capital res 2 bak C R C

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">capitalresearch2</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>see ginni money launder
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">3/22</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2 tags</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see main for older</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">crypto</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">SEE BERMAN NOT THE EPA</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see greenwatch blog</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see rule 23 BS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see 2ndary buffers</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see ludwig sea change LCV BS attack</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">related to CFACT?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">bak 3 22</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">badish format here</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/troubling-questions-ginni-thomas-group/">https://www.alternet.org/troubling-questions-ginni-thomas-group/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 3 23
</font></div><div><p style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">legal experts are responding to bombshell reporting from<span>&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/03/28/ginni-thomas-crowdsourcers-anonymous-donations/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">The Washington Post</a><span>&nbsp;</span>revealing<span>&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/?s=Ginni+Thomas" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;"><strong style="font-weight: bold;">Ginni Thomas</strong></a>, the spouse of a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, who had<span>&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-ginni-thomas-insane-hiring-memos-for-former-president-donald-trump?ref=home" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">unprecedented access</a><span>&nbsp;</span>to

the Trump White House and Oval Office, for years headed a secretive

right-wing activist organization funded through a web of dark money

groups, whose purpose was to wage a culture war against the left.</font></p><p style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Post reports the organization, <b>Crowdsourcers</b>

for Culture and Liberty, took in nearly $600,000 in anonymous funds to

fuel its efforts to battle “cultural Marxism,” as Ginni Thomas, who

headed the group, called their mission.</font></p><div id="story_page_incontent_p2_target" style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-5155643920455169" data-ad-slot="6339868799" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration: none; text-align: center; margin-bottom: 20px; display: block;" /></font></div><p style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Thomas

had stepped away from her previous non-profit right-wing activist group

“amid concerns that it created potential conflicts for her husband on

hot-button issues before the court,” The Post says, and yet, she led

Crowdsourcers for Culture and Liberty, which creates the same concerns.

Where is the money coming from? What is the group doing with it? How

much crossover is there between her activism and the group’s targets and

efforts, and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ work?</font></p><p style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">According

to The Post, in tax filings of its think tank sponsor, Crowdsourcers

for Culture and Liberty is described as an “informal, unincorporated

nonprofit association which serves as an incubator for ideas across a

network of conservative leaders, cultural entrepreneurs, and cultural

influences.</span>”</font></p><p style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="font-weight: bold;">READ MORE:<span>&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2022/09/heist-ginni-thomas-tells-j6-committee-election-was-stolen-says-she-never-discussed-efforts-to-overturn-with-spouse/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">‘Heist’: Ginni Thomas Tells J6 Committee Election Was Stolen, Says She Never Discussed Efforts to Overturn With Spouse</a></strong></font></p><p style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">It

appears great efforts were made to ensure the donors to Thomas’

Crowdsourcers group would not be able to be publicly identified.</font></p><p style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">“In 2019, anonymous donors gave the think tank C<b>apital Research Center, or CRC, $596,000 that was designated for Crowdsourcers</b>,

according to tax filings and audits the think tank submitted to state

regulators. The majority of that money, $400,000, was routed through yet

another nonprofit, <b>Donors Trust,</b> according to that organization’s tax filings. Donors Trust is a fund that receives money from<strong style="font-weight: bold;"> wealthy donors whose identities are not disclosed and steers it toward conservative causes,” The Post explains.</strong></font></p><p style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Thomas, who is reportedly active in another secretive far-right-wing group, the<span>&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/?s=%22Council+for+National+Policy%22" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;"><strong style="font-weight: bold;">Council for National Policy</strong></a>,

brought two well-known far-right wing activists from CNP into

Crowdsourcers for Culture and Liberty: former Trump attorney, ally, and

advisor Cleta Mitchell, and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.</font></p><p style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/22/magazine/clarence-thomas-ginni-thomas.html" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">the New York Times</a><span>&nbsp;</span>last

year described the Council for National Policy as an organization that

“brings together old-school Republican luminaries, Christian

conservatives, Tea Party activists and MAGA operatives, with more than

400 members who include leaders of organizations like the Federalist

Society, the National Rifle Association and the Family Research

Council.”</font></p><p style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">But despite all the obvious red flags, an <b>attorney

for Ginni Thomas, Mark Paoletta, told The Washington Post she was

“proud of the work she did with Crowdsourcers, which brought together

conservative leaders to discuss amplifying conservative values with

respect to the battle over culture.”</b></font></p><p style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="font-weight: bold;">READ MORE:<span>&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2022/09/ginni-thomas-intertwined-with-vast-campaign-pressuring-supreme-court-to-overturn-roe-report/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Ginni Thomas ‘Intertwined’ With ‘Vast’ Campaign Pressuring Supreme Court to Overturn Roe: Report</a></strong></font></p><p style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">“She

believes Crowdsourcers identified the Left’s dominance in most cultural

lanes, while conservatives were mostly funding political

organizations,” Paoletta also told The Post.</font></p><p style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">“There is no plausible conflict of interest issue with respect to Justice Thomas,” he claimed.</font></p><p style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Others disagree.</font></p><p style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), who is also an attorney, responded to The Post’s report by<span>&nbsp;</span><a href="https://twitter.com/SenWhitehouse/status/1640751445627600902" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">mocking Paoletta’s claim</a><span>&nbsp;</span>there is no conflict of interest.</font></p><p style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Donors

Trust was central to the far-right Court-packing operation, and now

they pass secret donor funds to a justice’s spouse, but ‘no plausible

conflict of interest’? Please.”</font></p><p style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sen. Whitehouse went on to<span>&nbsp;</span><a href="https://twitter.com/SenWhitehouse/status/1640751447275962390" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">explain his additional concerns</a>.</font></p><p style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Plus,

remember that the secrecy conduits like Donors Trust keep the public

from knowing what’s happening, but nothing prevents the secret donor

from telling the spouse or the justice, ‘Hey, that money that secretly

came through to you — that’s me.'”</font></p><p style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Adam Smith, Vice President for Democracy Initiatives at the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington <b>(CREW),</b><span>&nbsp;</span><a href="https://twitter.com/asmith83/status/1640687150734749699" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">observed</a>:

