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Last week the Gateway Pundit reported that North Dakota’s conservative broadcast station, BEK TV, had been caught trying to set up an extortion scheme whereby they would refuse to publish a story possibly damaging to Sen. Cramer in exchange for millions in state funds being paid to the story’s source.

BEK TV’s Lori Hinz, North Dakota broadcasting personality, who is denouncing TGP coverage and claiming it is false

The journalist pushing that extortion scheme, Lori Hinz, has been busy on local podcasts saying that the Gateway Pundit reporting is all wrong.

Hinz attempts to undermine the credibility of Gateway Pundit reporting by citing to the recent defamation settlement case against TGP, and the Pundit’s bankruptcy filing in Florida earlier this year.

Hinz then says, “This is not a new story as the article infers, and two there is a bit of a pattern here with the press. Finally, let me just say I was very disappointed in the North Dakotans quoted in the story who defamed BEK,” said Hinz. “The word appears shows up 10 times or so in the article, words like apparently or speculation. Read the transcript and listen to the transcript audio. You’ll hear in my voice what’s going on. Use your discernment.”

Hinz is fighting back against this article from last week outlining the extortion scheme Lori Hinz, Derrick Bulawa, and BEK TV attempted to broker with U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and their source, whistleblower Charles Hoefer.

The Gateway Pundit stands 100% behind its reporting on this matter.

The host of the podcast then compared the Gateway Pundit to the Flat Earth Society.

Hinz has said that she and BEK TV CEO Derrick Bulawa simply decided not to report on the scandal relating to supply chain problems in aviation that may put most of commercial aviation at risk of in-flight failures.

Legal experts suspect that after the source approached BEK, Hinz, and Bulawa, BEK and Hinz were going to profit off of burying the story and setting up their whistleblower source for federal prosecution for extorting Sen. Cramer.

U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND)

Hinz is also a Republican National Committeewoman from North Dakota and has bragged about a very close relationship with Sen. Kevin Cramer (R), having reportedly known him for 42 years. Cramer is privately throwing Hinz under the bus to Bismarck insiders, claiming that she “went rogue” and he had no idea what she was proposing.

Hoefer claims he gave Hinz and BEK TV a thumb drive with thousands of pages of documents and further evidence proving his claims. Hoefer also claims the evidence implicates North Dakota’s U.S. Senators Kevin Cramer and John Hoeven, and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum in one of the worst aviation parts fraud scandals in history.

Hinz and Bulawa claimed in phone calls to the Gateway Pundit that they did not believe Hoefer’s claims and had trouble researching them, even though they were still trying to set up a multi-million dollar payoff scheme to Hoefer and were willing to bury the story in exchange.

NOW though, exclusively released to the Gateway Pundit, Hoefer has provided audio from a conversation he had with Lori Hinz and Derrick Bulawa where they admit they knew about the scandal, and thought it was real, and offered even more interesting views and beliefs about the case, and admitted that they had previously suppressed stories from their viewers in exchange for money.

