The men of MormonLeaks: Why they do it and what they're after

SALT LAKE CITY — (KUTV) — MormonLeaks didn’t exist two years ago, and today the LDS Church not only knows of their existence, but has been forced to react to their leaks. The men behind MormonLeaks have arguably become a force to be reckoned with, but are they doing more harm than good?

The not for profit whistle-blowing organization seeks transparency within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and they're doing through leaked documents anonymously sourced.

2News set out to find out what the founders and site creators are after and what affect they hope to have on the church in which they were born and raised.

MormonLeaks most recently leaked audio tapes alleging the rape of a missionary at the Missionary Training Center, or MTC, in Provo, Utah, in the mid '80s. The leak alleges the church for decades, did nothing to hold the perpetrator accountable or help the alleged victim.

The leak was one of many trickling out over the last two years, some making bigger waves than others. With each new leak many wonder who's behind the site and what they’re after?

We flew to Las Vegas to talk to the sites founder Ryan McKnight on camera about his efforts to hold the LDS Church accountable.

His partner and technology director, whom he’s only met in person once before our meeting, was also there talking on camera for the first time ever.

THE MEN BEHIND THE LEAKS

Ethan Dodge is just now publicly talking about his role in MormonLeaks. For a year he worked incognito. He did it to protect the people he loves. Someone “very close” to him works for the LDS Church and he has been careful to protect the people closest to him.

The interviews with 2News took place at a neutral location. McKnight, the founder who calls himself “a regular guy,” lives in Las Vegas. Dodge lives on the east coast. The two communicate online and over the phone, running MormonLeaks through their laptops in the comfort of their own homes. Contrary to popular belief, the leaks are not coming from a major operation.

“I’m not a crazy ex-Mormon who wants everyone to leave the church and wants the church destroyed," Dodge said.

He wants to set the record straight on who he is. McKnight agrees and said he simply wants the “ (LDS) church accountable and other people to be able to make informed decisions on their membership.”

"Everyone can benefit from transparency especially from an organization like your religion that has so much control over your life,” Dodge, who just recently left the LDS Church, said.

The two men got their start after McKnight helped leak the LDS November 2015 policy restricting baptisms for the children of same sex couples.

At the time, McKnight was on Reddit forums discussing the LDS Church with believers and non-believers alike.

After helping to leak the internal church document, McKnight was approached by someone who had documents the source also wanted out in the open.

That person was concerned about getting tracked back to the information. That’s when MormonLeaks was born, a site where people could anonymously dump documents with little ability for tracking where it came from. That’s where Ethan Dodge came in. He’d been chatting online under the alias Privacy P. Pratt and offered his help in making sure the site was safe and protected on both ends.

Since then, both have made MormonLeaks a big part of their lives — though it’s not what they eat, sleep and breathe.

“We are a couple of guys with regular jobs” McKnight said. “(With) families, and sometimes if you haven't heard from us we are doing more important things.”

The men said there are weeks where they don’t touch the site; on weeks with a huge leak, they may work 40 hours. On average, they say the spend 10 to 15 hours a week going through submissions, verifying them and discussing what if anything should be released.

The decisions are 50/50, though McKnight, the founder, holds veto power.

Dodge said, while McKnight has the power, he has not yet used an override. The two said they see eye-to-eye, thus far, on every decision and leak they've made.

While both have now left the LDS Church, they feel a calling to hold their former faith accountable.

McKnight said they have a clear mission to promote transparency in terms of finances, corporate policies and procedures. Any sexual abuse and dealing inside the church is also a focus.

MISSION OF TRANSPARENCY

MormonLeaks wants the LDS Church to release more financial information including where members' tithing money goes. Tithing is traditionally 10 percent of what a family makes donated to the church, which amounts to estimated billions of dollars every year.

For Dodge, tithing is one of the main reasons he works on leaks.

“[The church] pushes tithing and donations very hard,” Dodge said. He choked up, adding that “it upsets” him when leaders “make broad statements like pay your tithing before you feed your family.” He served and LDS mission in Guatemala where he said he would tell families that they needed to pay tithing even when they were scrambling to find a can of beans to feed their family.