“Seems like the spouse of a Supreme Court Justice shouldn’t be able to

hide the source of huge donations that could be from people with

business before the court.”</font></p><p style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="font-weight: bold;">READ MORE:<span>&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2022/09/ginni-thomas-attempts-to-influence-overturn-of-election-even-wider-than-previously-known/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Ginni Thomas’ Attempts to Influence Overturn of Election Even Wider Than Previously Known</a></strong></font></p><p style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">CREW’s President, Noah Bookbinder, a former federal corruption prosecutor,<span>&nbsp;</span><a href="https://twitter.com/NoahBookbinder/status/1640709001594695683" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">adds</a>:

“Hundreds of thousands in anonymous donations to an activist group led

by Ginni Thomas, spouse of a Supreme Court justice, raises all kinds of

troubling questions about who could be influencing decisions that affect

all of us.”</font></p><p style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Attorney

and Slate Magazine senior writer covering courts and the law, Mark

Joseph Stern, pushed back against any idea the nearly $600,000 funding

came from small donations.</font></p><p style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Ginni

Thomas’ various political ventures have never had any small/grassroots

donors. They have ALWAYS been funded by a handful of ultra-wealthy

individuals and organizations who are very obviously trying to curry

favor with her husband,” Stern<span>&nbsp;</span></span><a href="https://twitter.com/mjs_DC/status/1640727876591841282" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">sa</span>id</a>.</font></p><p style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Former White House aide and CNN commentator Keith Boykin, also an attorney,<span>&nbsp;</span><a href="https://twitter.com/keithboykin/status/1640713970540752898" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">called for Justice Thomas to recuse</a><span>&nbsp;</span>from

certain cases: “If Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson had to recuse herself

from the Harvard affirmative action case, then Clarence Thomas should

recuse himself from all the cases on right-wing issues in which his

activist wife, Ginni Thomas, is involved.”</font></p><div class="around-the-web" style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><div class="from-your-siteheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES</font></div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.444px; list-style: none;"><li class="from-your-siteitem"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/Bank/i-admit-it-ginni-thomas-told-the-jan-6-committee-she-never-saw-specific-evidence-of-voter-fraud/" class="from-your-sitelink rm-stats-tracked" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">'I admit it': Ginni Thomas told the Jan. 6 Committee she never saw 'specific evidence' of 'voter fraud' ›</a></font></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/ginni-thomas-2657037943" class="from-your-sitelink rm-stats-tracked" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Why

‘unhinged conspiracy nut’ Ginni Thomas’ post-election texts are

relevant to the Supreme Court’s ‘integrity’ and ‘credibility’:

conservative ›</a></font></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/ginni-thomas-2659666502/" class="from-your-sitelink rm-stats-tracked" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Ginni Thomas’ group raised almost $600,000 in 'anonymous donations' to fight 'cultural Marxism': report ›</a></font></li></ul><div class="around-the-webheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase; margin-top: 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB</font></div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.444px; list-style: none;"><li class="around-the-webitem"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/21/politics/ginni-thomas-january-6-committee-interview/index.html" class="around-the-weblink rm-stats-tracked" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">First on CNN: Ginni Thomas agrees to January 6 committee interview ›</a></font></li><li class="around-the-webitem"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-us-supreme-court-clarence-thomas-virginia-government-and-politics-3b4102509ef93bc37d24d7c8fd79ba80" class="around-the-weblink rm-stats-tracked" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">1/6 chairman: Ginni Thomas reiterates false election claims | AP News ›</a></font></li><li class="around-the-webitem"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/01/31/is-ginni-thomas-a-threat-to-the-supreme-court" class="around-the-weblink rm-stats-tracked" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Is Ginni Thomas a Threat to the Supreme Court? | The New Yorker ›</a></font></li></ul></div></div><div align="left"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div align="left"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/03/28/ginni-thomas-crowdsourcers-anonymous-donations/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/03/28/ginni-thomas-crowdsourcers-anonymous-donations/
</a></font></div><div><div align="left"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div align="left"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ref</font></div><div align="left"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div class="teaser-content grid-center" style="box-sizing: border-box; grid-column: 2 / 3; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>a little-known

conservative activist group led by Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, collected nearly $600,000 in

anonymous donations to wage a cultural battle against the left over

three years, a Washington Post investigation found.</b></font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The

previously unreported donations to the fledgling group Crowdsourcers

for Culture and Liberty were channeled through a right-wing think tank

in Washington that agreed to serve as a funding conduit from 2019 until

the start of last year, according to documents and interviews. The

arrangement, known as a “fiscal sponsorship,” effectively shielded from

public view details about Crowdsourcers’ activities and spending,

information it would have had to disclose publicly if it operated as a

separate nonprofit organization, experts said</span>.</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">The

Post’s investigation sheds new light on the role money from donors who

are not publicly identified has played in supporting Ginni Thomas’s

political advocacy, long a source of controversy. <b>The funding is the

first example of anonymous donors backing her activism since she founded

a conservative charity more than a decade ago</b>. She stepped away from

that charity amid concerns that it created potential conflicts for her

husband on hot-button issues before the court.</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Thomas’s activism has<span>&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/what-is-ginni-thomas-saying-now-the-evolution-of-an-unusually-outspoken-supreme-court-spouse/2018/12/26/883da960-f753-11e8-8c9a-860ce2a8148f_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_28&itid=lk_inline_manual_16&itid=lk_inline_manual_6" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">set her apart<span>&nbsp;</span></a>from

other spouses of Supreme Court justices. She has allied with numerous

people and groups that have interests before the court, and she has

dedicated herself to causes involving some of the most polarizing issues

in the country.</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In

2020, she privately pressed White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to

pursue efforts to overturn the presidential election, and she sent

emails urging swing-state lawmakers to set aside Joe Biden’s

popular-vote victory in awarding electoral votes. When those efforts

were<span>&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/24/virginia-thomas-mark-meadows-texts/?itid=lk_inline_manual_8" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">revealed by The Post last year</a>,

they intensified questions about whether her husband should recuse

himself from cases related to the election and attempts to subvert it.</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In

recent months, the high court has faced increasing scrutiny over a

range of ethical issues, including the lack of transparency surrounding

potential conflicts of interest and a whistleblower’s<span>&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/08/schenck-supreme-court-influence-judiciary-committee/?itid=lk_inline_manual_11" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">claim<span>&nbsp;</span></a>that wealthy Christian activists sought access to justices at social gatherings<b style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span>&nbsp;</span></b>to shore up their resolve on<span>&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/abortion/?itid=lk_inline_manual_11" target="blank" class="contextual_link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">abortion</a><span>&nbsp;</span>and other conservative priorities.</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In

a brief statement to The Post, Mark Paoletta, a lawyer for Ginni

Thomas, said she was “proud of the work she did with Crowdsourcers,

which brought together conservative leaders to discuss amplifying

conservative values with respect to the battle over culture.”</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“She

believes Crowdsourcers identified the Left’s dominance in most cultural

lanes, while conservatives were mostly funding political

organizations,” Paoletta wrote. “In her work, she has complied with all

reporting and disclosure requirements.”</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He wrote: “There is no plausible conflict of interest issue with respect to Justice Thomas.”</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A spokeswoman for the Supreme Court did not respond to questions for Clarence Thomas.</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">In

