Sound of Freedom Producer & Truth Army Caught in Church Militant Quagmire
Yes! Another lawsuit!
There’s a new lawsuit on the block.
A Missouri cloud hosting service is suing Truth Army and two (now former) Church Militant (CM) Board members for $3 million, claiming “tortious interference with a contract.”
The suit alleges Truth Army, Joe Gallagher and Geoffrey B. Sando instigated a breach of contract, preventing Church Militant from making its nearly $100,000 monthly payment for hosting services and software development.
In September 2022, Church Militant signed a four-year contract with Patmos Hosting, Inc., agreeing to a $94,000 monthly payment that increased incrementally over the life the contract.
According to the Harrisonville, Missouri, company, their services “formed the foundation supporting the Church Militant video library and paywall.”
Events Leading Up to the Lawsuit
Patmos has had a 10-year business relationship with Church Militant. The suit notes CM had always paid on time until early February 2024 when it revealed to Patmos CEO John Johnson it “was in financial trouble.”
On February 13, the suit claims the board informed Johnson: “Church Militant would be dissolving under Michigan law effective March 15, 2024.”
Johnson offered to help find a third party purchaser of the remaining assets (studio equipment and the video library), and, as another alternative, he offered to take title to the assets in exchange for settling on the contract valued at $3 million.
On February 16, Johnson alleges his counsel talked with Church Militant’s counsel about these options, but CM’s counsel revealed Truth Army was poised to sign a third-party purchaser letter of intent.
On February 27, according to the suit, the details shifted. Now Truth Army, led by Joe Gallagher, was signing a management agreement.
In a March 4 meeting between Johnson and Gallagher, Johnson claims Gallagher, the new manager, scuttled a 7-month rebranding project. Johnson also was still insisting on payment for February services and now, March as well, or the site would be shut down.
Gallagher said his business partner, Geoff Sando would take care of the payment. Somehow that didn’t happen.
On March 5, Gallagher made a failed attempt to forward Church Militant traffic to Truth Army’s site. In a video posted on Church Militant’s YouTube channel, Gallagher announced Truth Army was now managing Church Militant’s assets.
Chaos erupted online. The lawsuit offers this example: “In a posted comment to this Joeseph Gallagher video, an incredulous subscriber responded to this statement as follows: ‘What does it mean to manage not-owned assets? Who owns the assets? To whom does my monthly premium subscription go?’”
Johnson claims:
Truth Army is an entity that purports to have been “managing” Church Militant. In fact, however, Truth Army disabled the Church Militant website, attempted to take the paywall that Patmos had developed for Church Militant’s use and tried to use the paywall on the Truth Army website, funneled unwitting Church Militant consumers from Church Militant to Truth Army. And perhaps most egregious to the public interest, Truth Army, with knowledge of Messrs. Gallagher and Sando, shut off access to Church Militant and stripped a consumer’s ability to cancel his or her subscription.
Johnson also claims to have the receipts to prove his allegations. On March 8, he filed suit. Gallagher’s Truth Army is off to a rocky start to say the least.
Meanwhile, Gallagher’s financial backer, Geoff Sando, finds himself in the middle of the Church Militant soap opera.
Sando was one of more than twenty executive producers for the sleeper hit Sound of Freedom. So far, the film has made more than ten times its money back so Sando may be in a position to help Truth Army, but then … there’s that pesky contract with Patmos!
Tune in to Christine Harrington’s Eternal Life Plan YouTube channel at 8:00 p.m. tonight, March 14. We will be discussing more of the details.
Or, you can watch the replay at a later time.
Wow. Seems to go from bad to worse to catastrophic for CM. All of their own making though, it's all the ex staff members I feel sorry for. Well, all except Mr Rafe. As we say in Scotland, there's a want about that one.
This is oh so sad! Church Militant started out to be something great, informative and educating people in the One True Faith. Unfortunately, they just got to be too big and went way over board. As time went on CM lost it's meaning and purpose. CM became a "Catholic" tabloid and we saw that train heading for a wreck. I feel so sorry for all of the good people that worked at CM. Many of them relocated and dedicated their time and work into bringing the truth to the people, others on the other hand were not on the same path. It's better if CM just disappears and is never seen again. CM ran it's course for the time and now it's time to say Good Bye, So Long, Farewell!