Why won't "J6 Julie" Pickren, Texas BoE member, talk about her criminal training buddy James Dunn anymore?
Why won't "J6 Julie" Pickren, Texas BoE member, talk about her criminal training buddy James Dunn anymore?
"I have no comment," said Pickren, when asked how she knows Dunn. She then hung up when asked why she attended Dunn's Southlake school trustee training with Education Commissioner Mike Morath.
Julie Pickren, noted supporter of the J6 Capitol Lynch Mob, officially became a Texas Board of Education member on New Year’s Day in James Dunn’s home base of Angleton, Texas, which is not her own home base of Alvin.
Despite that odd choice of geography, “J6 Julie” very much does not want to talk now about James Dunn, the convicted felon GOP operative and relentless grifter of people, churches, and communities across at least two states. (That’s before we ever get to all his PPP loans. Pretty good rundown on it all here.)
“I have no comment,” Pickren said, when I reached her by phone late Wednesday and asked how she came to know Dunn.
Her reticence seems strange.
Back in October, “J6 Julie” was happy to advertise sharing a stage with Dunn at a school trustee training she facilitated with Dunn in Southlake.
When I asked Wednesday why she attended and took part in Dunn’s October training, Pickren hung up on me.
What a difference a couple of months can make to a relationship. Sad.
We’ll always have Southlake
So I didn’t get to ask Pickren about Texas Commissioner of Education Mike Morath or Dunn’s client on the Houston ISD, Kendall Baker, both of whom personally attended/blessed the criminal Dunn’s training in Southlake.
Here are some pictures and annotations from those happier days of October.
I also didn’t get to ask “J6 Julie” about newly-elected state State Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Wallisville, who is leading Texas’s legislative school voucher charge.
Middleton is a key financial backer of the political activities of Pickren, Dunn, and Baker.
The end of a beautiful friendship?
And finally, I didn’t even get to ask Pickren who showed up to her big ceremony in Dunn’s Angleton stomping grounds. She had a fancy invitation. I bet she was excited.
Sadly, I myself couldn’t attend, being a Floridian unwilling to spring for a plane ticket. And I don’t see any photos or accounts from the swearing-in.
So I don’t know if Dunn attended or Middleton or any of the happy gang from October in Southlake came by to cheer on and share a stage with their buddy “J6 Julie.” I tend to doubt it, if Pickren’s “no comment” on Dunn is any indicator.
Is this the end of all these beautiful friendships with Dunn? Perhaps. But at least they’ll always have Southlake.
Always.
If you are, say, a Texas Tribune or Texas Observer reporter suddenly interested in this story of criminal insanity in your state (and mine), I’d encourage you to read this piece I wrote a few days ago. It includes a massive Dunn-related timeline linked within it.
As you can tell, nobody in power in your state wants to talk about it. You know what that means. Use anything you want from me. Don’t even need attribution.
Happy hunting.