2019, anonymous donors gave the think tank<b> Capital Research Center</b>, or

CRC, $596,000 that was designated for Crowdsourcers, according to tax

filings and audits the think tank submitted to state regulators. The

majority of that money, $400,000, was routed through yet another

nonprofit, Donors Trust, according to that organization’s tax filings.

Donors Trust is a fund that receives money from<b style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span>&nbsp;</span></b>wealthy donors whose identities are not disclosed and steers it toward conservative causes.</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">The

documents do not say how or whether the money was spent. It is not

clear how much compensation, if any, Ginni Thomas received.</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">CRC,

which bills itself as an “investigative think tank,” is dedicated to

uncovering anonymously funded influence campaigns by unions,

environmental groups and other left-leaning nonprofits. Among its

trustees is Edwin Meese III, the conservative elder statesman and former

attorney general in the Reagan administration. Its president is Scott

Walter, a former aide to President George W. Bush.</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Around the time CRC agreed to channel the anonymous donations to Crowdsourcers, <b>CRC<span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span>&nbsp;</span></span>signed

a brief asking the Supreme Court to hear a case that conservative

groups hoped would rein in<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"> fuel emission regulations in Oregon</span>,</b> records

show. The court voted not to take up the case. As is routine, the votes

of the individual justices were not disclosed.</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Paoletta wrote that “Ginni Thomas had no knowledge of nor any connection whatsoever to an amicus brief CRC joined.”</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Walter did not respond to requests for comment.</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Meese

said in a brief telephone interview that CRC’s trustees agreed to the

arrangement because Crowdsourcers “was a group that had similar

objectives and it was felt it would be helpful to them.” Such

arrangements are common among other nonprofits, experts said.</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Former CRC chairman Michael Franc told The Post that it was<b style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span>&nbsp;</span></b>“a

courtesy for this group so that it could get going without having to

start up on its own, something to ease the ability of this group to

raise and use their money.”</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Walter

proposed the Crowdsourcers arrangement to the think tank’s board

members and mentioned Ginni Thomas’s involvement, Franc said.</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><h3 data-qa="article-header" class=" pb-sm pt-lgmod" id="5TBW6UMLNRDJXESI22DHHEMI4E" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-top: var(--lg-mod); padding-bottom: 16px; line-height: 1.25;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Seeking ‘culture warriors’</font></div></h3></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On

May 18, 2019, Thomas told influential right-wing donors and activists

about Crowdsourcers in a private meeting, video from the event shows.

The left, she said, was pushing “cultural Marxism” and “eroding the

pillars of our country.”</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We

have some culture warriors, but we have a lot more to do,” Thomas said

at a meeting of the Council for National Policy in Northern Virginia,

according to the<span>&nbsp;</span><a href="https://documented.net/media/council-for-national-policy-may-2019-cap-update-thomas-mitchell" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">video</a>, which was obtained by the nonprofit watchdog Documented and has been<span>&nbsp;</span><a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/06/04/ginni-thomas-trump-conservative-group/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">previously reported</a>. “Conservatives and Republicans are tired of being the oppressed minority."</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[pix vid]</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">May

18, 2019, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice

Clarence Thomas, presented Crowdsourcers for Culture and Liberty in

McLean, Virginia. (Video: Council for National Policy via Documented)</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The

concept for Crowdsourcers had taken shape during discussions with “35

of the best thinkers about what the left is doing,” she said.</font></b></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><div data-qa="article-image-group" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="flex-ns cb overflow-hidden mt-sm-ns side-by-side" data-qa="side-by-side" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; overflow: hidden; margin-top: 16px; display: flex;"><figure class="overflow-hidden relative hide-for-print center center mb-sm mb-md-ns w-50-ns grid-mobile-full-bleed fr-ns ml-0-ns mr-auto-ns" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto 24px 0px; margin-block: 0px; margin-inline: 0px; text-align: center; overflow: hidden; position: relative; width: 308px; float: right;"><figcaption class="ml-gutter mr-gutter mr-auto-ns ml-auto-ns font--subhead font-xxxs mt-xs left gray-dark" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-top: 8px; line-height: 1.25; text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mitchell,

chair of the Public Interest Legal Foundation, speaks at the

Pennsylvania Leadership Conference in Camp Hill, Pa., in April 2022.

(Matt Rourke/AP)

O’Keefe, the founder of Project Veritas, speaks

during the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor,

Md., on March 4. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)

</font></figcaption></figure></div></div></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Thomas

said partners in the effort included Cleta Mitchell, chair of the

Public Interest Legal Foundation, a nonprofit that submits amicus briefs

to the Supreme Court in election law cases. <b>Mitchell planned to

establish a political action committee to “protect President [Donald]

Trump,”</b><b style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span>&nbsp;</span></b>according to

a slide Thomas displayed during the closed-door meeting. James <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">O’Keefe,

the founder of Project Veritas — known for hidden-camera stings that

aim to embarrass liberals — would lead an effort to “protect our

heroes,”</span> she said. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">And Richard Viguerie, a pioneer in conservative

direct-mail campaigns, would head up an effort to “brand the left,” she

said.</span></font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mitchell

said in a brief phone interview that she did not know anything about

Crowdsourcers and that nothing ever came of the political action

committee.</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Ginni has asked me over the years to do a lot of different things,” she said. “I always try to respond.”</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>O’Keefe and Viguerie did not respond to requests for comment.</b></font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Thomas

described herself as having a key role in bringing Crowdsourcers

together. “I’m not the answer person. If anyone knows me, you know this.

