KALISPELL — A Flathead County jury on Friday found a former Republican political strategist guilty on two counts of stalking based on texts, emails and letters he sent to and about his victim, as well as incendiary flyers he distributed in late 2023 and early 2024.

Billings resident Daniel Duffey, 40, appeared in Flathead County District Court on Tuesday for what became a four-day jury trial. Over that time, Flathead County Attorney Travis Ahner and other prosecutors presented evidence that Duffey sent repeated, unwanted messages to the victim, the victim’s wife and other members of the couple’s family before eventually traveling to the county during their wedding celebrations.

Jurors arrived at their unanimous verdict in just under an hour. Before they left the courtroom, presiding state District Court Judge Dan Wilson told the jury that no parties to the case or their attorneys would be allowed to reach out to them without permission of the court, given the nature of the charges. 

Wilson set Duffey’s sentencing date for July 10 and ordered for him to be detained until then. Duffey had previously been on release with a GPS monitor, which Wilson said Friday he found reason to revoke given the jury’s conviction and the danger Duffey poses to the public. 

“The evidence in this case convinces the court that, with very little if any provocation, he engaged on a monthslong campaign of assailing the character, the safety of a person he knew for a very short time before engaging in this campaign,” Wilson said. “There’s no rhyme or reason for the conduct. It’s so far outside of the realm of sociable or acceptable behavior that it is the court’s genuine concern that, now that the conviction has occurred, Mr. Duffey has a tremendous incentive and in light of the evidence submitted in this case, very little imposition of self-restraint to prevent him from engaging in similar conduct in the immediate future.”

Duffey’s messaging campaign — which witnesses testified included the victim’s work colleagues, rugby team friends and a local business — alleged that the victim had sexually assaulted Duffey in November 2023 after the two men met at a University of Montana football game in Missoula and socialized later that evening.

The victim, who took the stand as a lead witness earlier in the week, repeatedly denied those allegations, calling Duffey’s narrative “fictitious.” Several witnesses, including Whitefish Police Department detectives and police officers, told the jury they were unaware of any sexual assault complaint filed by Duffey or subsequent law enforcement investigation. 

Text messages between Duffey and the other man presented at trial showed that their initial communications in November and December were at times friendly. But, in moments when the victim was slow to respond to his messages, Duffey appeared frustrated and confused. 

“I’m not sure what happened man. I thought we clicked,” Duffey said in one November text. “I thought it would be cool to be friends.”

When the victim failed to affirm Duffey, the Billings resident began accusing the man of sexually assaulting him.

“Seriously man, that sucks. I don’t know how you go from [being] all over me and sexually assaulting me to pretending like I don’t even exist,” Duffey said. “If you’re embarrassed about what happened you shouldn’t be.”

The victim replied by saying that he had been busy with work. 

“Been struggling. Not trying to offend you,” the victim said. “Also, I do not know what your [sic] talking about with being all over you.”

Duffey lashed out more explicitly in later text messages.

“[H]onestly the more you treat me like shit and make me think that this is all in my head and I’m going crazy, the crazier I am going to act. You’ve made very clear you don’t give a f— about me and what happens to me, and now I’m going to return the favor. My only hope is that I put you in as much pain and ruin your life the way you’ve ruined mine,” Duffey wrote.

Prosecutors showed that Duffey later contacted the victim’s wife and family with similar allegations. In one letter sent to the home of the victim’s mother-in-law, Duffey described his professional background in Republican politics, his military service in Afghanistan and volunteer work in Ukraine in 2022. Photos included in the letter appear to show Duffey shaking hands and posing for photos with former Vice President Mike Pence, prominent President Donald Trump surrogate Rudy Giuliani and U.S. Senators Ted Cruz and Mitch McConnell. One photo portrays Duffey in his military uniform, holding a rifle, which the victim and his family said they found threatening. 

Evidence presented in court showed that Duffey escalated his conduct by driving from Billings to the Flathead Valley before the victim’s February wedding last year. Once in the area, prosecutors said, Duffey distributed flyers in residential neighborhoods where the victim and the victim’s parents lived, a local bar and Whitefish venues where the victim and his wife held wedding events. The flyers included the victim’s face, name and allegations of sexual assault. 

Witnesses also testified that Duffey had created a fake Grindr account in the victim’s name and invited users of the LGBTQ dating app to come to the victim’s wedding to have sex with him. In a message to the victim and the victim’s wife on the day of the wedding, Duffey promised to continue some level of contact.

“[I]t should be pretty obvious by now, that this isn’t going to end tonight when you get married, this goes on for years until I see [the victim] behind bars or paying me so much money you’ll never be able to do anything nice again,” the message read. 

Duffey was arrested by Whitefish police near one of the event locations. Law enforcement investigators later found poster boards and similar flyers in his car, as well as a semiautomatic handgun, according to the prosecution’s presentation of evidence.

“We have to prove that the defendant knew or should have known that the course of conduct would cause [the victim] to reasonably fear for his own safety or the safety of a third person,” Ahner told the jury during Friday’s closing arguments. “Is there any doubt? Is there doubt that he caused that fear? And that was his goal?”

Duffey, who pleaded not guilty during his arraignment last year, did not testify during the trial. He sat at the defense table, appearing attentive and stoic, throughout multiple days of witness testimony, occasionally approaching the judge’s podium for sidebar discussions with his public defense attorney, Will Managhan, and the prosecution.

During his arguments to the jury, Managhan did not deny or provide evidence to refute many of the state’s allegations about Duffey’s actions, but said that the prosecution was exaggerating his client’s conduct to make it seem violently threatening.

“The hope is that you buy into this. And so what the evidence is gonna show, right, is that these two guys met at a Griz game. And for some reason, they decided to socialize afterwards,” Managhan said during opening statements Tuesday, adding that the men spent time together for several hours that night, including driving around in Duffey’s truck. “And then the evidence will show that [the victim] was engaged to get married to a woman. And Mr. Duffey didn’t like this idea, felt used, and wanted to expose him. And the state wants to turn that into threats of violence.”

Duffey has spent much of the last decade working for Republican campaigns and political action committees in Montana and other states, including Arizona and Pennsylvania, according to federal campaign records. He worked for the Montana Legislature as a temporary staffer under GOP majorities during the 2019, 2021 and 2023 sessions, according to state employee records.

Duffey also served as political director on Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte’s gubernatorial campaign in 2020. He was fired from that position after allegedly striking a parked car with his own car door multiple times after an event in Bozeman. In 2024, Duffey was a public-facing representative of Montana Policy Action, a 501(c)4 organization active in that year’s election.