Matt Shea

Matthew Thomas Shea (born April 18, 1974) is an American far-right lawyer, pastor, and politician. A Republican, he represented the 4th legislative district in the Washington House of Representatives from 2009 to 2021. A 2019 report published by the Washington House of Representatives accused Shea of domestic terrorism in relation to his role in a series of standoffs with federal authorities.

In October 2018, Shea acknowledged that he had distributed a four-page manifesto which called for the killing of non-Christian males if a war were to occur and they do not agree to follow fundamentalist biblical law. Shea was referred to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for investigation as a result. In April 2019, Shea was removed as State House Republican Caucus Chair for advocating violence against religious minorities and offering state surveillance of political enemies to members of hate groups.

An investigative report commissioned by the House, issued on December 1, 2019, found that Shea "participated in an act of domestic terrorism against the United States", organized and supported "three armed conflicts of political violence", and advocated replacing the government with a theocracy and "the killing of all males who do not agree." A former ally of Shea provided documents showing that Shea and his supporters were planning to seize control of the region after the outbreak of civil war, installing Shea as governmental leader in order to institute "constitutional changes" to "sanctify to Jesus Christ". Immediately after the report was issued, Shea was removed from the House Republican Caucus, though he refused to resign.

Early life, education, and legal career

Shea graduated from high school in Bellingham, Washington. He received a bachelor's degree from Gonzaga University in 1996 and a J.D. degree from Gonzaga University School of Law in 2006. Shea worked for seven years at M. Casey Law in Spokane as an attorney before opening a solo practice in 2020 specializing in nonprofit, civil rights and personal injury law.

Military service

Shea was in the Army ROTC program at Gonzaga University. In 1996, he entered the U.S. Army as a second Lieutenant. He was deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Iraq, and Kuwait, and left the Washington Army National Guard in 2006 with the rank of Captain.

Political career

Shea was first elected to the Washington House of Representatives in 2008, representing the 4th Legislative District, part of Spokane County. He was re-elected four times, in 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018.

Shea hosts ''Patriot Radio'', a twice-weekly show broadcast on the American Christian Network.

Shea was a co-founder and director of the Washington Family Foundation, a socially conservative advocacy group. He was also a board member of the anti-same-sex marriage group Protect Marriage Washington, and during his first term in office introduced legislation seeking to block the recognition of same-sex marriage in Washington.

Shea is a founding member and current chairman of the Coalition of Western States. In an interview, Shea stated that COWS's goals are to "facilitate the transfer of public lands back to the state level, and to have the states and counties manage the land". During the 2016 occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Shea and other COWS members traveled to Burns, Oregon, allegedly attempting to negotiate on behalf of the militants occupying the reserve. In 2015, Shea supported Idaho Representative Heather Scott, a fellow COWS member, in a protest near the home of John Arnold. Arnold had received a letter from the Department of Veterans Affairs stating the VA had found him mentally incompetent, and protesters worried that his right to own firearms may have been impacted by the VA's findings.

Shea organized the Spokane chapter of ACT! for America, an anti-Muslim organization designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

As a state legislator, Shea introduced House Memorials in 2015 and 2017 to create a new State of Liberty from Eastern Washington.

Shea did not file for re-election in 2020. He would have faced former State Representative Leonard Christian in the 2020 Republican primary. Nurse practitioner Lori Feagan, a Democrat, also planned to run against Shea in the general election.

Pastorate

In June 2020, Shea was announced as the next pastor of Covenant Christian Church in Spokane, replacing current pastor Ken Peters. Peters, who will be relocating to Knoxville, Tennessee to start a new church, described the change as “God moving generals around”.

In May 2021, Shea resigned from Covenant Christian a church and started his own congregation called On Fire Ministries & Kingdom Christian Academy where he is listed as Senior Pastor. When asked, Peters said "We let Matt go. We felt he was better on his own. It wasn’t a good fit, long-term.”

Controversies

In 2011, as part of the process to replace Washington State Senator Bob McCaslin, background information about Shea included allegations of angry outbursts at Shea's legislative office and that he was disarmed by a commander while he served in Iraq due to anger management issues. Despite Shea being endorsed by the Executive Board of Spokane County's Republican Party, the county commissioners selected businessman Jeff Baxter.

Differences in views between Shea and Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich, also a Republican, resulted in Shea contending that "the Southern Poverty Law Center—and the sheriff (Knezovich) that backs them—is the most dangerous organization in this country".

Shea has often clashed with journalists, referring to reporters as "dirty, godless, hateful people" at an August 2018 gun-rights rally. He refers to local newspapers as the "Socialist-Review" ('' Spokesman-Review'') and the "Inslander" ('' Inlander''), the latter referring to Jay Inslee. Shea's contentious history with the press attracted attention because he was, as of August 2018, one of eight state legislators on a Washington Legislature task force dealing with state public records laws and exemptions to them.

"Biblical Basis for War" manifesto

In late October 2018, Shea acknowledged that he had distributed a document described as a "four-page manifesto" titled ''Biblical Basis for War'' that listed strategies that a "Holy Army" could employ. The document, consisting of 14 sections divided into bullet points, had a section on "rules of war" that stated "make an offer of peace before declaring war", which within stated that the enemy must "surrender on terms" of no abortions, no same-sex marriage, no communism and "must obey Biblical law", then continued: "If they do not yield — kill all males". Shea acknowledged the document and claimed that it was a summary of "biblical sermons on war." ''The Spokesman-Review'' reported: "After the document was leaked online Tuesday 0/23/18 the Spokane Valley Republican insisted he was not promoting violence and that the message had been taken out of context. 'First of all, it was a summary of a series of sermons on biblical war in the Old Testament as part of a larger discussion on the history of warfare.' Shea said in a Facebook Live video. 'This document, in and of itself, was not a secret. I’ve actually talked about portions of this document publicly.'" Sheriff Knezovich alerted the FBI to the manifesto and said that the statements made in the manifesto are consistent with a racist, anti-Semitic, and white supremacist ideology known as Christian Identity, which seeks to establish a " white homeland" in the US northwest.

Violent right-wing chat group

In April 2019, ''The Guardian'' published records from a right-wing chat group of four people that Shea participated in, where Shea used an alias of ‘True Warrior’ in Latin. Other members in the chat group discussed carrying out surveillance, intimidation and violent attacks on political enemies, including Antifa activists and "communists." Shea himself volunteered to conduct background checks on residents of Spokane, resulting in Shea naming three individuals. One of the chat group's members forwarded the information to ''The Guardian'', while another confirmed the existence of the chats and acknowledged the discussion on conducting surveillance on "Antifa" people. ''The Guardian'' published a second set of emails in August that tied Shea to an organization called Team Rugged, which aimed to train young men for "biblical warfare".

Political violence

An investigation commissioned by Washington House of Representatives reported, on December 1, 2019, that Shea had planned and participated in domestic terrorism on at least three occasions. This included his participation, organizing, planning, and promotion of the 2014 Bundy standoff in Nevada, the 2015 armed standoff in Priest River, Idaho

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