Lawsuits

Tea Party Convention Organizer Sued

Fallout over Palin speaker's fee deal.

Bill Hemrick, a regular donor to conservative causes, is seeking $500,000 minimum in damages from the organizer of the Tea Party convention that took place in Nashville in February. Hemrick alleges that in exchange for a $50,000 down payment toward Sarah Palin's $100,000 speaker's fee, Judson Phillips had promised to help Hemrick with his National Fiscal Conservative Political Action Committee. Not only did Phillips allegedly renege on the deal, he also banned Hemrick from the convention. New York magazine's Daily Intel reports that Anthony Shreeve, a Tea Party activist, asserts that Hemrick was crucial in landing Palin as a speaker, while Phillips insists that Hemrick had ulterior motives and hoped to approach Palin with a business proposition. Shreeve has revealed that alongside Palin's exorbitant fee, her contract stipulated an additional $18,000 be set aside for a private jet. "It was like, she had to have this or that size plane," Shreeve recalls. "It was like when a rock star comes to town, the contract was that detailed."