I’m merely a convener,” she said. “I find the talent and I put them in a

room and I help them talk to one another.”</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>She

said the group was “now under” the Capital Research Center, though she

did not mention the funding.</b> It is not clear exactly when in 2019 the

anonymous donations were made.</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Crowdsourcers

had held its first meeting four months earlier at the Salamander Resort

& Spa in Middleburg, Va., a 340-acre bucolic retreat with

equestrian facilities. Attendees at the January 2019 meeting gathered

for dinner and met in a conference room the next day, splitting into

several groups — each dedicated to a theme such as politics, education

or family — to brainstorm ways to counter the left, said a person who

attended and spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private

event.</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Members

communicated through a private Google group, emails obtained by The

Post show. The emails contained warnings not to share information that

would reveal the identities of the group’s members. “ABSOLUTELY … DO NOT

FORWARD EMAILS FROM HERE WITHOUT REMOVING ALL IDENTIFYING INFORMATION

FROM THIS LISTSERV,” warned one.</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">In

February 2019, Thomas’s assistant emailed the Google group announcing

the addition of new members, including Charlie Kirk, president of the

pro-Trump student group Turning Point USA; Larry Solov, chief executive

of Breitbart News; and Allen B. West, a former Republican congressman

from Florida. Thomas replied, “WELCOME new leaders!!!”</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Both Thomas and her assistant used email addresses belonging to her for-profit consulting business, Liberty Consulting.</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In

that same message, Thomas wrote that she had been trying to raise money

for Crowdsourcers. “We had many great meetings with interested donors,

but we don’t yet have specific funding yet, so prayers still needed,”

she wrote.</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>She

added that Crowdsourcers’ next biweekly conference call would include a

presentation from Steve Hantler, an adviser to Bernie Marcus, a Home

Depot co-founder and major conservative donor</b>.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> Hantler is listed as the

“principal officer” in a nonprofit group called the Job Creators Network

Foundation, its tax filings show. The group has in recent years asked

the Supreme Court to strike down the Biden administration’s student loan

forgiveness program.</span></font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hantler

declined to comment. Spokespeople for Kirk and West did not provide

comment for this story. A spokeswoman for Solov said that “sometimes

Breitbart people get put on informational lists ... to know what people

are thinking and doing.”</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>By

late 2019, Crowdsourcers had engaged Tim Clark, who spearheaded Trump’s

2016 campaign in California, to serve as its national directo</b>r.</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In

an email obtained by The Post, Clark issued an invitation to a March

2020 public launch of the group. He made clear that Crowdsourcers did

not have the money to pay for members’ travel and lodging for the event,

which was to be held in Washington.</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The

launch was scheduled for March 6, 2020. “Culture Summit 2020 will focus

on the Left’s escalating war across American culture and how we go on

offense to better preserve America’s liberties for another generation,”

read the invitation obtained by The Post.</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s

not clear whether the meeting — which would have taken place just as

the nation was beginning to grapple with the spread of the<span>&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/coronavirus/?itid=lk_inline_manual_62" target="_blank" class="contextual_link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">coronavirus</a><span>&nbsp;</span>— was held as planned.</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Clark did not respond to a request for comment.</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><h3 data-qa="article-header" class=" pb-sm pt-lgmod" id="NKLSMCMVY5GJHIVMGXZWOFKEAE" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-top: var(--lg-mod); padding-bottom: 16px; line-height: 1.25;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A ‘temporary accommodation’</font></div></h3></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CRC’s

funding relationship with Crowdsourcers continued through the end of

2021, records show. The relationship was described in CRC tax filings as

a “fiscal sponsorship arrangement.” Under such agreements, an existing

charity houses a start-up group with a similar mission until the smaller

group gets off the ground.</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In

its tax filings, the think tank wrote that it provided “fiduciary

oversight, financial management and other administrative services to

help build the capacity” of Crowdsourcers. The filings describe

Crowdsourcers as an “informal, unincorporated nonprofit association

which serves as an incubator for ideas across a network of conservative

leaders, cultural entrepreneurs, and cultural influences.”</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Franc,

the former CRC chairman, said the idea “didn’t seem like it was

particularly controversial” when it was presented to the board for

approval. “It was maybe putting some money in one of our accounts to

make it easier to access it,” he said. “It was presented to us as a

courtesy, something that was more of a temporary accommodation.”</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Franc said the think tank had no role in raising the $596,000 that it channeled to Crowdsourcers.</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Crowdsourcers was never established as an independent nonprofit group, according to a search of an IRS database.</b></font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Philip

Hackney, a former IRS attorney who is now an associate law professor at

the University of Pittsburgh, said such arrangements are not uncommon

or improper. He said they do allow the start-up group to avoid having to

disclose information that independent nonprofits must reveal in annual

tax filings, such as its officers or details about its spending.</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“You would be able to keep names and salaries off of any documents,” he said.</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Indeed, Thomas’s title in Crowdsourcers is not a matter of public record and could not be determined.</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CRC’s

annual audits show that the $596,000 dedicated to Crowdsourcers was

“released” from donor restrictions over three years, meaning donors’

conditions on how it could be spent had been satisfied or lifted,

experts said.</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">About

$207,000 for Crowdsourcers was released in 2019, $85,000 in 2020 and

the remaining $303,000 in 2021, the audits show. CRC’s most recent tax

filing in 2021, obtained by Documented, said it had ended its agreement

with Crowdsourcers at the close of that year.</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><h3 data-qa="article-header" class=" pb-sm pt-lgmod" id="GJECAKGGK5AFBI6BMETEEZ4RCI" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-top: var(--lg-mod); padding-bottom: 16px; line-height: 1.25;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">An intersection with the court</font></div></h3></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><div data-qa="article-image" class="hide-for-print" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><figure class="overflow-hidden relative hide-for-print center center mb-sm mb-md-ns ml-auto-ns mr-auto-ns grid-mobile-full-bleed" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto 24px; margin-block: 0px; margin-inline: 0px; text-align: center; overflow: hidden; position: relative;"><figcaption class="ml-gutter mr-gutter mr-auto-ns ml-auto-ns font--subhead font-xxxs mt-xs left gray-dark" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-top: 8px; line-height: 1.25; text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
[pix Justice Clarence Thomas sits with his wife, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas,

while he waits to speak at the Heritage Foundation in Washington in

October 2021. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)]
<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></font></figcaption></figure></div></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">In

