Note: The article below is a an updated (re-) publication of my RussiLeaks December 2022 exposé.

Russian WMDs for Iranian Drones

Russleaks.com | December 1, 2022 | John Liccione | Washington, DC

Putin Promises WMD Tech to Iran in Return for Massive Drone Shipment

Is there anything quite so pitiful as a fallen and corrupted former superpower stooping to trading its coveted weapons of mass destruction (WMD) tech to bolster its failing war against a peaceful slavic neighbor because it can’t manufacture enough drones in its own factories? Worse, trading it to the ayatollahs, to a nation that is sponsoring and exporting international terrorism and assassinations? Russia couldn’t protect its Black Sea flagship Moskva from Ukrainian counterstrike. It couldn’t conquer Kyiv. It couldn’t get President Zelensky to flee. It couldn’t hold Kherson and is losing the Donbas. It’s going to lose Crimea.

One hundred thousand Russian soldiers are dead. It can’t even make its own drones.

How Low Can You Go?

Just how low will Putin go? What’s next Vlad? North Korean long-range missiles for SATAN II multi-warhead ICBMs or hypersonic criuse missiles? Fifth generation MiGs to Kim Jung Un’s North Korean Air Force (NKAF) to attack Seoul so you can reign down Kim’s missiles onto the heads of Ukrainian women and children after having depleted your Iranian supply?

Irianian Drones to Russia for WMD Tech- An Early Leak

On July 13, 2022 RussiLeaks received a leak that Iran was sending a large batch of drones to Russia, hundreds of them, to help Putin prosecute his war in Ukraine. The quid pro quo was delivery of Russian WMD technology. The “leaker” encouraged us to publish. We didn’t run the story. At the time we were unsure of the credibility of the source, and we were unable to obtain corroborating intel from a second source. It was in hindsight the wrong call and that was my call to make. That was then, this is now. (now as of December 1, 2022)

Since then, the Iranian half of the deal is no longer a dirty secret and although Iran and Russia refuse to acknowledge it, that part of the deal is now proven fact. Ukrainian civilians and military personel are dying in droves, the attacking drones coming from Russia and Russian-controlled Crimea that are being shot down by Ukraine are undeniably Iranian-made Shahed-136s, and Russia continues to prosecute its indiscriminant aerial bombardment, now augmented with what are to Russia freebie Iranian drones.

Ukraine’s anti-air defenses are being taxed and depleted as they are forced to shoot down these “free-to-Russia” unmanned missile delivery platforms using expensive Ukraine anti-aircraft missiles to defend its civilians and infrastructure. And its costing Russia nothing in cash: Just second-hand WMD tech out of its existing stockpiles. When Iranian drones cost Russia nothing, as compared to the cost to Ukraine of acquiring anti-air defenses from western countries, this is not a war of attrition that Ukraine can win unless something changes, quickly: Unless America and its allies counter with our own freebies. I’m not talking about free American WMD technology here. I’m talking free counter-air systems, in the thousands.

The only questions remaining unanswered about Putin’s deal with the devil are how many drones did it take for Russia to sell its WMD soul to the Ayatollahs, and what’s the promised Russian WMD tech exactly? Is it weapons-grade fissionable nuclear material itself? Nuclear enrichment tech? Is it chemical or biological WMD tech? We don’t yet know.

But WMDs of any kind in the hands of the Ayatollahs and the Iranian QUDs force? The Washington Post has just reported on its front page an article entitled: “Rise in Iranian assassination, kidnapping plots alarms Western officials.” In this article written by reporters Shane Harris, Souad Mekhennet and Yeganeh Torbati, the Post details the drastic rise in Iran’s foreign assassination plots targeting citizens on their own soil in Canada, the United States, Isreal, Cyprus, and other nations. They typically use contract or proxy assassins that are targeting jounalists, government officials, and activists that Iran considers a threat. They have a threat list. Some assassination plots have been thwarted by western authorities.

Yes, Iran is coming to America to a neighborhood near you, to an American near you, or me, and they’re out for blood. And the assassins may not look like Iranians or speak Farsi. They could be Pakistani, Caucasian, African, Asian, Hispanic. They could be American, any race, religion, or gender. Outsourced terror mercenaries….foreign or domestic.

Drone Dome Writ Large

Israel has its “Iron Dome,” a counter-air system that it refuses to provide to Ukraine…and shame on Israel for what I would characterize as an immoral indescretion. If Turkey, of all countries, can provide Ukraine Bayraktar drones, Israel can provide Iron Dome.

Turkish-Supplied Ukranian Bakraktar Drone Destroying Russian Tanks – by Alexander Nikityuk

Ukraine needs a “drone dome” over its cities and power infrastructure. Swarms of AI-driven drones with long loiter times. A drone CAP if you will. A CAP of drones, against drones. One could forsee a combination of re-usable, existing American drones re-armed with Sidewinder air-to-air missiles instead of air-to-surface Hellfires, and new swarms of cheaper mini kamakaze drones with infrared seeker heads driven by AI.

Ask Not for Whom the Drone Comes…

Ronald Reagan enabled the ultimate takedown of the Soviet Union by outspending them with the Strategic Defense Initiative (AKA: Star Wars) and ultimately bankrupting them as they tried to keep up with America and its can-do democratic, capitalistic system. Let’s take a page out of Ronald Reagan’s playbook and adapt it to this war.

For every 100 drones Iran sends to Russia for free, America and our allies should provide 1,000 counter-air (and deep-strike) drones to Ukraine…for free. It’s a good investment.

Liccione out.

Please support my writing and election integrity defense efforts directly via Zelle at john@ballotir.com and/or by buying at paid subscription to The Bleed.

