Second Continental Congress by Marion Doss

As it stands now, Edward Brown will remain in federal prison until 2034, when he will be 91 years old. I recently covered his unsuccessful sentence appeal.  This piece will provide background on his first conviction for tax related offenses.  It was his reaction to that conviction that led to a much longer sentence for much more serious offenses. I will also look a bit into his belief system as reflected in the Ranger Handbook of the United States Constitution Rangers and my brief conversations with Mr. Brown.  For a bit more context I will compare Edward Brown to Young Earth Creationist Kent Hovind whose tax related conviction  had quite a bit in common with Brown’s.  My regular readers are quite familiar with Hovind.  You can find out more about him here.

Indictment

Here is the story according to the indictment dated April 5, 2006.

The Browns began their tax resistance in 1996 by falsely reporting virtually no income on their individual tax return.  The bulk of the family income came from wife Elaine’s dental practice.  After 1996 they no longer filed individual income tax returns at all. In 1997 they wrote the IRS telling them that there was no law establishing liability for federal income tax, no requirement that anyone file and that the Browns were not US citizens and were non-residents for federal income tax purposes.  They sent a letter to the IRS saying that they would not pay until there was a “full and proper” investigation proving the legitimacy of the IRS and the individual income tax.

Elaine formed the Rock Solid Trust, requesting one of her employees serve as trustee, and transferred her dental practice to the trust. She wrote to the New Hampshire Department of Revenue that the trust was a “common-law pure” trust that had no federal income tax liability.  Dr. Brown let at least one insurance provider know that for “IRS reasons” she wanted payments for services to go to the trust.

The indictment lays out Elaine’s income for 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003 and a computed tax for each year.  The total income was over 1.3 million resulting in tax over $450,000. It computes payroll taxes for 2002 and 2003 of $116,498.

The indictment itemizes purchase of postal money orders in totaling over $30,000 on various dates.

In January 2002 Elaine stopped deducting withholding and employment taxes from her employees’ pay. She told them that they were all independent contractors and started issuing 1099s rather than W-2s. Also in 2002 she stop processing insurance claims for her patients.

There were seventeen counts, more of them against Elaine since she was the earner.  The charges included 18 U.S. Code § 371 – Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud United States, 26 U.S. Code § 7201 – Attempt to evade or defeat tax, 26 U.S. Code § 7202 – Willful failure to collect or pay over tax, and 31 U.S. Code § 5324 – Structuring transactions to evade reporting requirement prohibited.

Kent Hovind Indictment Compared

Kent Hovind’s behavior with respect to Dinosaur Adventure Land in Pensacola was very similar to the way Doctor Brown ran her dental practice.  No income tax returns for many years.  No withholding from the “missionaries” who punched the DAL time clock.  Everything in a common law trust. As a minister Hovind, also claimed a vow of poverty.

The Hovind indictment is dated July 11, 2006 just over three months after the Browns.  The indictment on payroll taxes was nearly $500,000 over three years.  When it came to structuring Jo and Kent Hovind really shone with 45 cash withdrawals of either $9,500 or $9,600 in just over a year between 2001 and 2002.

The Hovinds did not get any of the conspiracy charges that hit the Browns.  And oddly, despite a civil liability of over $3.3 million in tax and penalties for the years 1998-2006 there was no charge of evasion under 7201.  It may be IRS CI was aware that Hovind was prepared for a 7201 charge,  He had letters from three purported tax pros telling him there was no requirement to file Form 1040. That would be the basis for a Cheek defense named after an airline pilot who won a Supreme Court ruling that the lower court needed to consider the sincerity of his views on the income tax in a 7201 case.

A further charge just against Kent was 26 U.S. Code § 7212 – Attempts to interfere with administration of internal revenue laws.  This included activities such as making threats and destroying records. In a recently released video series The Weakness of Kent Hovind, Mckinnon Mitchell gives a pretty good dramatic account of Kent’s resistance.

It was the structuring that blindsided Hovind as it likely did the Browns.  When he talks about his conviction, which is pretty often structuring is what he focuses on. I have to say that I have some sympathy with them.  They were openly defying the tax laws and probably did nothing to help themselves conceal anything by the structuring activity.  It was pretty pointless. But it is easy to prove, which is probably why it was used by prosecutors.

It is pretty clear that Brown and Hovind were drawing from similarly sourced playbooks as were their prosecutors.

The Rangers Origin Story

Although there are many familiar elements, I have to say that the Constitution Rangers are unique.  The Ranger Handbook opens with the Commander’s Address from then Commander Edward Lewis Brown.  We learn that the Rangers are a “chartered organization of Peace Officers with historical references predating the civil war“.  The Rangers investigate citizen complaints regarding violations of the Constitution by public officials and administrative agencies.