2019, the year the funding arrangement began, a trade group that

represents industrial companies, the American Fuel and Petrochemical

Manufacturers, had unsuccessfully sued Oregon over a program that

regulates how fuels are produced and transported.</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">On

Feb. 8 of that year, CRC joined free-market groups including the Cato

Institute and the Pacific Legal Foundation in an amicus brief urging the

Supreme Court to reconsider lower court decisions upholding the

program.</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">It

was the only time CRC, founded in 1984, has filed a brief with the

court in recent decades, according to Supreme Court records dating to

2001.</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For the court to hear a case, at least four justices must agree.</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On May 13, 2019, the court declined to hear the case.</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The

fact that CRC filed an amicus brief before the Supreme Court around the

same time it was supporting the work of Crowdsourcers does not on its

own present a conflict of interest that would have required Clarence

Thomas to recuse himself, according to Stephen Gillers, a legal ethics

expert at New York University. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">If Ginni Thomas was paid for her work

with Crowdsourcers — either directly or through her consulting firm —

then there could be a recusal issue depending on the size and timing of

the payment,</span> Gillers said.</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">All

federal judges, including Supreme Court justices, are required to

recuse themselves in certain circumstances, including when they or their

spouses have a financial interest in a party before the court or when a

reasonable person might question their impartiality. But because the

Supreme Court sits atop the judiciary, there is no higher court to

review each justice’s recusal decisions.</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gillers said ordinary Americans might find it puzzling<b style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span>&nbsp;</span></b>that

“one half of a married couple is at the ramparts on political issues

that then get translated into legal issues that her husband has to

decide.” But there is no rule prohibiting that, he said, and it’s not

clear how one could be crafted.</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ginni

Thomas has long maintained that she and her husband keep their careers

separate. “I can guarantee that my husband has never spoken to me about

pending cases in the court. It’s an ironclad rule in our house,”<span>&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/29/ginni-thomas-jan6-election/?itid=lk_inline_manual_85" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">she told congressional investigators last year</a><span>&nbsp;</span>who were examining the<span>&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/january-6-capitol-riot/?itid=lk_inline_manual_85" target="blank" class="contextual_link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">Jan. 6</a>,

2021, attack on the Capitol. “Additionally, he’s uninterested in

politics, and I generally don’t discuss with him my day-to-day work in

politics.”</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Controversy over Ginni Thomas’s political activism dates back to at least 2010, after<b style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span>&nbsp;</span></b>she

founded the nonprofit Liberty Central to harness the energy of the

then-burgeoning tea party movement. Though she described Liberty Central

as “nonpartisan” and focused on the principles of the Founding Fathers,

she spoke even then about “activating a community of grass-roots

patriots” to wage a cultural war.</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“It’s

time to wake up and refocus. Just like in a farm setting we need to

till the ground, plant the seeds, tend the crops and pray for rain

before we can harvest the crops,” she said that year in a speech to the

Conservative Political Action Conference. “The left has been tending

their crops, you guys. It has occurred in high schools, in K-12

textbooks, in colleges and Hollywood and mainstream media in our

churches and in government. We’ve been asleep.”</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Ginni

Thomas launched Liberty Central with an anonymous donation of $500,000

and another of $50,000, sparking questions about potential conflicts of

interest for her husband. (Months after the launch,<span>&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2011/02/justice-thomass-wife-now-lobbyist-048812" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">Politico<span>&nbsp;</span></a>reported

that the $500,000 investment had come from Harlan Crow,</span> a Texas real

estate magnate and major donor to conservative candidates and causes who

had also given Clarence Thomas a Bible worth $19,000 that had once

belonged to Frederick Douglass, according to the justice’s financial

disclosures.)</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Amid

those questions, Ginni Thomas stepped away from Liberty Central in

November 2010. She went on to establish Liberty Consulting. Because

Liberty Consulting is a for-profit firm, it is subject to fewer public

reporting requirements. Little is known about the firm’s clients,

besides those that have listed payments to Liberty in required

disclosures.</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A

nonprofit called the Center for Security Policy, which filed an amicus

brief with the court in 2017 in support of the Trump administration’s

Muslim ban, reported in its tax filings that it paid Liberty Consulting a

total of $236,000 in 2017 and 2018, the New Yorker first<span>&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/01/31/is-ginni-thomas-a-threat-to-the-supreme-court" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">reported<span>&nbsp;</span></a>last

year. A political action committee run by Viguerie, the Crowdsourcers

member and direct-mail pioneer, also reported paying Liberty $5,000 in

2018 for “video production.</span>”</font></p><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">As

a Supreme Court justice, Clarence Thomas must list sources of his

wife’s income on annual financial disclosure forms, but not the amount.