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John Liccione is a two-time Democratic candidate for Congress in Florida’s 13th District (2024/2026) and is Founder and CEO of election integrity defense tech start-up Ballotir - Tenable Elections, and of RussiLeaks News.

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I wrote this bit of comedic political satire, called “Mexican Maid.” It’s a riff of Woody Guthrie’s song, Union Maid...You can’t scare me I’m stickin’ to the union!”

This song speaks to my value system, how we are all afforded equal protection under the law. I dedicate this song to every immigrant and American who has stood their ground, and exercised their First Amendment right to to tell Donald J. Trumplestein and Stephen Miller et al exactly where they can stick their deportation flights and their non-rule-of-law DOJ.

“No you can’t scare me — I’m stickin’ to America!
I’m stickin’ to democracy — stand against autocracy!
No you can’t scare me, Donald J. Trumplestein —
I’ll be stickin’ it to Trumplestein till the day I die!”

That’s what this fight in Florida congressional district 13 is about. Masked ICEmen making raids. Alligator Alcatraz threats. Todd Blanche, Kash Patel, Peter Hegseth, Steven Miller, Marco Rubio — the whole cabinet trying to scare our neighbors into silence.

It won’t work.

Our constitutional republic isn’t theirs to take. You’ll have to pry it from our cold dead hands.

This song and my campaign for Congress is for everyone who believes America is still — still — a democracy. Not an autocracy.

Don’t tread on me. Don’t tread on our neighbors.

And for God’s sake — release the Epstein files.

Let freedom ring.

And please consider making a donation to my campaign below.

Fighting for you,

John William Liccione
Rebel Democrat for Congress -FL Congressional District 13

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Hi Folks.

John Liccione (D) for Congress here (FL CD-13), reflecting on the principles of our Constitution — the preamble and the 2nd Amendment — which emphasize the critical role of a well-regulated militia and armed citizenry in safeguarding a free state from foreign and domestic threats of tyranny, I see a direct parallel in Ukraine’s fight for survival. Do you? Can you see it?The 2nd Amendment enshrines our right as Americans to keep and bear arms (and I’m not talking ICBMs and tanks — it’s not an infinite personal right), as a safeguard against oppression.

Just like us, the people of Ukraine are exercising their sovereign, God-given right to defend their nation, their children, and their freedom from aggression of a fascist power that is supported by North Korea, China, and Iran, the new axis of evil.Now they threaten America like never before — and they’re doing it in the mindspace (psyops) and cyber-space at the speed of AI and through their Putin-bootlicking proxies in office in all three branches.America, as a nation of good people, has been hacked. It is the most successful hack of the psyche of a nation in human history. We’re watching it unfold before our eyes. Many on both sides cannot fully comprehend it, whether MAGA or Dem. Not Fox News or MSNBC hosts. Not the liberal elite. Not the Proud Boys.

So my fellow Americans, supplying American arms to Ukraine is an America-first geopolitical strategy that resonates with the core values of our 2nd Amendment… not to mention the rest of the Amendments… and the preamble too. It is about acting to uphold the liberty of a nation under siege, an unyielding stand against indiscriminate aggression. By arming and re-arming and re-arming Ukraine, we are not just supporting a foreign ally; we are reaffirming our dedication to the principles of providing for the common defense, promoting the general welfare, and securing the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.Putin’s boot-licking American proxies like, obviously, Donald Trump, Anna Paulina Luna, James Comer, Speaker Mike Johnson, all launder Kremlin talking points as does Trump’s entire cabinet to undermine our efforts to support Ukraine, by stalling and stalling and prevaricating. They do it under the cover of the speech and debate clause. They are all wrong, and I call their bullshit.The Skies Are Still Open Over Ukraine and the Black Sea: CLOSE THE SKIES!

We must recognize that in advocating for and “walking the talk” in support of Ukraine’s right to self-defense, we are upholding the principles of freedom and resistance against tyranny that are the bedrock of our own nation. Imagine if France had blown off America during the Revolutionary War with a France-first strategy. What do you think would have happened to France next if King George’s Red Coats and Navy turned its evil eye on Paris after resecuring the American Colonies. Imagine if the Nazi-collaborating America-firsters in the ’40s had gotten their way. The Nazi flag would’ve been flying over London and our east coast cities would’ve been Hitler’s next targets.We Are Ukraine — Ukraine is UsNow, as fascism is being shoved down our throats in America, we are Ukraine, and Ukraine is us. We must stand with Ukraine. There must be no space in between. We have a shared commitment to the ideals of liberty.I hold this truth to be self-evident. Do you?

Please if you can support my campaign with a donation via either Zelle at john@johnforpinellas.com - or through the DONATE button below.

Liccione out.

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John Liccione is the Democratic candidate for Congress in Florida’s 13th Congressional District. A USAF/NSA veteran — Staff Sergeant, Korean linguist, cryptologist, and cybersecurity executive. He is the Founder and CEO of RussiLeaks, an online media company launched in March 2022 focused solely on exposing Putin’s secrets and those of his agents acting on his behalf on American soil.

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Hi Everyone.

I just broken through the mainstream earned media blackout on my congressional candidacy. Yesterday, Florida Politics published a full candidate profile, raw and unedited: My positions, my vision, and how we protect our kids and checkmate the enemies of democracy.

So please read the article. After 8 months of running a campaign on a shoestring and an SSDI check while the establishment candidate gets showered with all the Dem PAC money from the elite donor class, I’d appreciate it if you could find a way to donate to my campaign. Thanks. John

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John Liccione vows to put kids first, crack down on ‘the Epstein network’

by Fabrizio Gowdy Florida Politics - August 11, 2026

‘Kids first, above all else. Penetrate the Epstein network, release the files, impeach, convict, imprison the kingpins and the bankers funding them.’