The origin story of the Rangers which follows the Commander’s address has a gripping almost cinematic quality to it.  The founder Lawrence “Pappy” Robertson was 19 years old in 1943.  He was an MP attached to OSS (the precursor to the CIA).  At the time he was quartered in the basement of the White House.  He found a book.  The book was titled “The Foot Prints of Time” copyrighted 1875.

The title of the book is a great little detail in the story.  When I looked it up I found that the book by Charles Bancroft had the lengthy subtitle – and a complete Analysis of our American System of Government with a Concise History of the Original Colonies and of the United States in Chronological Order: Facts and Statistics from Official Sources.  That is not part of the origin story, though.  What is significant is what fell out of the book.

There was a brass badge with a five pointed star and a ring halfway up the points of the star secreted in the book.  On the ring were the words “United States Continental Congress”.  On the single top point was the number 77.  Outside the center were the words Constitution Ranger. The narrator “can only conclude” that the 77 was referring to the year 1777.  He must not have considered the notion that 77 upside down is LL which stands for Lois Lane implying that the badge was awarded to Superman at some point.

At any rate “Pappy” did a great deal of research including a week in archives in London, the Smithsonian and the White House basement.  Although the origin of the badge was inconclusive “Pappy” decided to resurrect the United States Constitution Rangers of the 1777 Continental Congress. With the aid of Congressman Rudd of Arizona, he recorded a copy of the charter in the Library of Congress in 1977.  The Charter has also been copyrighted.  So what else do you need to be authentic?

Origin Story Is Dubious

I thought I would run this by my American Revolution go-to guy, S.W. O’Connell who after a career in Army Intelligence took to writing well-researched spy novels about the Revolution. The series is Yankee Doodle Spies.  He wrote me:

There could not have been Constitution Rangers established by Congress in 1777 because there was no Constitution or even the thought of one. The Articles of Confederation were not even a thing until 1781. There were no Ranger units in the Continental Army and to the best of my knowledge, in any of the state militias.

He provided a bit more detail, but I think that is enough.  The Articles were actually proposed in 1777, but not ratified until 1781.  So based on this badge we are to believe that the Continental Congress established Rangers to protect the form of government that would replace the one that they just proposed.  Far seeing those Founding Fathers were.  Indeed.

Ranger Principles

The focus of the Rangers is on both the federal and state constitutions. They will investigate and help bring to justice individuals who violate the laws of the United States of America.  During the standoff in 2009, Mr. Brown would remark that, as a Constitution Ranger, he had much stronger jurisdiction than the US Marshals surrounding his property.

Any government agency that combines two or three of the separate powers (legislative, executive and judicial) are violently contrary to the letter and spirit of our Constitution according to the Rangers. They also want to educate people to recognize the behind the scenes forces and philosophies undermining the proper functions of government.  The Rangers want to teach people about direct and indirect taxation and that gold and silver are the only lawful money.  They also have a problem with zoning and other forms of regulation.

Mr. Brown explained to me where the US Government went off the rails.  It was the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1871 which turned the government into a private corporation. The 1871 theory is popular with QAnon.  There is also the creation of the United States Code in 1926.  That was a new one on me although one of Kent Hovind’s legal gurus Paul John Hansen would often remark that you need to go to the Statutes at Large.  In Brown’s view since that happened none of the laws that have been passed have the right language to make them actual laws.

The Lone Ranger?

I have found a scattering of stories about the Constitution Rangers mainly from the nineties. It is not clear how organized they were.  The most recent attempt at reviving the Rangers that I found any trace of was from 2012.  That fellow is suggesting that they rename the organization Continental Rangers, because as you and I both know there was no Constitution in 1777.

For now it may be that Ed is a lone ranger.  His overall narrative seems to be about elite bankers in Europe being in charge of everything.  Right now his big concern is with the Southern border.  All those people coming in and being flown places at night.  You can get a feel for what it is like to talk to Ed from this recorded call with Erin Davis on March 17, 2022.  A relationship with Rudy and Erin Davis is another thing that he shares with Kent Hovind.

Rudy Davis was one of the main Hovindicators when Kent was tried a second time in 2015.  Since then he has focused on others that he considers political prisoners, Ed Brown among them.  We don’t agree on very much but having a concern for prisoners is one of those things.  The one thing that I think I see pretty clearly in Rudy and Erin and Ed Brown for that matter is utter sincerity. Kent Hovind maybe not so much.

From what he told me it seems that the event that most triggered Ed in his journey far from the mainstream was the assassination of President Kennedy.  It was the same thing for my recently passed friend Tom Cahill, whose views were possibly further from the mainstream than Ed’s but altogether non-violent.

This may be the final installment of my Ed Brown coverage.  Only I remember thinking that about Kent Hovind.  So we shall see.

Originally published on Forbes.com.

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