Armey Received an $8 Million Payout to Leave FreedomWorks

Woha baby, what kind of secrets does Dick Armey know about FreedomWorks?

The ousted Armey received an $8 million buyout to step down as chairman of FreedomWorks at the end of last month, reports Politico. Armey is to get 20 annual installments of $400,000.

According to Politico:

The tensions at FreedomWorks, brewing for months, boiled over this summer when Armey balked at a deal that Kibbe struck with HarperCollins to write a book called “Hostile Takeover: Resisting Centralized Government’s Stranglehold on America,” which was released in June.

Armey was concerned that Kibbe structured the deal to personally profit from the book despite relying on FreedomWorks staff and resources to research, help write and promote it — an arrangement he and others at the group believed could jeopardize its tax-exempt status...

So Armey declined to sign a memorandum presented to him in his capacity as a member of the board of trustees stating that the book was written without significant FreedomWorks resources and clearing the way for Kibbe to personally own the rights to the book and any royalties from it, multiple sources familiar with the arrangement told POLITICO.

Asked about his refusal to sign the memorandum, Armey, a former House Republican leader, said, “What bothered me most about that was that he was asking me to lie, and it was a lie that I thought brought the organization in harm’s way.”

In the book's acknowledgements, Kibbe thanked “a number of colleagues at FreedomWorks whose hard work also made this book a reality. Adam Brandon, Agitator-in-Chief, got this project off the ground as he always does, by committing to the impossible. Dean Clancy, Wayne Brough, Julie Borowski, Laura Howd, Josh Withrow, and Ryan Hecker all contributed substantial research and thinking on the ‘policy’ chapters, often putting in late hours to make good, better. Patrick Hedger, Michael Duncan and Max Pappas provided detailed copy edits to the final draft.”