<b>Since 2018, he has reported that Liberty Consulting was the sole source

of income for his wife, and that the firm paid her a salary and

benefits.</b></font></p></div><p data-testid="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Clarence Thomas is not required to report the firm’s clients.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;aha note that covid clearly demonstrated libtard fail</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1 23</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-great-reset-and-its-critics-part-3/">https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-great-reset-and-its-critics-part-3/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); text-align: center;" /><div style="text-align: left;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">the Great Reset and Its Critics (full series)</font></strong></div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-great-reset-and-its-critics-part-1/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">The Technocrats</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-great-reset-and-its-critics-part-2/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">The Great Reset</a></span></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-great-reset-and-its-critics-part-3/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">The Great Narrative</a>&nbsp;</span>|&nbsp;<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-great-reset-and-its-critics-part-4/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">The Critics</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-great-reset-and-its-critics-part-5/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">Conclusion</a></div><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">1 tech</div></span><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">in mid-2020, after COVID-19 and lockdown policies to (unsuccessfully) stop it had spread across the world, the World Economic Forum (WEF) leader Klaus Schwab, along with the man now known as King Charles III of the United Kingdom, announced the Forum’s “Great Reset Initiative”</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> to guide a state-managed, environmentalist, and corporate-aligned reconstruction of the world economy. Schwab built on the initiative with a </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">book co-authored with French economist Thierry Malleret titled&nbsp;</span></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">COVID-19: The Great Reset<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">. In their book, they made predictions about how the pandemic and ruling regime it ushered in would “reset” society to the benefit of environmentalism and management of the economy by a concert of state and “stakeholder.”</span></span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;"> The sequel,&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">The Great Narrative</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;">, proposed an approach to selling the WEF’s reset agenda based on Schwab and Malleret’s discussions with 50 mostly left-wing, mostly academic thinkfluencers; It calls for more<b> global governance. The radicalism</b> of the “reset”—it’s right there in the name—and the influence of Schwab and the WEF, have elicited firm opposition.</span></font></p><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Few quotes stick in the conservative or libertarian craw. quite like the infamous musing of incoming White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel to President Barack Obama, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.” For Emanuel, the Obama administration, and Democrats’ generational-scale majorities in both houses of Congress, that meant enacting the fiscal stimulus, a then-outrageous $787 billion boondoggle of building projects; regulatory legislation like the Dodd-Frank banking act; and Obamacare, the statist restructuring of health care finance SO PPL COULD BUY PRICE GOUGING INEFFICIENT CORP PRODUCT??].</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Technocrats</font></strong></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But the quote sticks because the impulse is far from Emanuel’s alone. Nothing in the COVID-19 pandemic period so vividly demonstrated the impulse “to do things that you think you could not do before” as the name given to a project launched at a 2020 virtual conference of the World Economic Forum (WEF), the think tank and <b>business league based in Europe </b>best known for hosting the annual Davos meetings at which international politicians and corporate bigwigs lay out their visions for the world.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That name was “The Great Reset.” Demonstrating the WEF’s influence over a European metropolitan left-leaning sort,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jun/03/pandemic-is-chance-to-reset-global-economy-says-prince-charles" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">the project was launched</a>&nbsp;by Klaus Schwab, the German academic who has led the WEF and been a leading opponent of shareholder primacy in corporate governance since 1971, and then-Prince of Wales, now <b>King Charles III of the United Kingdom. </b>The project, in the words of International Monetary Fund managing director Kristalina Georgieva, aspires to frame the emergence from the COVID-19 pandemic in the creation of “a greener, smarter, fairer world.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Later in 2020, Schwab and French economist Thierry Malleret published&nbsp;<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">COVID-19: The Great Reset­</span>, a book-length examination of the changes in society the authors presumed were likely to happen and perhaps desirable as a result of the pandemic. Increased power of the state and left-wing activism were presumed certain; rapid adoption of environmentalist-aligned, “stakeholder”-influenced corporate practices was presumed to be a necessity.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Schwab has opposed “shareholder primacy,” the view that corporate management owes shareholders the greatest profits that can be obtained in obedience to law and custom,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/10/a-useful-pandemic-davos-launches-new-reset-this-time-on-the-back-of-covid/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">since the 1970s</a>. Like the financial crisis of 2008 did for Emanuel’s American Democrats, the crisis created by the COVID pandemic and the unprecedented-in-modern-times attempts to suppress it offers Schwab and the WEF the opportunity to press home their environmentalist and statist goals.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But can <b>central planners </b>remake a world that they cannot accurately predict? From the perspective at the turn of 2023, many of Schwab and Malleret’s predictions of the world that COVID would bring into being have not come to pass, perhaps none more crucially than one on page 70: “At this current juncture [mid-2020 YOU MEAN WHEN THE PRICE OF OIL WENT NEGATIVE?], it is hard to imagine how inflation could pick up anytime soon.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Schwab and Malleret’s sequel to&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">COVID-19: The Great Reset</em>, titled&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Great Narrative</em>, does little to diminish such suspicions. The “narrative” is essentially a repackaging of the same warmed-over <b>environmentalist tropes</b> all have heard before with little connection to the actual production of things, which makes sense given that the book is based on discussions with 50 global thinkfluencers or government officials, not with industrialists or even manufacturing-trades labor unionists. The result is a mix of technocratic gibberish and Greenpeace-in-a-suit environmentalism with the solutions for “a better future” having little to offer the Western middle and working classes beyond <b>handwaving about a “just transition”</b> and promises that weather-dependent energy technologies are much more stable and productive than traditional fuels. (Just ask Europeans trying to heat their homes amid an energy crisis how well that claim has aged.) BECAUSE AN EXORTIONATE DICTATOR WITHDREW IT, AND THE WORD DID NOT WANT TO FUND HIS GENOCIDE YOU TWAT]</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The authors’ barely veiled desire to exploit the COVID crisis to pursue left-wing ends has provoked alarm and responses, at least two of book length. <b>ClimateDepot.com publisher </b>and longtime critic of environmentalism Marc Marono released&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Great Reset: Global Elites and the Permanent Lockdown</em>&nbsp;while Michael Walsh released a compilation of essays tiled&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Against the Great Reset: Eighteen Theses Contra the <b>New World Order</b></em><b>. </b>Both focus less on Schwab’s “reset” itself than the broader agenda of ski-chalet environmentalism and chardonnay socialism popular with the professional-managerial technocratic class that is overrepresented at World Economic Forum gatherings and among the speakers at TED Talks. The right-leaning opponents’ fears are summarized in a line from a pre-COVID-era WEF video on predictions for the world in 2030: “You’ll own nothing, and you’ll be happy.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The WEF is adamant that it does not advocate this; the line is derived from an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/worldeconomicforum/2016/11/10/shopping-i-cant-really-remember-what-that-is-or-how-differently-well-live-in-2030/?sh=1f671fad1735" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">op-ed by a Danish Social Democratic politician</a>&nbsp;published by the WEF that is headlined, “I Own Nothing, Have No Privacy And Life Has Never Been Better.” Many would still respectfully dissent from such a vision.