John Liccione and two other Democrats are running to flip Florida’s 13th Congressional District, currently held by U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna.

Luna has held the Pinellas County-based seat since 2022, and was most recently reelected with 54.8% of the vote. Redistricting has shifted the district slightly north to pick up the southwest corner of Pasco County, but remains “likely Republican” according to Cook Political Report.

Leela Gray and Brandt Robinson are also running in the Democratic Primary, while Tony D’Arrigo will be on the ballot in November as a no-party candidate.

Florida Politics asked all candidates to answer a few questions. We are publishing their responses unedited so voters can hear directly from candidates.

Here’s what Liccione told us:

Profession: Air Force veteran and Staff Sergeant, NSA intelligence analyst, and forty-year electrical engineer and cybersecurity executive, now Founder and CEO of Ballotir, an election-integrity defense company.

Education: I earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland in 1988.

Years in the district: 3 years, 6 months contiguous + 1 Year (2019)

Community involvement

I marched as a USAF Veteran for Black Lives in DC in 2020. I marched in DC again in 2022 with Ukrainian activists to demand we arm Ukraine. I stood at the gates of the Russian Embassy and demanded Putin’s removal. I marched in the St. Pete Pride Parade. I founded RussiLeaks and do investigative journalism in Pinellas and nationally. I write The Bleed on Substack. I write and sing comedic political satire songs. I’ve spent two years in federal and Florida courts defending voting rights and election integrity. Now that’s community involvement of a different kind.

Why are you running?

What are your top priorities? I wasn’t going to run again. I’d just founded my company Ballotir. Then Renee Good. Then Alex Pretti. I decided I was not going to sit on the sidelines. This is a hundred times worse than 2016, and it is not happening on my watch. I’m running to be the General Norman Schwarzkopf of the war on child sex trafficking, to defend the constitutional rights of all our people — citizen and non-citizen — and to expose the secrets of the enemies of democracy.

My priorities:

Kids first, above all else. Penetrate the Epstein network, release the files, impeach, convict, imprison the kingpins and the bankers funding them. No compromise.

Defend your vote. My Liccione v. DeSantis “Stop the Map” suit against the gerrymander, and Liccione v. Bartlett, where a judge ruled against the State Attorney’s effort to cover up a VR Systems software defect that falsified mail ballot request records across Pinellas in 2024, 2025, and 2026.

Stand against (Vladimir) Putin-Trump. Arm Ukraine.

Affordability. Put $1,150 a month back on the kitchen table, starting with solar grants.

What are the biggest issues facing residents of this district?

First is our childrens’ well-being.

Our children are our most precious national treasures. The Epstein class is emerging from the shadows. Every day the drip-drip of disclosures uncovers more evil and depravity. This affects not just this district, the evil reaches everywhere and it’s time we interdict the network and take them all down. Second, our Pinellas voters are being mass-deported. Here are the numbers. On May 12 there were 730,169 Pinellas voters in Districts 13 and 14. The new map moves 197,833 of them into District 16. Of those moved, 138,168 are non-Republicans — 69.8%. That’s the anti-Luna coalition bloc. Put it the other way. Three in ten non-Republican voters in south Pinellas were deported. Whereas two in ten Republicans were. Thirteen thousand more anti-Luna coalition voters than Republicans were moved. I call it the DeSantis Luna Protection Racket. Protecting an incumbent this way violates the Florida Constitution. Bring Our Voters Home. Leave Pinellas Alone! Third are kitchen-table issues starting with our electric bills, clean energy, and resiliency — which can be addressed immediately. We live in the Sunshine State and pay some of the highest electric bills in the country. After Helene and Milton thousands of our neighbors sat in the dark for days. That’s an engineering failure — and our beach communities got thrown under the bus in the aftermath of two hurricanes by Anna Luna who blamed our battered towns while praising Trump’s FEMA.

What’s one bill you’d like to introduce in Congress?

The National Child Defense Act of 2027

My first bill. We seize the $100 billion in Stephen Miller’s mass deportation budget and redirect it into a Strategic Child Defense Initiative. Same hundred billion, different target: the child sex trafficking networks, and the people who enable and fund them. The second prong is ending mass school shootings this decade. I call it hacking the mass school shooter supply chain — early interdiction and intervention on mental health and emergent suicidal or homicidal ideation, whose root causes include bullying and child sexual exploitation at home, at church, or elsewhere. There is a horrible system in this country that ends with a shooter walking into a classroom with an AR-15 and six magazines. Every system has stages, and every stage is a place to intervene.

Democrats blame Donald Trump for inflation, Republicans blame the lingering effects of the Joe Biden administration, while Americans just want their prices to go down. What can Congress do to ease the cost of living for working families?

What Congress can do is attack the fixed monthly bills that hit before you ever reach the grocery store. In Florida that starts with energy costs. I’ll introduce the National Solar Freedom Act of 2027 — federal grants delivered directly onto the kitchen tables of Florida homeowners to buy and install solar roof kits and battery backup. It’s a three-fer: savings every month, disaster resiliency when the next storm takes the grid down, and tens of thousands of new solar jobs. You own the power, you have power. And because the grant goes citizen-direct, no governor can block it. (Ron) DeSantis turned down over $300 million in federal solar subsidies meant for Floridians. We can bypass Tallahassee entirely.

Do you believe AI will ultimately create more jobs than it eliminates, or should government slow its adoption to protect existing workers? What AI regulations or guardrails, if any, do you support?

Like any technology, AI can be used on the side of the angels or the devil. I use it for research, automation, writing code. At Ballotir we use it to detect and give early warning of election-integrity threats before the election, not just after. I believe that’s a first.

