The Dark Past Of The "Weinergate" Co-Pilot

JUNE 3--The Twitter user who first floated the rumor that a lewd photo scandal was brewing for Representative Anthony Weiner is not your typical conservative avenger, an investigation by The Smoking Gun has determined.

Mike Stack, a 39-year-old New Jersey resident, is known as “goatsred” in the Twitterverse, where he has helped lead a months-long assault on the New York City politician. Stack was joined at the hip in this pursuit by “patriotusa76,” who gave his name as “Dan Wolfe” and was the online avenger who happened last Friday night to discover the notorious tweet emanating from Weiner’s account.

As TSG reported yesterday, “Dan Wolfe” has conveniently evaporated in the wake of “Weinergate.” In fact, today Wolfe's entire Twitter page was deleted.

But Stack, the other Twitter Twin, remains online. An examination of his background has discovered:

* Stack, who aggressively pushed the story about Weiner’s underpants shot, has worked as a moderator on a pornography web site, and been a regular commenter on several other X-rated sites. Stack describes himself as a “Pervert” on one site, where his avatar, captioned “Antichrist,” is a drawing of President Barack Obama as Jesus Christ.

* New Jersey court records show that Stack was convicted of drunk driving in February 2008. He was previously arrested for domestic assault in July 2004 following a drunken fight that left his girlfriend with bruises on her arm (that case, though, ended with a dismissal in April 2005). Stack is pictured above in a mug shot taken by the Readington Township Police Department following his 2004 collar.

* Stack has twice declared bankruptcy during the past 14 years. His most recent Chapter 7 case ended in July 2008, around the time Stack lost his Hunterdon County home to foreclosure. At the time of that filing, Stack reported working as a warehouseman for Johnson & Johnson.

* The Internal Revenue Service last year filed a $5907 federal tax lien against Stack.

“The past is the past,” Stack said in an interview today. Describing himself as a “private person,” he added, “there’s no reason my records need to be public.”

Stack also contended that while he sent out the May 5 tweet first hinting that a “big time” Congressman was about to be ensnared in a sex scandal, he claimed that Wolfe actually provided him that information. Wolfe, Stack said, told him that he had heard the rumor from a source who worked for a well-known conservative web site.

After Stack sent out the initial tweet, Wolfe quickly ran with the rumor, attributing it--“via@goatsred”--to his online buddy. In retweets, Wolfe immediately attached Weiner’s name to the rumor, wondering “@RepWeiner are you this Congressman?” Stack did not have an explanation as to why Wolfe sought to launder the rumor through him. He also vehemently denied that he was Wolfe.

While Stack’s rap sheet and financial calamities may be of interest to “Weinergate” followers, his affiliation with porn sites might raise the eyebrows of the conservative coterie with which he is affiliated.

In mid-2009, TSG discovered, Stack began working as a moderator on xxxporntalk.com, which describes itself as the sex industry’s “ultimate” discussion forum. Stack first registered with the site, known as "XPT," in December 2007 and used the handle “redgoat” and the Obama “Antichrist” avatar. His original avatar was a photo of Obama bicycling with a helmet on his head (an image that has been ridiculed by the president’s detractors).

After a brief hiatus from XPT, Stack announced his return to the site with a May 11 post entitled “Welcoming Myself Back.” He wrote, “Love me, or hate me, I'm planning to be here a lot more starting tomorrow. I've missed the perversion and dysfunction, but am sure it still reigns supreme.” Stack added, “To my friends, the rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated. To my enemies: Go fuck yourselves. Let the games begin.”

Stack has also been a frequent commenter on other porn industry discussion sites, where he has been known to tangle with other users. During a January 2009 discussion on the Porn Star Babylon blog, Stack wrote to a female commenter that, “I just know not to look a gift horse in the mouth. Kind of like when your daddy shoves his cock in your mouy=th.” He dismissed another rival as a “Closeted fag,” and asked, “did your daddy touch you in your private place? Did you snap towels in the locker room with the other guys?”

Stack fought frequently with a woman who accused him of stalking her online, and alleged that he admitted to opening numerous Twitter accounts posing as her. This sort of obsessive attention to a subject he disliked would be familiar to anyone who has followed Stack’s acerbic tweets about Weiner and his wife, Huma Abedin.

In one 2009 post, Stack fired back at some of his online enemies, warning them to “be careful of what you say.” He claimed, “I can find out anything about anyone. The software and programs that I have at my disposal, in addition to the people who work in the wi-fi and technology field that I am partnered with make me a virtual cyber detective.” Stack added, “I have other people making me money, so I have all day to have fun here at my little house. Hopefully, you have the same resources the next time you call someone out.”

In a December 2008 online profile, Stack noted that he loves the “virtual world,” and was self-employed building “networks, programs.” He described himself as a passionate gambler whose favorite travel destination was Las Vegas. Howard Stern, Stack reported, was his favorite author, and the last book he read was one authored by Stern sidekick Artie Lange. (4 pages)