</font></p><hr style="box-sizing: content-box; height: 0px; margin: 30px 0px; border: none; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);" /><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">In the&nbsp;<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-great-reset-and-its-critics-part-2/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">next installment</a>, in&nbsp;</span>COVID-19: The Great Reset<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">&nbsp;the authors made many ambitious (and wrong) predictions about how the pandemic would change the world.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">2&nbsp; C</span><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">OVID-19:&nbsp;</span></strong><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Great Reset</span></strong><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">: A Litany of Bad Predictions&nbsp; THIS TAX CUT WIL PAY FOR ITSELF</strong></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In July 2020, Klaus Schwab and Thierry Malleret published&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">COVID-19: The Great Reset</em>, which the authors wrote would “help understand what’s coming in a multitude of domains.” But at a little more than two years removed from the book’s publication, much has not proceeded as Schwab and Malleret expected. This has important implications for the state and “stakeholder”— left-wing interest group and left-wing NGO-industrial complex—directed future they seek.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At least in the United States, their expectations for employment and inflation were completely wrong. They argue that (from their vantage point in July 2020) the unemployment situation was “bound to deteriorate further” because a “sustainable economic recovery” would not start until a COVID-19 vaccination was developed. In fact, the combination of the end of the initial, <b>harshest lockdowns and government assistance</b> meant that the economy had already begun to rebound at the time of publication. Both&nbsp;<a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UNRATE" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">unemployment</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/U6RATE" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">broader dis-employment</a>&nbsp;(the “U-6” measure) had peaked during the maximum extent of lockdown in April 2020 and were trending rapidly downward (from an historically astronomical level) in July 2020. The economic recovery in the U.S. began rapidly after the end of the lockdowns, with the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/19/business/economy/pandemic-recession-over-coronavirus.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">formal recessionary period</a>&nbsp;(defined as the beginning of contraction to the beginning of recovery) lasting only two months.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Schwab and Malleret were also wrong about the other side of the Phillips Curve: inflation, which has been high and persistent in both the United States and Europe since 2021. They wrote, “At this juncture, it is hard to imagine how inflation could pick up anytime soon.” But it did, and with increased inflation will come increased interest rates and government debt-servicing costs. A situation of near-zero inflation and near-zero aggregate growth over a long period as has occurred in Japan, which Schwab and Malleret suggest is a “salutary lesson that there is hope in the face of economic hardship,” is not currently in the cards for America and Europe.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As for public health and the spread of the virus, Schwab and Malleret in large part blame failures in global governance. But global governance is not a thing that meaningfully exists. The multilateral institutions, like the World Health Organization that the authors claim to be a global governance body, are more meaningfully sites of great-power rivalry. The potential consequences of WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus having been backed for his post by the People’s Republic of China, site of the first outbreaks of COVID-19, go unremarked. Schwab and Malleret predict rising tensions between the United States and Communist China, but the implications of that rivalry for their desired “global governance” appear to evade them.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Schwab and Malleret praise the effects of the “environmental reset” that lockdowns placed on the general population. Schwab, for one, has sought for decades to supplant shareholder primacy with corporate social policy modeled on environmental and social governance (ESG). Naturally, he predicts COVID-19 will lead ESG into ascendancy.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Not all the “environmental reset” predictions have come true. Andrew Cuomo, hounded from the governor’s office in New York for allegedly sexually harassing 11 women, would not today find himself considered an example of “enlightened leadership,” as Schwab and Malleret did given his commitments to an environmentalist rebuilding from the pandemic crisis. Air travel has recovered (airport security passenger throughput totals are nearly back to pre-pandemic levels) and the lockdowns revealed that many digital substitutes for in-person experiences are woefully insufficient, “virtual learning” for K–12 students being the most obvious.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Schwab and Malleret praise the possibility of digital contract tracing to control viral outbreaks, but across the Western world such schemes largely failed due to public resistance and indifferent non-adoption. Technocrats have largely blamed this outcome on concerns over data security, but the cause was likely more visceral. Free people resisted giving out tracking information on their movements to Big Tech and Big Government that might be used to confine them. Even Schwab and Malleret acknowledge the “risk of dystopia” such tracking creates.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That free peoples might consider that risk unacceptable, even in the face of disease and death, appears to evade them. Likewise do the implications of a mental health crisis caused in part by lockdowns, or the just fury of those who lost “great markers of time”—weddings, funerals, even day-to-day interactions—to unreasonably extended confinement.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The resilience of the “old normal” against the new is perhaps best illustrated by one bad guess the authors made. In 2020, car-rental giant Hertz declared bankruptcy. Schwab and Malleret called this “the last straw” for a firm reliant on air travelers. But in October 2021, Hertz&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/30/business/hertz-bankrupcty.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">emerged from restructuring</a>&nbsp;having cleared billions in debt, sold off used vehicles amid high used-car prices, and profited from a post-pandemic return to travel. The “last straw” looked more like a classical business cycle, if on an accelerated timeframe.</font></p><hr style="box-sizing: content-box; height: 0px; margin: 30px 0px; border: none; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);" /><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the&nbsp;<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-great-reset-and-its-critics-part-3/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">next installment</a>, in The Great Narrative update their leftist technocratic vision of the future.</font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">3 the&nbsp;</span><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">&nbsp;Great Narrative</span></strong><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">: A Bet on the Highly Unlikely</strong></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The ambition of&nbsp;<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">COVID-19: The Great Reset</span>&nbsp;and the WEF’s broader Great Reset projects ensured that the 2020 volume would not be the last word on the question. So, in 2021 (the book was copyrighted in 2022, but the introduction is dated December 2021) Klaus Schwab and Thierry Malleret wrote&nbsp;<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Great Narrative for a Better Future</span>, a follow-up volume to&nbsp;<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Great Reset</span>.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If the first volume was supposed to be a description of where COVID-19 was sending the world,&nbsp;<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Great Narrative&nbsp;</span>was to be what Schwab and Malleret called “a framework for future action.” To that end, the authors conducted “50 conversations with foremost global thinkers and opinion-makers” to help sharpen their argument for what <b>WEF critic and Hoover Institution senior fellow Victor Davis Hanson&nbsp;</b><a href="https://americanmind.org/salvo/the-great-regression/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">called</a>:</font></p><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 14px 28px; margin: 0px 0px 28px; border-width: 1px; border-left-style: solid; border-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">a kitchen-sink mishmash of agendas that incorporate the U.N.’s long stale “Sustainable Development” plan (“Agenda 21”), the Green New Deal, tidbits of Black Lives Matter sloganeering, critical race theory, ‘stakeholder’ capitalism that often champions<b style=""> ESG, or forced corporate embrace of “environmental and social governance</b>” over shareholder profitability, open-borders rhetoric, and boutique <b style="">redistributionism</b> dumbed down from Thomas Piketty’s&nbsp;<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Capital in the Twenty-First Century</span>.