The Paul Bromm Story: Lies, Missing Context and Convenient Amnesia

Joel McEntire started this mess. Now, everyone wants to pretend Paul Bromm just magically appeared in the middle of it.

There is an important piece of history being left out of CCN’s latest outrage over Paul Bromm. If you are going to tell the story, tell the whole damn story and be in the ballpark of accurate with it.

This started with Joel McEntire publicly inserting himself into something that didn’t pertain to him at all, getting offended and posting about Paul on his page. That post became the place where other people joined in, including Sean Swope, who was later named as one of the defendants in Paul’s federal lawsuit.

The situation escalated from there. Sean entered the discussion, other people began digging into Paul’s employment and personal information, and eventually Paul lost his job.

I also reached out to Paul Bromm directly for comment regarding the lawsuits and the claims surrounding them. Paul told me that he could not comment on the lawsuits or the legal proceedings whatsoever. That is important to make clear. I am not going to pretend Paul gave me information about a case he told me he was legally unable to discuss.

Paul told me about his experience with Joel and what happened afterward. According to Paul, Joel’s followers began stalking his home and even followed his partner to work, confronting her when she parked and discovering that Paul wasn’t even in the van, only her. The incident frightened his partner enough that Paul removed the Charlie Kirk posts from his Facebook page. Paul told me that his experience with all of this is what led him to believe that Joel’s behavior was devious and dangerous.

There is a very important distinction here. Paul declined to comment on the lawsuits themselves, yet he was willing to tell me about his experience with Joel and what he says happened to his partner. Those are two different things.

His inability to discuss the litigation does not somehow erase the events that preceded it. It means that this is still in litigation and he cannot talk about it. It also does not give anyone permission to fill in the blanks with whatever version of the story best serves their narrative.

Then, once Paul was fired, the blame started shifting toward Brittany Voie.

Enter Brittany Voie. Brittany does what she's really good at. She got the records and posted them on social media so everyone could read them for themselves. Brittany has always supported Paul.

Rather than being responsible for Paul’s firing, Brittany documented what was happening and made records public. Joel attempted to shift blame for Paul’s firing onto Brittany.

Brittany was not responsible for Joel’s posts. She was not responsible for Sean entering the conversation. She was not responsible for people digging into Paul’s employment. She was not responsible for Paul’s termination. She got the records and made them public.

Yet somehow, when the consequences arrived, Brittany became a convenient target.

That is quite a magic trick. Blame everyone except the people who were actually involved.

Then CCN decided it needed more rage bait.

CCN published material about Paul with inflammatory commentary designed to whip up its audience. CCN itself posted that Paul should be on a watchlist.

Another person questioned why people like Paul and his political allies would live in a county where so many people voted for Trump.

Oh, I don't know. Why does that person, who questioned why someone would live in a county where so many people voted for Trump, live in a state where the majority is obviously blue?

Joel then commented about needing to know who to “keep an eye on” at public events and suggested that people who disagree with them might be sick enough to participate in violence.

This is where criticism crosses into something else entirely. There is a difference between disagreeing with someone's speech and turning that person into a public boogeyman who supposedly needs to be watched.

The screenshots show Paul being mocked, insulted and characterized in various ways.

Mark de Szendeffy said Paul had “hate in his heart,” while another comment characterized Paul's post as an excuse to justify hate.

Paul himself posted something that some may take as being crude, but Paul was justified in posting it. Keenan Harvey apparently felt the need to jump into the comments because, well, apparently he has a desperate need to be the political “pick-me” in the room.

That matters too.

One side cannot spend its time accusing the other side of inflammatory rhetoric while participating in the exact same kind of political pile-on when it suits them. You don't get to condemn political tribalism while happily joining the tribe when the target is someone you don't like.

That is tribalism and it's wearing a cheap, ill-fitting suit that it obtained from a secondhand store.

Then there is the ongoing attempt to characterize Paul's posts and the people defending him as misinformation.

Let's talk about the lawsuit, since apparently facts are now optional.

This is where the latest version of the story needs a serious correction.

Paul Bromm's federal lawsuit was not simply “dismissed.”

The September 14 order granted summary judgment to four individual defendants: Warren McCleod, Jonathan Meyer, Robert Snaza and Sean Swope. The court found those defendants were entitled to qualified immunity. The order also addressed prosecutorial immunity as it applied to Meyer.

That is a legal ruling. It is not the same thing as a court declaring that every allegation Paul made was false, that the entire controversy was fabricated or that the lawsuit itself was frivolous.

In fact, the court rejected the defendants’ request for attorney’s fees and did not find Paul’s claims frivolous, unreasonable or without foundation.

Read that again.

The court granted the individual defendants summary judgment based on immunity defenses. It did not find that Paul’s lawsuit was frivolous.

The court also addressed the claims against Lewis County and the City of Centralia separately, referring to an earlier order denying those defendants’ motion to dismiss.

The dismissals of the claims against those four individual defendants are also being challenged and appealed. Treating those rulings as though they are the final word on every issue involved in the case is premature.

The lawsuit against the City of Centralia and Lewis County is still very much active.

That distinction matters. “Four individual defendants obtained summary judgment based on qualified immunity” is an accurate description of what happened. “Paul’s lawsuit was dismissed” makes it sound like the entire case disappeared, every allegation was disproven and there is nothing left to litigate.

Those are not the same thing.

The timeline matters.

Joel publicly targeted Paul. Sean entered the discussion on Joel’s post. Paul’s employment became the subject of public discussion. Paul was eventually fired from Lewis County. Brittany obtained records and made them public. Joel attempted to shift responsibility for Paul’s firing toward Brittany. Brittany, who supported Paul, became another convenient target. Paul filed a federal lawsuit. Four individual defendants obtained summary judgment based on immunity defenses. Those rulings are being challenged and appealed. The court did not find Paul’s claims frivolous and denied the request for attorney’s fees. Litigation involving Lewis County and the City of Centralia remains active.

That is considerably different from the simplified little story being served up for public consumption.

Maybe Joel McEntire, CCN, and everyone else needs to stop pretending that the internet has amnesia.

The most fascinating part of all this is watching people attempt to rewrite a timeline that is sitting right there in screenshots.

Joel’s posts are there. The comments are there. Sean’s participation is there. The discussions about Paul’s employment are there. The comments about watching people at public events are there. The accusations and insinuations are there. The attempt to redirect blame toward Brittany is there. The records Brittany posted are there. The CCN posts are there. The comments underneath them are there.

None of this requires mind-reading. None of it requires speculation about anyone's secret motives. It is documented.

That is why these screenshots matter.

When people try to tell you Paul simply woke up one morning, became the center of everyone's attention and somehow caused an entire political controversy to materialize around himself, remember that social-media platforms have an irritating habit of preserving receipts.

Those receipts tell a much more complicated story.

The people screaming about Paul's “hate” are participating in posts designed to generate hatred toward Paul. The people accusing others of being dangerous are publicly discussing who should be watched. The people demanding “peace” are participating in the same political pile-on they claim to oppose.

Joel even told people that they “need peace in their hearts.”

That is particularly rich coming from someone whose own posts are part of the documented beginning of this entire mess.

Maybe before everybody starts lecturing the public about peace, hatred, misinformation and civility, they should take five minutes to scroll backward.

The internet already did the research for them.

The receipts are there.

The timeline is there.

The court record is there.

What isn't there is any legitimate reason to pretend the story began with Paul.

It didn't.

No amount of rage-baiting from CCN is going to change that.