Roy Kapeniak

Roy Kapeniak is a former classmate of Michael Kern at the Williams College.

Unlike Kern who went into politics, eventually completely abandoning his worldview and becoming a Senator from Colorado, Kapeniak remained a conspiracy theorist. Now maintaining a blog titled The Truth and Only the Truth: The Blog and Mind of Roy Kapeniak that features topics such as pharmaceutical mind control, Federal Reserve's currency debasement, and the theory that JFK was killed by his own limo driver, Kapeniak lives in a Massachusetts trailer park with his stripper girlfriend. When Doug Stamper told Frank Underwood about Kapeniak and his connection to Kern, they decided to use him to take down Kern who was awaiting confirmation after recently being named Secretary of State.

Before even becoming aware of Kapeniak, Underwood unearthed a 1978 unsigned editorial from the The Williams College Register, a college paper edited at the time by Kern. Written just after the September 1978 Camp David Accords, the editorial labels the Israeli presence in Gaza Strip and West Bank "an illegal occupation since 1967". Though it's entirely unclear whether Kern actually wrote the editorial, Underwood knows what an unpopular and undesirable point of view this is for a prospective State Department official to be connected to. Underwood thus decides to use the lack of clear evidence that Kern didn't write it as the opening punch of an orchestrated smear campaign via leaking the story to Zoe Barnes who despite some reservations due to there not existing a direct link with Kern pens an article that appears on the front page of The Washington Herald with the title "Secretary of State Nominee Michael Kern Approved Anti-Isreal Editorial". As the story gets traction with unprepared Kern getting asked about it by George Stephanopoulos during an appearance on This Week, the senator completely fumbles his response leading to a chorus of criticism from various powerful Israeli groups on the Capitol Hill including the Anti-Defamation League president calling him an anti-Semite.

After Stamper discovers Kapeniak, Underwood decides to use him as the final blow for the on-the-ropes Kern. Rather than meeting Kapeniak themselves, they send their "errand boy" Rep. Peter Russo with clear instructions to get Kapeniak to incrimnate Kern. Despite discoverng that Kapeniak actually wrote the editorial himself, Russo convinces him to go on the record with the Herald's Zoe Barnes, telling her that Kern wrote it. This new information causes another storm of controversy and Kern loses his nomination.