CHEYENNE — Four Wyoming House representatives received checks on the floor of the state House of Representatives after adjournment the evening of Feb. 9, according to testimony at a Thursday meeting of the House’s investigative committee on the matter.
All four altogether denied bribery or wrongdoing, as did the woman who passed the checks out, Teton County conservative activist Rebecca Bextel.
Bextel told the committee under oath Thursday that, “I just wafted, without a care in the world, into the House chamber. I’m sorry it’s not more exciting than that.”
She said she's being targeted by people who oppose her war against affordable housing mitigation fees, which are elaborate in Teton County and Jackson, and under court scrutiny.
"I am the first person who's stepped in front of a 30-year scam with landowners in that county," she said. "People tried to stop it in the past, and they got nowhere, because we have a lot of counterfeit Republicans in this Capitol."
She said she didn't talk about raising money for conservative causes until she ran last year, unsuccessfully, to become state GOP chair.
"That's because I had to save the GOP with $30,000 I raised," she said. Bextel said she plans to double her fundraising efforts this year.
The voters in the party "turned on me there at the last second," she said.
She said she wasn't handing out the checks to seek attention.
There were no rules against giving campaign donations on the floor at the time, though the House, Senate, and governor have enacted rules banning the practice since this controversy — which Capitol regulars deemed “CheckGate” — erupted.
Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, had urged House members Feb. 11 not to vote in favor of a bill Bextel championed, House Bill 141, saying that would bring bad “optics.”
That bill, to block affordable housing mitigation fees, cleared introduction moments later and has since cleared the House altogether.
Two others also have said they got a check from Bextel at the Capitol — Republicans House Speaker Chip Neiman (Hulett) and Rep. John Bear (Gillette) — but not on the House floor.
'Something Given'
Two of the representatives tasked with investigating the incident for signs of bribery or misconduct were standing near one of those delegates, Rep. Chris Knapp, R-Gillette, when he received his check, video from the Thursday hearing shows.
Those were Majority Floor Leader Scott Heiner, R-Green River, and Rep. Reuben Tarver, R-Gillette.
Tarver addressed that from his seat on the dais in the Capitol’s Historic Supreme Court.
“For everyone’s information, I was with Mr. Knapp at that time and there was something given to Mr. Knapp,” Tarver said. "I could not tell you what it was, but I was standing there and you will see that in the evidence provided coming forth."
Committee Chair Art Washut, R-Casper, asked if any other committee member had something to say.
No one answered.
Heiner did not return a voicemail request for comment by publication.
The other four committee members are Republican Reps. Marilyn Connolly (Buffalo), Martha Lawley (Worland) and Justin Fornstrom (Pine Bluffs), and Rep. Ivan Posey, D-Fort Washakie.
The committee descended into a non-public administrative phase after Thursday’s four-and-a-half-hour hearing.
And it must have its report of findings to the House of Representatives within four legislative days of Friday, Washut told Cowboy State Daily in a Thursday text message.
All House members the original donor listed as recipients of the checks voted favor of HB 141. Multiple lawmakers also acknowledged under Heiner’s questioning they voted for a related bill, Senate File 40, in 2025 when no checks controversy was in play.
That bill sought to amend the state’s zoning protest procedures. It stalled out on its second pass through the Senate.
A Little Background
Rep. Karlee Provenza, D-Laramie, captured a photograph the evening of Feb. 9 of Teton County conservative activist and GOP party leader Bextel handing a check to Rep. Darin McCann, R-Rock Springs, on the House floor after the chamber had adjourned for the day.
Rep. Marlene Brady, R-Green River, is depicted in the photograph holding a piece of paper in her hands. Rep. Joe Webb, R-Lyman, testified Thursday that he also received a check on the House floor.
“How sweet!” Brady exclaims in a video Provenza also shot.
Provenza had called for the investigative committee in a Feb. 12 floor motion, and for House Speaker Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, to appoint seven members to probe the incident for bribery or misconduct.
Every House member who was present on the floor after her motion voted in favor of convening the committee.
Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak announced Feb. 14 he was also opening a criminal investigation, prompting the legislative committee to ask the House to delay its investigation.
The House majority rejected that and told the committee to continue.
‘Tell Me What Your Intent Was’
On Thursday, all four delegates who’d received checks on the floor, and Bextel, denied allegations of bribery.
Under oath and under questioning by multiple lawmakers, Bextel described the incident as a spontaneous and incidental event.
“I just need to be clear on this,” asked Connolly. “Tell me what your intent was.”
“It wasn’t premeditated,” Bextel answered. “I’m just a fly-by-your-seat kinda girl.”
According to text message screenshots Bextel submitted, she contacted the four lawmakers Jan. 22 to alert them a Teton County donor, now known to be Don Grasso, wanted to donate $1,500 to each of their campaigns; and to ask to whom she should make out the checks.
