This is an interesting story. A bunch of classified documents and materials related to military manufacturing that took place at the facility were discovered supposedly implicating government officials and holding up his RV manufacturing business. The lack of criminal prosecutions for mishandling sensitive materials seems to be rather telling, but I’m still working through linked material.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/11/press-conf-developing-north-dakota-aviation-scandal/
by Assistant Editor
Yesterday in tiny Dunseith, North Dakota, a press conference was held at a former electronics factory that served the military-industrial complex for decades as a producer of sensitive military components.
Now it’s the site of a bizarre confluence of crimes that threatens the entire North Dakota political class reaching through and beyond the Governor, Senators, and the state’s law enforcement.
The press event featured Charles Hoefer, who is a federal whistleblower operating an RV manufacturer on the site that was once a defense plant. 49 people came to the event to see more evidence about what is going on in a case where Hoefer has asked federal authorities to remove the sensitive and potentially classified materials at his plant and “clean the site” in his words, work that they apparently refuse to do.
Two left-wing reporters have been able to completely and successfully steer and misdirect the public on this story: Michael Standaert and the Associated Press’ Jack Dura.
Hoefer has sought help and aid from conservative media in North Dakota, but Hoefer’s natural ally, BEK TV, decided to try and broker a multi-million dollar extortion deal to solve the situation with U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R), instead.
Sen. Cramer is on a podcast yesterday denying that there is anything to this story, and claiming that he is the victim. Sen. Cramer’s explanation is incoherent and at odds with the facts.
Hoefer at the press conference yesterday laid out 18 exhibits that showcase the proof of his claims and their overall severity.
Hoefer’s claims allege an ongoing illegal scheme to work on high-level defense and aviation components in unsafe conditions. The profits from these devices appear to have been spread around the North Dakota political class, including benefiting Indian tribes, politicians, television stations, and more. Hoefer suggests that there are at least one murder, possibly two, involved in covering up the crimes that happened at the site, and that the risks presented by the site indicate there are current substantial risks to commercial aviation.
Hoefer sought help from federal authorities, and the Department of Homeland Security Agent sent to assist him, Daniel Breijo, is now in custody for murder for shooting an Air Force Sergeant Nicholas Van Pelt last December. Van Pelt oversaw nuclear missile security at the Minot Air Force base. Breijo shot and killed Van Pelt in a bizarre Christmas Day execution where another woman who works for the local court system was also shot.
Because highly sensitive and potentially classified Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) missile parts, guided missile sensor systems and parts, nuclear-related files, along with evidence of the ongoing illegal avionics scheme were also left behind at the Dunseith site, those with knowledge of the case suspect that Breijo’s murder of Van Pelt is related.
Hoefer has been desperately trying to get federal authorities to simply thoroughly remove the materials and potentially classified documents, to no avail.
Hoefer believes that he was being set up by the deep state to take the fall for the crimes by elites found on his site.
Locals in North Dakota have started to wonder what is going on where so many odd confluences of powerful people link together in this one former factory: The Defense Industry, the North Dakota State Bank, both Republican U.S. Senators, the Republican Governor, a DHS Agent murderer, Airline component suppliers, among others.
The mainstream media has reported none of this. Local North Dakota media has reported some of this, but they are careful not to contextualize the full scale of the crisis Hoefer claims relates to commercial aviation risks. Hoefer also points out major national security risks, and notes that media also avoids any possible connections to the Breijo murder of Van Pelt, along with another possible murder on-site at the facility in Dunseith.
The local media has been careful to report the story in such a way as to steer the public interest away from the powerful people involved and implicated. Very specifically, the media reporting never shows the way in which law enforcement has been corrupted in this case.
According to Senator Kevin Cramer (R), this whole situation is all just old news and not worth anyone looking into.
The main local reporter who has covered this case at all, Michael Standaert, told Hoefer later, that “he wasn’t allowed” to talk about the full story including the proof related to Hoefer’s claims. Standaert did not clarify who censored him.
“This reporter Standaert wrote four articles about the site, and in each one he wouldn’t cover the key details of the story and in several instances put out misleading facts,” said Hoefer. “He refused to reference law enforcement corruption. He refused to explain the cover-up ongoing by officials. He refused to detail the ongoing scheme. He refused to include details: facts, witnesses, photos I gave him about the most critical evidence in this case,” said whistleblower Hoefer.
“The reason people are confused about this case is because the media refused to do its job and lied to protect the government. It has refused to cover this situation even though I had all the receipts. I gave him all the evidence he needed to break this story wide open, and instead he left me isolated, discredited, and subject to extreme retaliation with no help. The media has been a critical part of covering-up this scandal, and putting the public at risk, for years.”
The only reporting on the situation has come from two articles (article 1, article 2) in the low-traffic left-wing North Dakota News Coop and reporter Michael Standaert, and a paywalled article by Jason Nordmark last year that gave a brief overview of the situation. You can read the Nordmark article page 1 and page 2 here.
