So, just who is this Brett Kimberlin? And why should we care?

Andrew Breitbart, before his untimely death, warned of the need to expose Kimberlin. Now, Stacy McCain is all over the story.  Please give this a read, it matters, a great deal I would say.

This was important, and Andrew Breitbart understood why it was important: The “TwitterGate” episode in October 2010 exposed Democrat operative Neal Rauhauser’s role in an apparent conspiracy to harass Tea Party activists online. Shortly thereafter, Mandy Nagy (aka “Liberty Chick”) documented Brett Kimberlin heinous criminal history.

Kimberlin and his “Velvet Revolution” partner Brad Friedman teamed up to urge Maryland authorities to prosecute James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles. At some point, according to Kimberlin, he became an “associate” of Rauhauser.

Now, investigative journalist Matthew Vadum has shown that major “progressive” tax-exempt foundations contributed tens of thousands of dollars to Kimberlin’s “Justice Through Music Project” and “Velvet Revolution” non-profits.

Money is fungible, as they say. The funding of Kimberlin’s projects — tens of thousands of dollars from the George Soros-connected Tides Foundation, as well as foundations associated with Barbra Streisand and Sen. John Kerry’s wife — thus supported all of Kimberlin’s activities, including his effort to have O’Keefe and Giles prosecuted for their ACORN takedown.

The association between Kimberlin, Friedman and Rauhauser inspires an obvious suspicion: Who is footing the bill for various online projects targeting leading conservative New Media activists?

Read Aaron Worthing’s account of being the target of Kimberlin’s attempted legal intimidation. Worthing’s offense? Apparently, being a former co-blogger with Patterico, who has written extensively about Kimberlin’s criminal record. Patterico has also been a target of Kimberlin.

Evidently, anyone who tells the truth about Brett Kimberlin is subject to this familar pattern of harassment and attempted intimidation.

Kimberlin is a notorious liar, who was convicted of perjury before he graduated high school and has been called a “world-class liar” by award-winning journalist Mark Singer. Just a few years after being released from federal prison, Kimberlin somehow managed to get funding from major donors and began passing himself off as an expert on “election reform,” becoming a favorite of the left-wing blogosphere by “repeatedly asserting as facts things that are not true,” as Timemagazine’s Mssimo Calabresi wrote in 2007.

Now, it gets interesting: A site called “Breitbart Unmasked” has published a list of what it calls “The Breitbart Crew,” including everyone from Brent Bozell III to Dave Weigel of Slate.

Go read it all, as I said, this is news that affects all of us, and not just bloggers who might catch the radar of this power hungry monster. This is about intimidating those who dare expose the truth, and, possibly, about more than just intimidation. Stacy also links a bunch of bloggers also covering this

UPDATE: It takes an “Army of Breitbarts” to overcome the indifference, inertia and bias of the mainstream media. One blogger can accomplish little on his own, and I am therefore grateful to all those who have helped call attention to the Kimberlin case, including:

• Patterico: Convicted Bomber and Perjurer Brett Kimberlin Harasses Blogger for Telling Truth About Him
• Dan Collins: Speedway Bomber Brett Kimberlin Harassed, Tried to Frame Blogger Aaron Worthing
• Bob Belvedere: Connections: Soros, A Terrorist, Democrats and Obama???
• American Catholic: Political Thuggery
• The Lonely Conservative: This is Horrible
• POH Diaries:  The Company We Keep
• Tony Katz: The Quick Six
• Daily Pundit: Something In the Water In Naptown?

Also check out some previous posts by Stacy

Convicted Terrorist Brett Kimberlin Received $70,000 From Tides Foundation, $10,000 From Streisand, $20,000 from John Kerry’s Wife

Is Democrat Operative Neal Rauhauser an ‘Associate’ of Convicted Terrorist Brett Kimberlin? (And Why It Matters)

UPDATE!! Linked at The Conservatory Thanks Dan

Linked by Stacy McCain in his Headlines! Thanks!