Bextel also testified that they weren’t bribes. She said she discussed the donations with Grasso in late December.
But then Grasso’s assistant, who was to send her the checks, fell ill, according to Bextel’s testimony and screenshots she provided.
“I tried to give her a few days to recover,” said Bextel, adding that the assistant eventually sent Bextel the checks via an overnight FedEx package from Wisconsin, but the winter storms delayed it.
“So for eight days you watched this overnight FedEx literally go around, around America,” she said.
Then, she added, her husband took her on vacation to Mexico, and the checks arrived at her house before she did.
By the time she returned and intercepted them, it was Feb. 6 - three days before session, Bextel testified.
By then, she figured, “Well, why would I mail someone a check that’s not going to be home for six weeks?”
Grasso told Cowboy State Daily on Feb. 14 that besides Knapp, Brady, Webb and McCann, he also intended checks for candidate Mark Jennings, Sen. Bob Ide, R-Casper; Neiman, House Appropriations Chair Bear; and Republican Reps. Gary Brown (Cheyenne) and Tony Locke (Casper).
He also said he understood Bextel was going to send the checks, not hand them out on the floor.
The night of Feb. 9, Bextel said she wanted to enter the floor to greet some lawmakers.
Bextel had already been onto the floor hours prior at noon recess putting orchids on lawmakers’ desks, Rep. Liz Storer, D-Jackson, testified.
Storer didn’t see a legislative escort with Bextel at the noon recess, so she found it noteworthy, she said.
House rules say a guest must have an escort to enter the floor.
The Escort
In the evening, Rep. Nina Webber, R-Cody, heard Bextel’s laugh beyond the chamber and rose to get her, Webber testified.
The pair are close, Bextel added during her own testimony.
Trailing Bextel were her friend Rita LeBlanc, and Dawn Marquardt, who told the committee she’s the niece of Rep. Mike Schmid, R-LaBarge.
LeBlanc did not testify.
Marquardt testified that she wanted to speak with Schmid and see if he was going to a GOP dinner in the Capitol extension that evening.
As for Bextel, she said the checks were wedged into a custom-made book that she carries with her all the time, and that her business partner David Iverson made for her.
She showed the committee the book.
LeBlanc had just arrived at the Capitol before the women entered the floor about 5:20 p.m., Bextel testified.
“We just kinda met there,” said Bextel. “I just wafted towards the House floor.”
“That’s just what I do. I’m just floating around. I just floated, saw Nina — we walked in there,” she added.
Her intention was to greet people and find someone to keep LeBlanc company while she livestreamed into a Teton County GOP event, Bextel said.
Questioned about why she didn’t hand the checks out at the GOP dinner moments later, Bextel said she didn’t attend that dinner.
Statement
Webb delivered a statement to the committee, which Brady and McCann later both said they would echo.
“Never at any time has anyone offered me money, anything of value, or anything else to vote or not vote a certain way,” Webb said. “Should that happen, I would report it to the proper authorities.”
Neither he nor Bextel has ever “discussed, hinted or even joked” about such a thing, Webb added.
Knapp told the committee he was ill Feb. 9.
He also told Cowboy State Daily that, in text messages that morning, he was on the floor by the afternoon and evening.
Bextel handed him something, he recalled for the investigative committee.
“As sick as I was it could’ve been an elephant,” said Knapp, prompting laughter in the room and on the committee.
He realized later at the apartment he shares with Neiman that it was a check, Knapp said, adding that he didn’t realize it had been an issue until later that week when Provenza moved for the committee’s formation.
Under questioning by Heiner, Knapp said he never understood the check to be geared toward influencing his vote; rather, it was for funding his campaign.
He added that he hadn’t decided yet whether to run, pending his health outcome.
The other representatives testified that they haven’t declared for office.
“Campaign checks, of course, are part of free speech,” Knapp told the committee. “So, I would never expect a campaign donation to be anything except a campaign donation, and free speech.”
Now that there’s a rule, said Knapp, he wouldn’t accept such a check if it were handed him on the floor tomorrow: “I would report it to the speaker.”
Knapp in his statement said he wanted it documented that staffers in the Legislative Service Office would not help him draft an amendment to Provenza’s motion.
LSO Director Matt Obrecht, who delivered witness declarations of terms and rights before each testimony, declined to comment to Cowboy State Daily during a break, referring the outlet to Knapp for more information.
Knapp was unable to comment during the break.
Webb told the committee he recognized Bextel on the floor the night of Feb. 9. He said he received a $250 campaign contribution from her for the 2024 election, and another donation that may have come through, rather than from her.
Posey asked Brady if she’d received campaign contributions from Bextel in the past.
“I don’t recall,” answered Brady.
She said she didn’t communicate with Bextel after Feb. 9 “about House Bill 141 or any matter pending before the Legislature.”
Contrast
McCann and Bextel both provided screenshots of their text exchanges about the check, but Bextel’s screenshots cut off earlier than the one McCann provided.
