Is the Amazon docuseries Shiny Happy People a sophisticated psychological operation, a clever trap designed to contain and silence some of the country’s most powerful whistleblowers, or are they simply greedy, cynical opportunists preying on the already traumatized?
Because the truth is that in both seasons, Shiny, Happy People did not break any news. They did not bring anyone to accountability. They only told you about the people that did.
By elevating our voices, the people who actually did the work – the inner work to break free and the outer work to create the infrastructure to free others – the Hollywood producers took on a moral authority that they NEVER earned.
So, after season one came out, who did victims reach out to? Did they reach out to established survivor resources and online communities? Some did. But, a lot reached out directly to the producers of Shiny, Happy People.
And what did those producers do? They funneled the victims to this law firm. They have an entire website dedicated to victims of Bill Gothard’s cult. If I was a victim reaching out I would think, Finally, yes! Someone who can help me after all this time!!
But I would probably be wrong. Because the lawyers at this firm are deeply entrenched in the same right wing ecosystem that Bill Gothard lives and breathes in. They have extensive connections to the hardest of the hardcore right wing political causes as well as to Kenneth Starr, Jeffrey Epstein’s attorney.
One of the first attorneys that producers sent victims to was Wes Holmes. Even without the right wing connections, there is a major red flag right out of the gate. Because Shiny, Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets premiered on June 2, 2023 and Wes Holmes had just come off a 4 year probation the previous month. Why? Because 1 million dollars had vanished from his clients account.
Why is Stern sending traumatized women to someone with a checkered history? Did someone vouch for him? Do they have a previous connection? Do they have a financial connection?
Holmes began his career steeped in right wing culture clerking for the Rutherford Institute, a Virginia-based think tank that recruits lawyers to take on causes dear to the religious right.
Rutherford Institute is basically the reverse ACLU. The group specializes in defending “religious liberties,” which is code for anti-gay, anti-abortion, pro-school-prayer-and-nativity-scene agenda.
Through Rutherford, he met and went to work for Donovan Campbell, a devout Christian who fashioned his legal practice after his religious beliefs and who has taken on many cases for the institute. Campbell’s favorite case was arguing for the state of Texas to preserve the anti-sodomy laws. So when I say anti-gay I mean ANTI-gay. (Also, fellas, if god didn’t want you to be gay, why did she put your pleasure center there…?)
Wes Holmes’ right wing bonafides are really in a class all by themselves. He and Campbell represented Paula Jones in her infamous case against President Bill Clinton in the 1990s. Holmes played a key role in the litigation, including overseeing depositions and preparing for trial.
Regardless of what you think about the parties in that case or the merits of the case itself, the main thing I see when I look at the entire Clinton sex scandal debacle is a bunch of entitled old white men using women’s pain and trauma to serve them – but only when it benefits them. And when its convenient to dismiss the trauma, they’ll do that, too. Every single man in this case was disingenuous. But I digress.
If it wasn’t for these depositions, the world would never have known about Linda Tripp and Monica Lewinsky. How did Paula Jones feel?
So, we have a lawyer with a history of using traumatized women clients to further a right wing agenda, but what about the rest of the law firm?
Stay tuned for part 2.
Investigated and Written by Mica Ringo