MormonLeaks has posted documents containing financials from the church including where some tithing dollars go. One such release, internal documents of the church showing the base living allowance of General Authorities, amounted to $120,000 per year in 2014 - estimated to $135,000 today with the general three percent cost of living increase used in past years.

One of the organization's leaks expected to be benign was one of the site's most viral. MormonLeaks obtained documents showing the average price of décor used inside each new temple.

“There was one very notable item, that was the rug in the bridal room” says McKnight. The average bridal rug: $17,000, which he notes means could translate to way more in some temples.

“I think it is important their membership is informed. Not because it is inherently bad, but if you are donating and your donation supports salaries and supporting decorations people have a right to know," McKnight said.

While MormonLeaks will release budget matters relating to the church, it does draw a line on what is fair game.

“We have received documents very personal in nature of the Quorum of The Twelve Apostles, individual members that we have not released and will never release," McKnight said.

Not because they're not interesting he adds, “but because they don't have a clear connection to the institution.”

ETHICAL JOURNALISM?

Many members of the LDS Church believe the leaks are not meant to help them but instead tear down their church and faith.

We asked specifically if either had an “ax to grind?”

“What is the definition of an ax to grind? If grinding an ax is believing the church needs to be more transparent? Possibly. That is where you will have to decide," McKnight said.

Joel Campbell, a journalism professor at Brigham Young University, teaches classes on ethics. 2News went to him for a look at MormonLeaks through the eyes of an active member, a journalist and promoter of ethics in publishing.

“I am the last person to shut down leakers or information.” Campbell said. He believes MormonLeaks has its place noting that he has been known in his career “as a freedom of information guy.” He “fought for open records in this state” and therefore would be the “last person to shut them down.”

With the caveat that they “do their job ethically," Campbell said he feels that because everything MormonLeaks releases comes from an anonymous source that their work “flies in the face of journalistic standards” set forth by the Society of Professional Journalists. By his judgement, MormonLeaks is only 47% in line with how journalists should act.

When asked if the organization is acting legally, Dodge said yes “everything we are doing is legal.” Yet he “understands” if people “have a problem with our ethics.” He readily admits that what they do “is in a grey area of ethics” adding “there is no question about it.”

MormonLeaks does not solicit sources beyond the “submit” button on its site. McKnight and Dodge want people to know that while they call themselves journalists, they don’t “hold themselves to everyday journalism standards.”

“We put a stake in the sand,” McKnight said. “We call ourselves journalists and what we do is we curate documents that have public interest. And that is a service in the world of journalism.”

The journalist title is important to MormonLeaks because its operators were slapped with a cease and desist notice by the LDS Church after leaking some of its internal documents.

MormonLeaks legal defense? Journalism.

Campbell, who teaches the rising generation of journalists, says he’s not “here to say leaks are bad for the United States or a private institution. Journalists are supposed to be checks on power” and he thinks “leaks are helpful.” It’s how you handle the leak that is important, he added.

While to this day many will argue the ethics of leaks in government, Campbell will tell you they are "valuable at times in our society." He points to "Watergate, Deep Throat, we go to the Pentagon Papers and those are things I teach in journalism class all the time." He notes the "first amendment protects leakers."

PLANS FOR THE FUTURE

MormonLeaks has no plans of stopping and will continue walking a fine, ethical line in hopes to help the LDS Church be more open in the future.

Dodge goes as far as to say he thinks, “the church does serve important purpose in a lot of people's lives.”

McKnight said he “recognizes the church has a right to have things kept private like any other organization does.” However, the big but is, “they also have what we believe to be a moral and ethical reason to make certain things public.”

MormonLeaks holds itself to the same financial standards it expects from the LDS Church posting all of its financial donations to its site. ]

The two men have also started a second site, FaithLeaks, where people may submit documents from other religious denominations.

To watch the full unedited interviews: kutv.com/news/local/mormonleaks-full-interviews

To watch the full unedited interviews with BYU professor: http://kutv.com/news/local/full-unedited-interviews-with-the-two-men-behind-mormonleaks