McCann showed that he had alerted Bextel on Feb. 11 that HB 141 was “up” for a vote in the House.
Bextel said he alerted her because she was in the Senate.
McCann said he alerted her because he knew of her interest in the bill.
Lawley questioned McCann about other text messages, where McCann, according to his testimony and the text feed displayed on the screen, told Bextel he had spoken with a reporter about the checks on the floor.
He’d told the reporter that “if she spins it” he wouldn’t talk to her again.
Under Oath
The video shows Webber rise and leave the chamber and return with Bextel, and Webber gesturing toward where certain representatives were standing.
It also shows Provenza returning to her desk from nearby, and Bextel greeting lawmakers and handing out checks.
Provenza sent her photograph of the check-passing to some members of the media.
Some of her Republican colleagues have since criticized her for that, asking why she contacted the media instead of filing a formal complaint through House leadership.
Provenza answered that question again Thursday for the committee, where she swore as a witness to tell the truth or risk perjury charges.
Heiner asked Provenza if she’s familiar with the Wyoming Legislature’s joint rule 22-1: the ethics complaint procedure.
The rule says it “allows for receipt and investigation of complaint alleging legislative misconduct by members of the House and Senate” and it forbids lawmakers to use the formal complaint process for political ends.
Provenza never filed a formal complaint.
She told Heiner she knew the rule.
“Is there a reason you didn’t follow that and you went to the media instead?” asked Heiner.
Provenza answered that there’s nothing requiring her to use that rule rather than her First Amendment rights.
“What I saw was an egregious use of the Wyoming House floor. I also wanted the truth,” she said, adding that journalists would corroborate what she saw “and it wouldn’t be swept under the rug.”
Had she filed a complaint, House Speaker Neiman would have received it, if that were “appropriate,” the rule says.
Provenza told the House earlier this month that when she went to the media, she didn’t know that Neiman, too, had received a check, but that learning he had affirmed her decision.
Neiman on Feb. 18 divulged his interactions with Bextel and the check from the House floor, saying Bextel contacted him in January about a donation, handed it to him in his Capitol office the day session opened, and he in turn handed it off to his wife and thought no further of it — until the controversy broke.
Neither Neiman nor Bear were called to testify before the investigative committee, online summons letters show. They also did not appear at the hearing.
Under Provenza’s motion, the committee was set to investigate whether checks were provided to House members “on the floor of the House.”
Neither Bear nor Neiman appear in the Capitol security footage of the House floor featured Thursday.
Bear told Cowboy State Daily he received his check Feb. 10 between 9 and 10 a.m. on the third-floor hallway in the Capitol.
“I was not aware that I was receiving a check in advance,” said Bear in a Feb. 19 text message.
Webber told the committee she’s disappointed the situation wasn’t handled via leadership, and emphasized that this year’s lawmaking session comes with the obligation of passing a state budget.
“Thank you everyone for your time on this committee and I look forward to the results,” said Webber.
Democrat At A Conservative Event
Fornstrom asked Storer if she’d had a conversation with Provenza that night.
She had, Storer said.
“At some point, Representative Provenza did show me the photo that she’d taken, and (spoke) her understanding that she believed it to be checks that were being handed out,” said Storer.
Storer had recognized Bextel and watched her hand something out, but she surmised at the time the objects could have been thank-you cards, she said.
She called it “somewhat remarkable” that Bextel chose to hand out checks on the floor when there were other chances for her to do so, including an event she was holding the following night through her group “Eyes on Wyoming.”
Heiner asked Storer if she discussed joint rule 22-1 with Provenza “and how this should be brought to the attention of leadership.”
“Not that I recall,” answered Storer.
Storer also testified that she attended Bextel’s event that Tuesday.
Bextel confirmed it, and said she let Storer speak in defense of Teton County’s affordable housing mitigation fees, which Bextel has long opposed.
“I actually cross the street to get away from Liz Storer when I see her in Teton County,” said Bextel.
But, the invitation was a “blanket” one for “anyone that wants to come learn,” she added.
According to McCann’s testimony, that event was the only place where Bextel had lobbied him — indirectly as part of her speech to the crowd — about the affordable housing mitigation fees she opposes.
Other witnesses who appear in the Capitol footage from the evening of Feb. 9 testified at the hearing, and stayed briefly.
Rep. Pam Thayer, R-Rawlins, didn’t notice anyone enter the floor, and didn’t hear any conversation between the people around her, she testified. Republican Reps. Lloyd Larsen (Lander) and Bob Davis (Baggs) testified the same. None of them ventured an additional statement. They left after testifying.
McCann, Webb and Schmid did not leave once excused, and each went back to sit by Bextel after their testimonies concluded. Brady also returned to her seat, on the other side of the room, as did Marquardt and Knapp to their seats near but not next to Brady.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