I’m for smart, creative guardrails. Vulture AI capitalism and autonomous weapons systems with no human in the loop are a slippery slope. Antitrust legislation and enforcement is one of the sharpest tools we have for congressional oversight, and it’s sitting unused.

I built and operated small, smart data centers before AI and I’m the only STEM candidate in this race. That matters greatly right now. Those facilities land in somebody’s county and draw on somebody’s grid, water supplies, and pollute somebody’s clean air with natural gas turbines. I know how these things are engineered, so I know where the guardrails go — technical and regulatory — to protect the environment, the quality of life, and the electrical capacity of the communities near them.

On jobs, we cannot stop technological progress. We can only manage it responsibly. We must adapt, improvise, and overcome. That means worker retraining. It means federal money behind it, so the work that comes out of this is good-paying tech and skilled labor. The people building and running these facilities ought to be the people who live near them.

Americans frequently complain about the cost and complexity of our healthcare system. What realistic solutions do you propose?

“Medicare for All” is a catchy slogan that presumes solely government funding. My slogan is “Quality health care for all.” That is a human right — a missing foundational brick in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. It speaks to how we care for each other as a society. And private health coverage has its place to provide healthy competition.

What I stand for:

• A federally enforced nationwide minimum standard of quality care.

• Eliminate the $202.90/month Medicare Part B deduction from Social Security and SSDI checks. That’s $202.90 back in a senior’s hand. No taxes on Social Security. Caps on prescriptions.

• Raise the FICA cap starting at $250K, with a sliding scale through the billionaire class.

• Expand Medicare and VA benefits.

• Hold fraudsters like Rick Scott accountable.

The man ran the biggest Medicare fraud scheme in U.S. history.

I’ve worked in Nordic countries and in Canada. I’ve seen what genuine societal care for human dignity looks like. They are the happiest people on earth up in Norway. We can learn from them.

How should we counter China’s growing influence and power, and what can we do to ensure America retains its technological, military and economic advantages?

I spent my USAF and NSA years in signals intelligence and cybersecurity. This contest is fought in supply chains, networks, campaign finance disclosures, and technology investments to keep our technology advantage.

We need to harden the infrastructure: the grid, the ports, the election systems. Rebuild domestic capacity in what we can’t afford to import. Return jobs from overseas. And stop letting CCP money buy American officeholders.

Which brings me to my November opponent. Anna Paulina Luna has taken campaign and PAC donations laundered through the CCP-controlled iGas company in Tampa. She has refused to disgorge them after being notified. That’s China, in this district, on this ballot, in District 13.

With regard to ending the ongoing conflicts in Iran and Ukraine, what should America’s goals and approach be?

On Iran

Congress voted to hand its war power away. Republican members had the War Powers Act in front of them and capitulated. Launching a war of choice without congressional authorization is unconstitutional and impeachable — Iran hadn’t attacked our homeland or our NATO allies, and no attack was imminent. It’s an idiot’s war launched by the president and his chickenhawk secretary of defense. The gutless members who stood back and gave him a pass on the tomahawking of little girls are complicit. It’s a disgrace, and they’ll be held accountable.

On Ukraine

In 2022 I marched to the White House with Ukrainian activists to demand we double down on arming Ukraine. I stood at the gates of the Russian Embassy and demanded Putin’s removal by his own generals, into their security cameras. I launched RussiLeaks that same year to flip the script on Putin by exposing his secrets and the secrets of his agents on American soil, and I wrote The Grand Unifying Theory of Putin-Trump, which I dedicated to the people of Ukraine in 2022. The goal is a Ukraine that survives on its own terms. I’ve said it to their faces at their gates. I’ll do the same in Washington.

Would you vote to continue funding Israel’s defense? Are there any conditions you want to impose on that funding?

Israel has every right to defend its people from Hamas and any other enemy combatant who targets civilians. My quarrel isn’t with the Israeli people or with the State of Israel. It’s with (Benjamin) Netanyahu, Ehud Barak, and a corrupt leadership class.

I condemn Netanyahu’s government and its enablers for what I believe constitutes state-sponsored mass murder and ethnic cleansing — in Gaza, and now in southern Lebanon.

My moral standards don’t shift based on the flag. Whether it’s Russia in Ukraine, Iranian-backed terrorism, or atrocities carried out with U.S. weapons in our name — wrong is wrong. Full stop.

The House recently voted to adopt year-round daylight saving time. How would you have voted?

I wouldn’t have voted to bring it to the floor in the first place.

This is the Luna declassification sideshow all over again — you release the files nobody’s fighting over (Earhart files, JFK, MLK, UFOs) so you don’t have to release Epstein.

Anna Luna chairs the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets. When the discharge petition came around, she wouldn’t put her name on it. Greene signed it. Boebert signed it. Mace signed it. Luna didn’t. That’s evil and rank hypocrisy at its worst.

We have a corrupt, non-rule-of-law DOJ. Voting rights being hacked. Elections hacked. Children trafficked while the Epstein class remains in power. And the House of Representatives and Senate spend floor time legislating what time the sun goes down? Lunacy.

Has the Democratic Party moved too far left in recent years, or is this the direction Democratic voters want?

Wrong question. Our problem is that we surrender issues instead of fighting for them.

Democrats are too nice. This is a time to not be nice, and to NOT hand MAGA an issue to run on.

For example. Take the southern border. Our leaders let it drift, it became a critical vulnerability, Trump exploited it and rode it back into the White House. Luna runs on it every day. The establishment’s answer is to change the subject, and you cannot beat Luna in November and take back Congress and the White House by changing the subject.

I’m the son of Italian immigrants who came through Ellis Island. I never once heard them talk about being mistreated there. Don’t tell me it can’t be done decently, with dignity, without violating human rights.

