution for what they stole from me.
Until recently with my FREE eBook B of M problem, I have felt that my only connection with these people is that book. Now that they totally reject Joseph Smiths version of the book, I have almost nothing in common with them.
Despairingly though, I still have to depend on the Bishop for help with some food and other expenses as they Will Not Allow me a decent income.
No my Good Saintly Brothers and Sisters absolutely Will not buy my eBooks!!! Most of my home maintenance clients are either inactive or non-members.
So it doesn’t surprise me a bit that Mr. Monson would be supporting a Socialist like Sanders.
These people Love Socialism and really hate Free Enterprise and Free Enterprising people.
If you know anybody in the Movie industry, please leave them a good note about me and my eBooks. They would all make excellent movies! My eBooks are available there at: Smashwords.com and also at: BarnesandNoble.com
Have a nice day Mr. Naugle!
Steve Nelson
Haha. This will be in “The Paper” in no time.
https://youtu.be/g5vnZec964c?t=2m57s