Sources on the topic who have been contacted by Jack Dura at the AP related to the Gateway Pundit that a story is forthcoming from the Associated Press. The sources are concerned that the tone and type of questions being asked indicate that a continued media cover-up is underway.
Specifically, the sources note that the AP reporter is asking detailed questions about Hoefer’s financial misuse of funds, seeking to paint him as a failed businessman with a string of bankruptcies. Hoefer says that the smears against him are all fakenews, and the only past bankruptcy is by his father, who shares the same name, when his father was running a separate Indiana business in 2008 and was using his personal line of credit to try and save 300 jobs.
According to North Dakota State Senator Kent Weston (R), this is all part of the smear campaign conjured up by the North Dakota Dept. of Commerce which is wrapped up in these schemes, and it is meant to sully Hoefer’s reputation and protect the North Dakota political class.
Hoefer says he has either received no media coverage, or these smear jobs.
The Associated Press reporter in Bismarck is Jack Dura.
Hoefer told the Gateway Pundit, “Dura has said he wasn’t really interested in this story. Just recently he called and said maybe he’d come back to it in a few weeks, but also brought up these allegations by the government of financial misuse, which are entirely false.”
Dura has claimed to sources that the only relevant issue is the allegation that Hoefer misused state funds, something Senator Weston says he has specifically factually corrected and rebutted many times over. Dura claims he was deflecting to Michael Standaert’s reporting.
“The AP’s Dura’s comment to me was that he understood the story as being solely about me driving the company into the ground and misusing funds. I spoke with him for over 30 minutes and then at the end of the conversation he said he now understood the situation, that I had been screwed by the state, and he would take it to his editors,” said Hoefer.
“I just wonder if his editors care about the truth or they’ll continue the cover-up by smearing me instead of tackling the facts of the situation.”
The Gateway Pundit reached out to Jack Dura to ask him if his upcoming article with the Associated Press will simply be another smear job, and the names of his editors. Dura has not replied.
The Associated Press has worked hand-in-hand with a far-left media outlet in the state, the North Dakota Monitor.
The ND Monitor is part of the Soros-funded ProPublica’s reporting network. The ND Monitor has been promoting Michael Standaert’s writings, who is the one who wrote the two articles about the situation that covered for the government’s crimes.
The Associated Press’s Jack Dura originally deferred to Michael Standaert’s reporting on this issue and refused to cover the story. Now, both claim to be interested in telling the story again.
You can watch the full press conference for yourself here:
State Senator Kent Weston (R) says that he has been investigating this issue for over a year, and has come to realize that Hoefer is telling the truth, and that the government through the Commerce Department is continuing to lie and cover-up the case.
“I expected and even warned Charles Hoefer that a smear job is the last and only resort of the political elites, because so many of the political elites are so obviously tangled into the scandal and they refuse to even discuss, address, or explain the thousands of pages of evidence, plus parts, documents, audio recordings, federal receipts, and witnesses,” Senator Weston told the Gateway Pundit.
Weston says he’s caught the state’s Commerce Department repeatedly promoting outright lies about Hoefer.
“We’re hitting back at these continuing lies, and that’s the only thing they have. We want people to see the truth. Come see the truth,” said Sen. Weston.
Standaert claims he wasn’t censored by his editors, he just “stopped reporting.”
Michael Standaert disputed the characterization that he was instructed to stop writing about the case or given limits by his editor. Standaert said over email “No one told me I was not allowed to write about anything. We stopped reporting essentially because I’m the only correspondent here and we had a lot of other things to cover, including a few poll stories after the final story in that series, and couldn’t continue devoting the time at that point for more stories. We did four in a row. I investigated this deeply for around a month and a half without doing other stories. We couldn’t just become the “Hoefer RV saga” wire service. I stand by the stories. If others want to look further they’re more than welcome. There are several tenatcles [sic] to these stories I always wanted to investigate further, but other work took top priority. It seemed at the time it was a good place to stop and see what happens next since Hoefer RV and the ND Dept of Commerce were at an impasse. That still seems to be the case.”
Hoefer claims that Standaert is not being entirely accurate and forthright in his denial, however. Hoefer sent the Gateway Pundit an email chain with the ND Coop’s Michael Standaert saying he was instructed to stop writing about the case and given limits by his editors, specifically saying “My superiors weren’t interested in me going into the situation any more and wanted me to focus on other stories, so had pushed that all to the back burner.”
Radio personality Trent Loos, syndicated in over 20 states, has been talking about the Dunseith aviation scandal.
Other than Loos, however, all North Dakota is hearing about this case are the self-serving lies from Senator Cramer, BEK TV and the North Dakota political elites, save for a few local media outlets.
The Gateway Pundit reached out to the office of U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer through their media affairs staffer Rachel Buening and did not hear back. We also reached out to Associated Press journalist Jack Bura and did not get a response.