Same principle on civil rights.

I make the case on the Fourteenth Amendment, in constitutional language, because that’s the language that moves the people we need to win in District 13. When someone calls you woke because you believe in equal rights for all, the answer is: don’t be a constitutional cherry picker. I say it this way:

Why are you the best nominee to win this seat in November?

I’m the visionary in this race, not just a pragmatist.

I teach the future, then develop the plan of action and milestones and investments that get us there. I’ve already visualized the next 100 chess moves that get us to checkmate

That is my biggest strength. I’ve been at this fight for seven years, in the shadows, spending my own time and money, while others flooded your inbox asking for donations.

I’m the only candidate already waging offensive lawfare to invalidate the DeSantis map, and the only one who has beaten a sitting State Attorney in court without a lawyer, without party establishment backing, without holding office. I’ve exposed an election software defect that’s being covered up by the corrupt DeSantis RICO enterprise since 2024.

The arithmetic works: 60% of the NPA vote and 50% of the Reagan Republican vote is a 20-point win, and those voters are reachable by appealing to core values many of them seem to have forgotten.

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Here’s the link to the Florida Politics article.

Paid for by John Liccione for Pinellas

They thought they could Project 2025 us? We project 2026 them!

I’ve already planned out the next 100 moves that get us to checkmate.

Who’s with me?

And please consider donating to my campaign via Zelle at john@johnforpinellas.com or via the donate button below.

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Paid for by John Liccione for Pinellas.

I hope you enjoy my song, my vision of our near-future and the fates of Anna Paulina Luna and Donald Trump, and their puppet master Vladimir Putin. And please consider donating to my campaign via Zelle at john@johnforpinellas.com or via the donate button below.

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JOHN'S CAMPAIGN SITE

Paid for by John Liccione for Pinellas.

I hope you enjoy my song, my vision, my chutzpah, and please consider donating to my campaign via Zelle at john@johnforpinellas.com or via the donate button below.

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JOHN'S CAMPAIGN SITE

Paid for by John Liccione for Pinellas.

My fellow Democrats,

I enlisted in the Air Force at 18. I spent years designing the cockpit displays and night-vision systems on the aircraft that still fly search and rescue over the Gulf. After 9/11, I invented and patented the world’s first real-time disaster recovery service for corporate email — and it won SC Magazine‘s award for the best disaster recovery service on the planet. I called it Evergreen.

Forty years of engineering comes down to one question: what keeps running when everything else goes down?

That’s the question I’m asking about your power bill.

We here in FL District 13 live in the Sunshine State — and we pay some of the highest electric bills in the country. After Helene and Milton, thousands of our neighbors sat in the dark for days, waiting on a grid they don’t control.

That’s an engineering failure. And engineers like me design creative solutions to intractible societal problems. Like I did after 9/11.

My proposed National Solar Freedom Act of 2027 will deliver federal grants directly to the kitchen tables of homeowners to buy and install solar roof kits and battery backup. Major cost savings - every month. Disaster resiliency too. Tens of thousands of new solar jobs. That’s a three-fer!

And most important here in Florida, it can’t be blocked by a corrupt Florida governor. We bypass the crooks in Tallahassee and Washington. It cannot be blocked by politicians who continue to engorge themselves at the trough of big energy.

And in particular, I’m talking about Commie-Cash Luna.

My National Solar Freedom Act of 2027

Now my affordability and clean energy solution? YOU get solar! And YOU get solar!

You own the power you have power. When the next storm takes the grid down, your fridge, your AC, your internet, and your lights stay on.

The Democratic primary is Tuesday, August 18. I’m asking for your vote. Mark John William Liccione on your mail or in-person ballot.

Put this engineer in Congress, and I’ll engineer the solutions you need to put money on kitchen tables, and solar on every roof.

Please donate to my campaign if you can afford it via either Zelle at John@JohnforPinellas.com, or the donate button below.

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With respect and determination,

John William Liccione
Rebel Democrat Engineer for Congress
Florida’s Fighting 13th District

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Just how fake were Florida’s mail ballot request election records in 2024 and 2025?

Ninety-nine percent (99.95%) fake. I’m not kidding. I have the offical fake election records.

Listen to the true story of how I discovered the VR Systems’ Voter Focus “No-No Ballot Bug” software defect which corrupted millions of voters’ mail ballot request records in the 2024 and 2025 Florida elections. Watch the video.

And please donate to my campaign and support my efforts to expose the secrets of the enemies of democracy and my work in defending your voting rights and the integrity of our elections.

You can donate direct via Zelle to john@johnforpinellas.com or through my website at with DONATE button below.

John Liccione

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I’m John Liccione, rebel Democrat for Congress, the only STEM candidate in my primary. This is how we seize the initiative and win the southern border. My southern border hack that Democrats need to win in Florida District 13 and across the nation.

And please donate to my campaign direclty via Zelle to John@JohnLiccione.com, or on my website by clicking the donate button here:

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john@johnforpinellas.com

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Clearwater, Florida

This morning I filed the attached verified emergency motion for temporary injunction in the Sixth Judicial Circuit to halt HB 1D — the 2026 DeSantis congressional map I calI a Luna Protection Racket. It mass-deports south Pinellas CD-13 voters across Boca Ciega and Tampa Bays into a Manatee-anchored red CD-16. A majority of them are Coalition voters: registered Democrats, NPAs, and other non-Republicans - the anti-Luna Democratic-led Coalition bloc.

The real story here is who would NOT stand up under penalty of perjury to defend this unconstitutional map.

To assert that the map can’t be undone in time, the State needed one sworn statement from a Constitutional elections officer. It could not get one — not Secretary of State Cord Byrd. Not his own Division of Elections Director Maria Matthews. Not a single one of Florida’s 67 elected Supervisors of Elections.