BEK TV’s Derrick Bulawa
In the audio clip from September 4th of this year, Bulawa explains who he believes is involved in the ongoing cover-up of the North Dakota Aviation Scandal: the state’s two U.S. Senators and the state’s Governor and possible black market arms sales:
Bulawa: “This is big enough and far enough that it is at the top. For any of our senior Senators, Governor, and people of that level would only be involved in this unless there were dollars involved in hundreds of millions,” Bulawa continued, “It’s got to do with black market arms and military technology sale, either with the consent or without the consent of our government.”
North Dakota media reported the components produced at his factory site in Dunseith, ND included electronics used in aviation but also similar components used in military aircraft, guided missiles, and Hoefer says he also found evidence of nuclear-related activity. This is what Bulawa is referencing in the audio excerpt. Bulawa is convinced the story involves illegal arms dealing by political elites, in addition to the alleged crimes already documented.
On the clip you can hear Hoefer express concern for the safety of himself and his family.
Bulawa agreed with his concerns, and noted the political power of the state’s two Senators and why Hoefer should be afraid for his life, stating: “It doesn’t get any worse, right? And just remember, Senator Hoeven sat on the Armed Services Committee, and now Senator Cramer sits on the Armed Services Committee. So, both of your senior Senators…”
Bulawa and Hinz then tried to get Hoefer to agree to a plan that Hoefer thought sounded so much like extortion that Hoefer objected to the plan for that reason. Bulawa was unconcerned with criminal prosecution and said Hoefer could “defeat” an extortion charge, because Hoefer has tried the right thing for two years unsuccessfully already.
Instead of reporting on the explosive story, Hinz and Bulawa were trying to broker a multi-million dollar extortion scheme and bury the story.
On the call, Hinz mentions that she never plans to run the story about the aviation risks to the public.
Hoefer now believes that Bulawa and Hinz were setting him up: trying to get him to name a specific price, so that by communicating that express amount to Senator Cramer, Hoefer could be set up for federal prosecution for attempted extortion of a U.S. Senator.
Hoefer was so concerned about this plan by Hinz and Bulawa, he instructed them not to pursue this plan over the phone and by email.
Explosively, media CEO Derrick Bulawa tried to sell Hoefer on the extortion plot, and suppressing the release of the story related to the North Dakota Aviation Scandal, and claimed that he had done this kind of extortion deal with political elites several times before.
Bulawa: “I’ve done this dance twice before and the outcomes suck, because the bad guys get away. But in both cases I needed to achieve the goals that were important to, to, to BEK and to me, and they were achieved. And the bad guys got away. The bad guys are going to get away. You just have to decide if you’re going to get destroyed in the process of the bad guys getting away.”
Hoefer was so concerned at this point he had an attorney send Lori Hinz of BEK TV a ‘cease and desist’ letter on Sept. 6th to ask them to please stop trying to insert BEK as a broker for any financial deal with Senator Cramer.
Hinz told Hoefer that he would have “plausible deniability” if anything were to come up about the money. Hinz seemed to suggest Hoefer put the money as part of the extortion deal first, and told Hoefer “The truth is, we’re not going to do anything until we talk to him [North Dakota U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer (R)], and see if we can work this before starting. The good news is we can adjust what we do, to what we learn.”
Hinz was brokering a financial deal with a U.S. Senator and was purposefully delaying reporting on the story until that deal was completed. You can listen to this audio of Hinz admitting this to Hoefer, and saying these quotes, here.
Sources claim Senator Cramer has made a major advertising buy with BEK TV in October, even though Cramer’s race is rated a “solid R” by the Cook Political Report.
Other media outlets have, like BEK TV, refused to report on this case. Two reporters in North Dakota, in particular the AP’s Jack Dura, and ND Coop’s Michael Standaert, have been critical in ensuring that the public does not get the full story. Hoefer conducted his own press conference this week trying to get the truth out.
Hoefer believes that the crimes involved have affected the aviation supply chain to such an extent that 80% of commercial aviation is at serious risk of critical component failures during flight. Hoefer believes there are “immediate flight safety risks” and claims he can prove that multiple federal investigations, including by the FAA and Defense Dept., have been initiated and then quietly cancelled. This is the key claim that BEK TV was trying to hide and broker an extortion deal with Sen. Cramer to conceal.
Hoefer also believes that a strange Christmas Day execution of an Air Force Sergeant Nicholas Van Pelt near Minot Air Force base by a Department of Homeland Security Agent Daniel Breijo is related to the ongoing aviation scandal cover-up. Breijo was working on this aviation scandal for a joint task force between DHS, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and North Dakota law enforcement. Breijo made repeated threats to Hoefer, all of which were reported to federal authorities.
The Gateway Pundit reached out to BEK TV’s Lori Hinz and CEO Derrick Bulawa again by text and email, and did not hear back.