Lees confirmed that two Mercer associates, George Wells and Peter Pukish, had also joined the sheriff’s office. Both men had previously volunteered alongside Mercer in New Mexico. Wells is Mercer’s son-in-law, and Pukish is a family friend and longtime employee. Both are officers of the Law Enforcement Education Foundation. Wells and Pukish didn’t respond to requests for comment.
“In addition to whatever donations they made, these people bring certain qualifications to the table,” Lees said of the three men.
The Yuma County posse has about two dozen members, Day said, of whom seven or eight live outside the county. He said some but not all posse members qualify for privileges under the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act, the 2004 federal law that allows officers to carry concealed weapons nationwide.
Undercover Operations
Mercer, whose financial backing of Steve Bannon, Breitbart News and the political-data firm Cambridge Analytica helped put Trump in the White House, lives in a mansion on Long Island, New York. He stepped down as co-chief executive officer of the hedge fund Renaissance Technologies LLC late last year and remains a researcher at the firm.
A Colorado gun-rights activist named Dudley Brown introduced Sheriff Day to Mercer’s foundation, according to the minutes of a February 2016 Yuma County Board of Commissioners meeting. Brown is the executive director of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, which positions itself as a “no-compromise” alternative to the National Rifle Association. He declined to comment.
Sheriff Day rejected a Bloomberg News request this month under Colorado’s public-records law for documents relating to Mercer and his associates, including information on their qualifications and duties. He said disclosing the names of volunteers could endanger their safety.
“Some of my volunteer resources are directly involved in confidential undercover operations that involve direct ties and associations with the Mexican Cartel which has a presence in my area,” Day wrote in an earlier email. “It would not be safe tactically or personally to identify individuals who serve in association with those types of cases.”
Lees, the lawyer, wouldn’t say if Mercer or his associates have been infiltrating cartels. “What they do is entirely confidential,” Lees said. “I’m neither confirming nor denying that they serve in those roles.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.