Not Miami-Dade Supervisor and MAGA partisan hack Alina Garcia.

The only person the DeSantis RICO enterprise could induce was poor Xavier Pichs, a mid-level GIS manager two levels under Alina Garcia. And they made sure he never named the software feature and vender that debunks his sworn declaration filed under oath in the First District Court of Appeals.

That software is VR Systems’ Voter Focus, which Pinellas, Miami-Dade and almost all counties use. It has a documented “Clone an Election“ feature (see below) that copies a prior election’s districts, precincts, and ballot styles in a single operation into the next election - “a significant time saver.“ The prior congressional map in effect from 2022 and 2024 already exists. There is nothing to build or test. “Too late” to revert is a willful misrepresentation by omission by Garcia through her proxy underling. Shame on her.

To them all I say this: Bring me the declaration of Alina Garcia!

The Leon County rulings DeSantis is crowing about do not reach this case. (Equal Ground Education Fund Inc. et al. v. Byrd: 1D2026-1539 | 2026-CA-000914). My claim is race-independent, it doesn’t require the court or legislature to draw a new map. The reversion can be fielded in four days or less. I sued the Governor that drew the map not the Legislature, as well as Cord Byrd and Julie Marcus. I seek only to preserve the map Pinellas and the counties have voted under in 2022 and 2024.

Take a close look at all the State’s lawyers and private law firms whose names are on the above coverpage of the Appendix to Byrd’s Appellees’ Response. Everyone of them, all the way up to Attorney General James Uthmeier, just subporned perjury from a middle-management IT election worker. Shame on all of them. The crime/fraud exception to the attorney/client privilege is now on the table.

I am not a lawyer. I am representing myself, and I am the only candidate in court — self-funded out of my SSDI check.

No DNC establishment support. No PAC money. No Mark Elias Democracy Docket Washington DC lawyers. My Emergency Motion for Temporary Injunction is now the last one standing in the trial courts.

In contrast, my primary opponent, the establishment’s pre-selected candidate Leela Gray, is a lawyer. She has done nothing to protect the voting rights of Pinellas voters.

When called to duty, the lawyer-general went AWOL. While the grassroots rebel Democrat engineer and veteran NCO went full-metal offensive lawfare in defense of Floridians’ voting rights and election integrity.

You can download my motion with supporting exhibits below.

Verified Emergency Motion for Temporary Injunction

4.45MB ∙ PDF file

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Please donate to my campaign directly via Zelle to: John@JohnForPinellas.com or through my website using the button below.

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John William Liccione (pronounced Li-chee-oh-nee)
Democratic candidate in Florida’s Fighting 13th Congressional District

john@johnforpinellas.com

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The President Who’ll Never Return

Polical parody as prophesy - by John Liccione

Now let me tell you a story about a man named Donnie 
On the day of January sixth
He put secrets in his pocket, and a dictator's love letter. 
That's a problem that I'm gonna fix.

And will he ever return? 
No, he'll never return. 
And his fate will be surely earned. 
He will ride forever that jail cell in Rikers/
He's the president who will never return.

Now Donnie, he went down to the basement of the East Wing
And called Putin on WhatsApp. 
And he begged them for asylum just like Edward Snowden
But Putin wouldn't let him defect.

And will he ever return? 
No, he'll never return. 
And his fate will be surely earned. 
He will ride forever that jail cell in Rikers
He's the president who will never return.

Now Anna Luna goes down to his jail cell in Rikers
Every day at quarter past ten. 
And through the bars she slips him a bed sheet, just like Epstein
'Cause Putin's got to tie up loose ends.

And will he ever return? 
No, he'll never return. 
And his fate will be surely earned. 
He will ride forever that jail cell in Rikers
He's the president who will never return.

Luna and Donnie fly high above us
In a plane called Air Force One. 
It's an aircraft with no compare
 But soon they'll fly economy
In shackles and in handcuffs
On an airline we all know as Con Air.

And will he ever return? 
No, he'll never return. 
And his fate will be surely earned. 
He will ride forever that jail cell in Rikers
He's the president who will never return.

Now all you citizens of Pinellas, 
Don't you think that it's a scandal
How Donnie's lies got bigger and bigger? 
So fight the MAGA mob, and vote John Liccione
I'll get his finger off the nuclear trigger.

And will he ever return? 
No, he'll never return. 
And his fate will be surely earned. 
He will ride forever that jail cell in Rikers
He's the president who'll never return.

He's the president who'll never return
He's the president that will never return!

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Full Text of John Liccione’s Campaign Speech

Candidate: John Liccione Race: U.S. House, Florida District 13 (Democratic Primary) Venue: Greater Pinellas Democratic Club Candidate Forum, Toastmasters,

May 14, 2026 | Clearwater, Florida

My name is John Liccione. I’m an NSA intelligence analyst veteran and a cybersecurity executive, and I recently founded a new cyber company called Ballotir. It’s like Palantir — on the side of the angels. Our slogan — and this is not an advertisement for the company, it’s just what I’m already doing to protect your votes — our slogan is: We make elections tenable.

I’d like to start with a bit of a prayer, from an old bluegrass song.

That devil’s train is long and black. It rides the rail of tears. It’s headed for destruction now with a drunken engineer.

Oh, see the greatness of that crowd that waits beside the track. They’re leaving on that devil’s train And they’re never coming back.

O Lord, please stop that devil’s train before it’s too late.

And teach them how to bow their heads before they seal their fate.

The way to approach an NPA, a Republican — even a MAGA Republican — is like that. Appeal to the core religious values that many of them have abandoned. That’s how we win Pinellas County. That’s how we win District 13. That’s what we have to do to win.

