There’s something in the water with vulnerable New York Republicans and embarrassing online histories.
Over the summer, it was exposed that Mike Lawler had previously been banned from Wikipedia after editing his own page, prompting him to spend his time while the House was in session begging to regain access to his Wikipedia editor account.
A couple months ago, a battle took place on Anthony D’Esposito’s record on his Wikipedia page – with anonymous edits being made to the page to remove information about the vulnerable New York Republican violating the Town of Hempstead’s ethics code and receiving complaints in the NYPD.
An account on X with the handle @MPoppinsNY impersonated the iconic magical nanny in over 200 posts that boosted Molinaro and relentlessly criticized his current and previous Democratic opponent Josh Riley, from August 2022 to July 2023.
While The Daily Beast could not confirm who runs the account, there are signs that it could be someone with access to Molinaro’s own social media accounts.
The biggest clue came on July 5, 2023. At 2:25 p.m. that day, Molinaro’s official X account replied to a post from Riley, announcing the birth of his second son, Mateo. Molinaro’s post extended a warm congratulations to his opponent from him and his wife, Corinne Adams.
“There is no more challenging or rewarding role than that of parent,” Molinaro’s post read. “Congratulations to you both. Corinne and I wish much happiness and new blessing to your growing family” it continued.
Two minutes later, at 2:27 p.m., @MPoppinsNY shared Riley’s post, tagged Riley and, bizarrely, made the exact same comment Molinaro just had. The only difference was that the post added a period at the end of the caption.
A half-hour later, Molinaro’s official X account quote-shared Riley’s post with the same caption verbatim, including the period that the Poppins account had added.
Adding to the intrigue is the fact that the congressman himself is a known Poppins fan. In February 2019, Molinaro took his son, Eli, to see his first movie. It was, of course, Mary Poppins.
Still, the Poppins account seemed intimately familiar with specific details in press coverage of Molinaro. When the Dutchess County comptroller’s office reviewed Molinaro’s official car usage in a county-wide audit, it posted that Molinaro drives “a leased Tahoe valued at $79k” and that “some in his position have a driver and security.”
The Daily Beast sent two emails to Molinaro’s office asking whether he or a staffer ran the Poppins account, but received no response.
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) is a notable alumnus of Manhattan College—at least according to the Bronx liberal arts school’s Wikipedia page.
The congressman, a former state lawmaker who upset Democratic campaign chief Sean Patrick Maloney last year, may boast a resume that merits the honor. But it wasn’t the Wikipedia hive mind that put Lawler on the notable alumni list; it was apparently Lawler himself.
The edit, made two years ago, was far from a one-off. The longtime GOP operative was a prolific editor of his own Wikipedia content. Lawler made 26 changes in total—which earned him a warning from site administrators that he was violating policy by editing his own content, and, later on, an outright ban.
The account’s username—MichaelVLawler—is the same username Lawler uses on his personal Facebook and YouTube accounts. He also previously used “@michaelvlawler” on Twitter before changing the handle.
According to open source Wikipedia records, the edits were all made in 2021, while Lawler was serving as a New York assemblyman. Beyond authoring his self-made jump to his alma mater’s notable alumni, he made several more straightforward changes to his Wikipedia page.
The edits might seem fair game, if a touch self-aggrandizing. But where Lawler ran into trouble with Wikipedia was editing information about himself, which the site dubs as a conflict of interest and a violation of official policy.
In May 2021, Lawler’s account was flagged with a warning of the potential conflict of interest.
Lawler was told not to make any more edits about himself, but continued to do so that August. His account was ultimately banned that same month from making any more edits to his page—or to any other page on the site. A number of Lawler’s edits were also reverted later.
The Daily Beast reached out to Lawler’s office three times with questions about the account, but his spokesperson, Nate Soule, did not respond until after publication of the article on Wednesday.
There’s a fight going on behind the scenes of Rep. Anthony D’Esposito’s Wikipedia page over whether the complaints he received as an NYPD officer should be included.
On May 30, an anonymous Wikipedia user edited the Long Island Republican’s page to remove references to his disciplinary history with the NYPD and add flattering details about his service on the Hempstead Town Board. Another editor removed it, flagging an ‘unexplained removal of content.’
Similar edit battles have been going on since January, as some users included the number of arrests he made, while others added that D’Esposito violated the town ethics code. That one got deleted by another user for being ‘just basically opposition research.’
The disciplinary information remains on his page as of Thursday – in slightly inaccurate form. It says he ‘received four complaints of excessive force, for one of which it was recommended that charges be filed against him.’ Only one of the complaints was for excessive force, and the only substantiated one was for an improper search.
But he’s not the only New York freshman whose Wiki page has garnered interest. Rep. Mike Lawler was briefly banned for editing his own page.
