The IFF Machine

The Network

The Men Who Built Him and the Operation They Ran

Chad Christensen did not arrive in the Idaho Legislature as an independent actor. He was recruited, supported, and, when a political critic threatened to expose inconvenient facts, protected by a coordinated network of people with deep roots in the Idaho Freedom Foundation.

Greg Pruett: Founder, Idaho Second Amendment Alliance and Idaho Second Amendment Alliance Action. The man who called Christensen in February 2018 and recruited him to run for the Idaho Legislature, a fact Christensen confirmed under oath. Two and a half years later, Christensen forwarded a secretly recorded phone call to Pruett the day after it was made. Pruett co-published it in a multi-part smear series on Keep Idaho Free. He is part of a national gun rights fundraising network that a Pulitzer Prize-winning NPR investigation described as operating a "one-man propaganda band." In 2023, when a civil stalking injunction was sought against his co-author Dustin Hurst, Pruett called it "outright lies" and "a mockery of people who actually need restraining orders."

Dustin Hurst: Former vice president, Idaho Freedom Foundation, nearly a decade. Co-authored the Keep Idaho Free series using Christensen's recording. Fined $250 by the Idaho Attorney General for lobbying without registration. When a civil stalking injunction petition was filed against him in September 2023, he ran a public Twitter poll before he was even served: "Should I tweet out every page of @gsgraf's bogus restraining order over mean tweets when I get it today?" Eighty-eight percent voted yes.

Bryan Smith: Board member and vice chair, Idaho Freedom Foundation; attorney at Smith, Driscoll & Associates; Idaho's Republican National Committeeman since July 2023. Represented Dustin Hurst in the defamation case that Christensen himself filed. Discovery text messages show Robinson writing: "Bryan told me he will defend either of us for free and told me two days ago there isn't a chance Graf will do it." That message was sent before the articles were published. The legal safety net was in place before the operation began.

Doyle Beck: IFF board member, former Bonneville County Republican Central Committee chairman. Photographed with Christensen. Filed his own lawsuit against Gregory Graf in 2018, with Bryan Smith as his attorney. An early test of the playbook. Has donated $1,000 to Christensen in every campaign cycle. His businesses received $168,200 in federal PPP loans while the IFF, where he serves on the board, was publicly denouncing government assistance programs.

2026 Campaign Finance Record

Who Funds Him

Drawn from the Idaho Secretary of State Sunshine campaign finance database, downloaded April 12, 2026. All figures are from official public filings.

The IFF Network: Direct Contributions

The same organization that recruited Christensen to run, built his voting record, defended his associates legally, and published the smear campaign also writes his campaign checks. Directly. Every cycle.

The Recording Conspiracy: The Donor

EmmaLee Robinson

Idaho Falls, ID. $100 on March 27, 2026.

Robinson coordinated the secret recording of Gregory Graf, as established in Bonneville County District Court Case CV10-21-1197. She helped Christensen download the recording app, forwarded the recording to him, and her recording formed the basis of the multi-part smear campaign. She was his boss at State Farm when the scheme was executed. She is his 2026 campaign donor.

Dark Money at the State Level

The Wyoming Shell Company

Sto Cazzo Holdings, Coffeen Ave, Sheridan, WY, a commercial registered agent address. Gave Christensen $500 on March 31, 2025 and $500 on April 1, 2025. Two consecutive-day contributions totaling $1,000.

This entity is not a one-time donor to one candidate. Idaho SOS Sunshine records show Sto Cazzo Holdings has donated to at least six Idaho candidates across three election cycles:

"Sto cazzo" is vulgar Italian profanity, a crude dismissal unprintable in a family newspaper. The Sheridan, Wyoming address on Coffeen Ave is a commercial registered agent address documented as hosting hundreds of thousands of shell companies, with the Sheridan Police Department reporting recurring scam complaints connected to businesses registered there.

The identity of the actual person or persons funding Sto Cazzo Holdings and directing $5,225 to Idaho Republican candidates across three years is not disclosed in any public record. Under current Idaho and Wyoming law, there is no requirement to disclose the beneficial owners of an LLC making political contributions. The entity appears to exist specifically as a vehicle for making Idaho political donations while keeping its true source anonymous.

This is what dark money looks like at the state legislative level: a Wyoming LLC with a vulgar name, registered at a shell company address, donating $1,000 at a time to Republican primary candidates including IFF-preferred candidates, cycling through state, county, and municipal offices across multiple years.

Government Handouts: For Me, Not For Thee

The IFF Board Took $2 Million in Federal Pandemic Loans

The Idaho Freedom Foundation positions itself as Idaho's uncompromising enforcer of anti-government-spending principles, grading legislators on their fealty to that doctrine, pressuring primaries against anyone who deviates, and holding Christensen's 100% compliance record up as the model. Then came the pandemic. Its president, Wayne Hoffman, wrote a column in June 2020 criticizing a rent and utilities relief program as a "government handout" that would "subsidize renters who made poor decisions." In October 2019, Christensen declared BSU's gender-neutral restroom policy "immoral garbage" while IFF applauded.

In April 2020, the IFF itself quietly accepted $129,883 in Paycheck Protection Program loans. Five of its eight board members received more than $2 million combined in PPP loans for their private businesses, loans backed by the federal government and forgivable if the companies maintained staffing.

Confronted about the loans by Boise State Public Radio, Bryan Smith said: "It is compensation for damages caused by the government in the first place. That's unlike some other programs that exist where the government just hands out money having not damaged the individual in the first place." Hoffman posted on Facebook that other groups would "have no problem accepting all the money they could from the government. We decided it only made sense to do the same."

The IFF has graded Idaho legislators on opposition to government spending for years. Its own organization and the majority of its board accepted more than $2 million in forgivable federal loans during the same period.