Now I’m going to shift into something closer to a briefing than a political speech, because what I’m actually doing — not just talking about doing — is what I think should be a consideration when you decide who to vote for in this primary

This is a picture of District 16. The fat red line is where it used to be — before May 4th, before DeSantis signed it into law. And that creepy little thinner red line is the red tide that’s crossing two bays, snatching away our South Pinellas County voters and deporting them into District 16 — a district that’s too red for their votes to make a difference if you’re a Democrat.

I call it the Luna Protection Racket. Protecting an incumbent like this is a violation of the Florida Constitution, irrespective of the partisan element of it. If you’re doing this to protect an incumbent the way they’re doing it for Luna — and this is the second time since 2022 — that’s unlawful under that part of the Constitution.

So at 11 o’clock on May 4th, a few hours after DeSantis signed it into law, I filed my Stop the Map lawsuit. I’ve passed some of the briefings out on this: Liccione Files Emergency Lawsuit to Stop DeSantis Voter Protection Racket Double-Cross Gerrymander. Bring our voters home. Leave Pinellas alone. That’s what this is about.

I filed it right here, in the Sixth Circuit Court in Clearwater, in District 13. And it’s sitting on a judge’s desk. His name is Michael Andrews — a Jeb Bush appointee, an institutionalist judge — and he’s been sitting on this lawsuit since noon on May 5th. That’s about seven days now, considering whether to grant an emergency temporary injunction to stop the implementation of this map in our county right now.

There are other lawsuits — statewide lawsuits that Mark Elias’s Democracy Docket has filed up in Tallahassee, and there’s another one. That’s his lawsuit. It’s a shotgun, statewide. Mine is a laser. Mine hands this Jeb-Bush-appointed judge the power to stop the map statewide with the stroke of a pen. And he’s been sitting on it for seven days. So stay tuned.

That’s issue 1A. My number 1B issue is to put kids first, above all else. I’ve declared war on child sex trafficking. That was my first initiative, and it’s up there on my website, johnforpinellas.com. The way we take down this RICO enterprise — in Florida and up in D.C. — is to expose these rings that are exploiting our children, and those who enable them. And Luna is the queen on that one.

So thank you. I appreciate you. Thanks for coming out.

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Paid for by John Liccione for Pinellas.

My STOP THE MAP Lawsuit Watch Clock (click above) tracks the time my anti-gerrymander lawsuit and ex parte motion for temporary and permanent injunction remains on the desk of the 6th Circuit Court presiding judge, to rule on whether DeSantis’ map is unlawful under the Florida Constitution. You can read about and download the lawsuit, the emergency motion for TI, and my Ballotir voter-impact summary (Complaint Exhibit 2) here on The Bleed, where we operate at the bleeding edge of democracy.

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ABOUT JOHN LICCIONE: John Liccione is a Democratic candidate for Congress in Florida’s 13th Congressional District. He is running to unseat Republican Anna Paulina Luna and to restore constitutional, accountable, people-centered representation to Pinellas County.

Campaign website: Campaign Website | Email: john@johnforpinellas.com

Paid for by John Liccione for Pinellas.

JOHN LICCIONE FOR CONGRESS CAMPAIGN PRESS RELEASE

May 5, 2026 | DUNEDIN, FLORIDA

John Liccione, Rebel Democratic candidate for Congress in Florida’s 13th Congressional District, has filed an emergency lawsuit and injunction motion to stop Governor Ron DeSantis’s new congressional map, calling it a “Luna-Protection Racket Doublecross Gerrymander,” designed to protect Republican incumbent Anna Paulina Luna by deporting CD-13 South Pinellas voters most likely to vote her out of office. (Florida 6th Circuit Court, Case No. 26-CA-002751-CI).

“DeSantis has weaponized his election RICO enterprise against District 13 voters at the speed of AI,” Liccione said. “He is deporting and disenfranchising voters to protect Luna with only 40days left before the first vote-by-mail report must be transmitted to the Florida Division of Elections by the Pinellas County Supervisor of elections.

Liccione v. Desantis Lawsuit to Stop Unconstitutional Gerrymander in FL CD-13

468KB ∙ PDF file

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John Liccione Emergency Lawsuit to Stop Implementation of Unconstitutional "Luna-Protection Racket Doublecross Gerrymander" in Florida's CD-13

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Liccione's Emergency Motion for Temporary Injunction

406KB ∙ PDF file

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John Liccione's Motion for an Emergency Temporary and Permanent Injunction to stop DeSantis from Implenting Luna-Protection Racket Doublecross Gerrymander in CD-13

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According to Liccione’s Ballotir voter-impact analysis, the DeSantis map deports 103,359 Pinellas voters from current CD-13 and CD-14 into new CD-16, including 63,448 Democratic-led Coalition voters. Liccione defines Coalition voters as Democrat, NPAs, Others likely to vote against Luna.

It deports 23,537 more Coalition voters than Republican voters from the anti-Luna CD-13 coalition and reduces CD-13’s Democratic-led Coalition advantage from 74,710 to 51,173.

“The numbers and the double-cross-bay invasion into Pinellas by CD-16 prove corrupt motive,” Liccione said. “DeSantis drew this map to shield Luna by deporting 23,537 more Coalition voters than Republican voters from the CD-13 fight, and dumping them into a red Manatee-anchored district where Manatee alone already has a 72,063 Republican registration advantage.

Liccione said the deported voters are the voters who can build a winning CD-13 general-election anti-Luna coalition. “The voters DeSantis is deporting are the voters who would vote against Luna in November — Democrats, NPAs, Others, and moderate Republicans,” Liccione said. “That is a CD-13 general-election supermajority coalition. DeSantis knows it. Luna knows it. Trump knows it.”

