The 2018 Republican congressional primary race in Florida’s 22nd district was one of the ugliest contests this year had to offer, and it culminated with Lebanese herbalist Nicolas Kimaz defeating award-winning Conservative media publisher Javier Manjarres.
Manjarres’ fundraising and media prowess were strong in the race and overpowered his opponents’ own efforts. Manjarres also garnered endorsements from Senator Marco Rubio and Attorney General Pam Bondi among other notable lawmakers.
The momentum was behind Manjarres heading into election day, so Kimaz had to shift his own campaign’s efforts in order to defeat Manjarres.
However, voters may have been the ones losing in the end because Kimaz submitted to using Alinsky-style/ George Soros type of campaign tactics to defeat Manjarres.
Kimaz resorted to lies by mailing several false allegations against Manjarres, which included stating that Manjarres had murdered someone with a gun, and was a member of radical Islam. Kimaz also accused Manjarres of working alongside other Muslims to “ambush” and eventually defeat Allen West in his congressional race.
These allegations were proven to be false, as public records show that Manjarres has never been arrested for, let alone charged with any type of murder charge. Kimaz’s false allegations prompted Manjarres to file a libel suit prior to the election.
In addition, another outlandish allegation from Kimaz is that Manjarres ambushed West at campaign events, but that was also proven as being a falsehood. Kimaz mentioned one instance in particular where he recounts Manjarres ambushing West with a member of CAIR, Nezar Hamze, to defeat West in his congressional race.
The incident in question occurred on February 23, 2011 when Hamze showed up to a West event “wielding a Koran.”
Manjarres, a reporter, was already at the event filming West. The video Manjarres shot of the interaction between West and Kimaz went viral, finding a home on every major news outlet, including Fox News.
Kimaz’s claim is debunked because, later that year, West defeated Democrat Rep. Ron Klein to become the next member of Congress in that district. In addition, West and Manjarres have remained close friends since first meeting in 2009.
Manjarres countered Kimaz’s false allegations by stating that Kimaz really wanted to “Make Lebanon Great Again” and not America.
Kimaz was born in the Arab nation of Lebanon, and he appears to have a very soft spot for his native country. In turn, Manjarres circulated an unearthed article by a very pro-Lebanon publication, Jabalna Magazine, where Kimaz states that if elected to the U.S. Congress he would pass legislation to protect Lebanon.
In one very questionable Jabalna story, the writer Hussain Abdul-Hussain states the he doesn’t see “nothing wrong with the Islamization of Lebanon.”
“With the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) ravaging the Syrian countryside, the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat Al-Nusra deploying on Lebanon’s eastern border and with Shiite Hezbollah overrunning the once-Christian southern suburb of Beirut and now dominating the entire country, Lebanon and Syria are destined to become nations with absolute Muslim majorities.
There is nothing wrong with the Islamization of Lebanon per se, but it will mean that diversity is lost and tolerance minimized.”
According to FEC records, Kimaz paid Jabalna Magazine for advertisements, which begs to question if the “advertisement” payment was for the very positive story where Kimaz explains that:
"I hope to help Lebanon by issuing laws in America to protect Lebanon...the face of Lebanon, which we know, as there are many attempts to change the demography in it...”
"There is also in America 's law to protect Israel, a situation never changes regardless of the President of the United States, I will seek to develop a similar law in order to protect Lebanon and the protection of the Christian presence in it."
Manjarres, in the website www.nicolaskimazforcongress.com, also highlighted that Kimaz changed his name and goes under different alias, and Kimaz was also named as a defendant in a federal racketeering (RICO) case. The website lists all of Kimaz’s questionable dealings according to the federal court document.
One of the most damning accusations made against Kimaz is one where he received the $100k he loaned his campaign.
According to House Ethics Committee filings, Kimaz received a $50k-$100k loan from a Leila Machaalany. That very same month he received the loan from Machaalany, Kimaz loaned his congressional campaign the same amount that loaned to him.
We have tried to locate Mrs. Machaalany, but there doesn’t seem to be anyone by that name living in the United States.
Sources are now saying that federal authorities are aware of all this and have begun to dig in.