Liccione called the maneuver the DeSantis Double-Cross-Bay Whipsaw in his lawsuit. “Wave One crossed Tampa Bay from the east to snatch CD-13 voters into CD-14 to get Luna elected in 2022,” Liccione said. “Wave Two crosses Tampa Bay AND Boca Ciega Bay from the south.”

“CD-16 is a southern invasion through the southern beaches of Pinellas County. They invade to the north across TWO bays, Tampa Bay and Boca Ciega Bay, seize South Pinellas voters, and deport them out of the District where their votes would defeat Luna - in a 20-point landslide.” Liccione said his lawsuit defends CD-13 voters’ right to vote and to have that vote counted in the race where it matters most.

The lawsuit also highlight the disaster-recovery consequences of the map. South Pinellas barrier-island and bayfront communities are still recovering from Hurricanes Helene and Milton, including storm surge, FEMA fraudulent substantial-damage assessments, permitting disputes, rebuilding delays, federal recovery money, and contractor oversight.

“South Pinellas is a storm-recovery community,” Liccione said. “Gulfport, St. Pete Beach, Treasure Island, Madeira Beach, the Redington beaches, South Pasadena, Boca Ciega Bay, southern Seminole, and St. Petersburg are still dealing with Trump’s FEMA, substantial-damage assessments, permitting, rebuilding, mitigation, contractor oversight, insurance, and federal recovery money. DeSantis’s map cuts those communities away from Pinellas-centered representation at exactly the moment they need it most.”

Liccione tied the redistricting fight to what he calls the TidalGate scandal — the South Pinellas disaster-recovery fraud scandal involving DeSantis contractor Tidal Basin Group and their fake Substantial Damage Assessment scheme.

“This is the same DeSantis who took $25,000 from Tidal Basin Group for his second inauguration. The same Tidal Basin that donated $48,408 to Casey DeSantis’ and AG James Uthmeier’s Hope Florida Foundation.

It’s the same Tidal Basin that hit Gulfport, Madeira Beach, Treasure Island, Redington Beach, the Redington Beaches with thousands of fake Substantial Damage Assessments, fraud that drove people out of their retirement homes so the billionaire class could swoop in, and scoop them up at firesale prices.” Liccione said.

“Now DeSantis is deporting those same South Pinellas TidalGate victims out of CD-13, the only congressional district that could hold his political donorclass accountable for what TidalGate did to South Pinellas homeowners who lost everything because of his corruption.”

“DeSantis’s map rolls the Luna-Protection Racket and the TidalGate cover-up into one corrupt double-cross gerrymander.”

Liccione says the disaster-recovery counter-attack shows why he is different from his opponents. “This is where I know what I’m talking about,” Liccione said. “I ran for Congress in 2024. I ran for Gulfport Mayor in 2025. I am connecting this corrupt map to the lived reality of South Pinellas residents: Storm surge, damaged homes, fraudulent damage assessments, FEMA rules, federal recovery dollars, and the need for a member of Congress whose district is centered in the communities that were actually hit.”

“Florida’s Supreme Court already warned them about this geographic manipulation,” Liccione said.

“Same Pinellas. Same Tampa Bay. Same governor. Same unconstitutional partisan redraw. This time DeSantis invaded our beaches from the south with CD-16.”

Liccione’s emergency motion asks the court to immediately halt implementation of the map before voters are reassigned, ballot styles are built, vote-by-mail systems are configured, and candidates are forced to qualify under unconstitutional lines.

The motion cites the June 8–12 congressional candidate qualifying period, the August 18 primary, the November 3 general election, and the June 19 vote-by-mail activity reporting operational deadline, which begins 60 days before the primary.

“This is why Pinellas County is the beachhead and why we must fight them on the beaches and fight them in the courts,” Liccione said.

Liccione said other lawsuits may attack the statewide map, but his lawsuit is a laser. It shows how the gerrymander attacks the people in CD-13. “My lawsuit shows the modality of corruption,” Liccione said.

Liccione is asking the court to require a lawful map for the 2026 congressional elections, to restore South Pinellas voters to a Pinellas-centered CD-13. “Anna Paulina Luna should have to face the voters of South Pinellas she threw under the bus after Helene and Milton,” Liccione said. “DeSantis should not get to deport voters to save her seat. I am running to unseat Luna, and I will not stand by while DeSantis disenfranchises our voters to protect her.”

Liccione closes his lawsuit introduction with the battle cry:

“Bring our voters home. Leave Pinellas alone!”

“That’s the whole case in seven words.”

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ABOUT JOHN LICCIONE John Liccione is a Democratic candidate for Congress in Florida’s 13th Congressional District. He is running to unseat Republican Representative Anna Paulina Luna and restore constitutional, accountable, people-centered representation to Pinellas County.

Campaign website: JohnForPinellas.com | john@johnforpinellas.com

Political advertisement paid for by John Liccione for Pinellas.

Hi folks. John Liccione here, Rebel Progressive Democrat candidate for Congress in FL’s 13th District where I’m running to unseat Anna Paulina Luna.

Today I stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Alex Vindman, Florida Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, in defense of our democracy at the North Pinellas Democratic Club spring picnic at Philippe Park in Safety Harbor Florida.

It was a huge turnout, and it was great to speak directly with Alex and my fellow Democrats about the pain the two of us are going to bring to the enemies of democracy in Washington and abroad.

Alex autographed my campaign...sign (above), which I am choosing to interpret as a full and enthusiastic endorsement of my campaign...sign, and possibly my entire political future.

Great day. Great Democrats. Let’s TACAMO - Take Charge and Move Out!

Please support my campaign with a donation

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JOHN ON THE ISSUES

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