</font></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Given the people who made up the book’s list of global thinkfluencers, that laundry-list of warmed-over leftism is exactly what one would expect from Schwab and Malleret’s narrative. The authors’ conversationalists included several American and British academics (not a group known for their ideological diversity, unless left and radical-left” count), environmentalist scholars and activists, think tankers, and two former leaders of international institutions with<b> ties to the Chinese Communist Party’s Chinese People’s Consultative Conference. I</b>nterestingly, missing from the list are any industrialists (even environmentalist ones) or even trade union officials. This is surprising given Schwab and Malleret’s praise for organized labor. No Abrahamic religious leaders were listed as discussants; one environmentalist Hindu guru was. The authors did speak with at least two identifiably center-right people from Britain and America; Dambisa Moyo, an economist and author who now sits as a Tory in the House of Lords, and historian and <b>Hanson’s Hoover Institution colleague Niall Ferguson.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hanson’s quote, taken from his essay in the critical compilation&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Against the Great Reset</em>, accurately summarizes Schwab and Malleret’s&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Great Narrative</em>. It is worth examining the fulcrum of reality on which the Great Reset–Great Narrative hinges. The technocratic vision has a critical flaw: It admits no decision point at which policymakers or the mass public must decide whether to bear a cost for a benefit.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Therefore, in&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Great Reset&nbsp;</em>the decision to lock down or open the economy had to be presented as a false choice, with the true answer being to lock down because the economy would not recover anyway until the virus was suppressed. This claim can be evaluated against the economic performances of Florida, spiritual home of the American anti-lockdown movement, and California, dedicated to “following the science.” Florida’s labor force and total employment have not only fully recovered from the pandemic, but also increased in aggregate. California’s have both fallen.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Great Narrative</em>, the solution to the difficulty that an aggressive environmentalist agenda would place on the Western middle classes who might not be ready for the “you’ll own nothing, and be happy” ideal is Moore’s Law for everything. Moore’s Law is the claim, made by and named for longtime Intel (and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/gordon-e-and-betty-i-moore-foundation/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Gordon E. and Betty I. Moore Foundation</a>) head Gordon Moore, that the number of transistors on a microchip would double every two years. Less precisely, it is a statement of rapid technological progress.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Schwab and Malleret predict that because of rapid technological progress, decarbonizing the economy can occur beginning immediately, though there may be “bumps along the way” in the form of higher energy prices. This progress, combined with developments in human-machine interfaces and the “internet of things,” will effect the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” that Schwab has proclaimed.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Maybe it will, though as Michael Brendan Dougherty noted in his reflection on the 2022 World Economic Forum conference at Davos, whether the Davoisie would take such blessings as cause to offer the public “anything other than a<b> future of privation and control”</b> is&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/05/supervillains-gather-in-davos/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">unclear from their rhetoric</a>. But what if, like their prediction of inflation rates from 2020, Schwab and Malleret are&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">wrong</em>?</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If governments and corporate ESG activists decide to follow&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The</em>&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Great Narrative&nbsp;</em>agenda and the promised rapid technological progress does&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">not</em>&nbsp;emerge, the average citizen—at least in the industrialized world—will find himself substantially worse off in life-experience terms. Europeans, who have been living the decarbonization agenda for a few years now, are experiencing an energy crisis after Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, making his role as Europe’s supplier of natural gas untenable. (An&nbsp;<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/donald-trump-merkel-germany-ukraine-war-b2041226.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">American president had in 2018</a>&nbsp;warned about Europe’s reliance on Russian energy, to much ridicule from the great and good at the time.) Now, Europeans are&nbsp;<a href="https://www.euronews.com/2022/12/21/europes-energy-crisis-living-without-central-heating" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">figuring out how to live without central heating</a>&nbsp;in case further energy rationing is needed.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The reaction to lockdown showed that people will live with less&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">for a period</em>. [MUSK HAD TO THREATEN TO FIRE PPL TO END TELECOMMUTE?] And then they won’t. At the time of writing, even the People’s Republic of China, a totalitarian dictatorship, has been forced in part by public pressure to abandon its Zero-COVID lockdown regime. The mere perception that the middle classes in the industrialized West were falling behind gave rise to the first generation of 21st century populisms of Right and Left: Donald Trump, Marine Le Pen, Bernie Sanders, Jeremy Corbyn, and so forth. They were not entirely successful; all lost to establishment figures either within their own faction or in general elections, some multiple times.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But where would a Davos agenda that fails to keep the heat on, declines into the surveillance dystopia that Schwab and Malleret themselves acknowledge as a possibility, or leads to mass unemployment as factories shutter and small businesses close lead? A second generation of Western populists is already emerging, and nothing would power it more forcefully than making people’s lived experiences worse in the medium term.</font></p></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">4&nbsp; The Critics</font></strong></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The ambition of the Great Reset agenda was sure to provoke a response from critics. Given recent political developments in the United States that have placed conservatives in opposition both to the panopticon state and to the Big Tech industry (formerly the positions of the Left), that opposition has overwhelmingly come from the Right. Two of the most prominent books published presenting right-of-center opposition to the agenda are&nbsp;<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Against the Great Reset: Eighteen Theses Contra the <b>New World Order</b></span>, a collection of essays from right-leaning intellectual figures edited by writer Michael Walsh, and&nbsp;<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Great Reset: <b>Global Elites and the Permanent Lockdown</b></span><b>&nbsp;by Marc Morano,</b> a prominent critic of the environmentalist movement.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Morano’s book consists mostly of direct objections to COVID-19 response policies, colloquially lumped together as “lockdowns.” Most of those objections are justified. There is precious little evidence that lockdowns, <b>mask mandates, </b>school closures, and similar intrusions did much of anything to reduce the death and disease toll from COVID-19, and the consequences of having tried to shut down human life have only begun to be realized. NOT UTTER LACK OF DATA</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But not all are. To pick just one example, Morano’s praise for longtime vaccination skeptic and environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s activism against COVID-19 regulations may be a case of “any ally in a crisis,” but it risks discrediting the justified opposition to lockdowns and <b>biomedical surveillance dystopia</b> by attaching it to other unjustified claims.<b> Morano is on stronger ground giving credit to those governors—he names Brian Kemp of Georgia, Kristi Noem of South Dakota, and most prominently Ron DeSantis of Florida—</b>who opposed and either expeditiously lifted or never enacted lockdown policies while rejecting further restrictions like vaccination passports.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">The more intellectual book of criticism is the Walsh-edited&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;">Against the Great Reset</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">. Its “eighteen theses” are 18 essays by 17 writers (Walsh contributes two) criticizing various elements of the World Economic Forum’s proposed technocracy. They vary in content and rhetorical success</span><b style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">. Victor Davis Hanson eviscerates the underlying ideology of the Reset in a mere 26 pages</b><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">. James Poulos of the </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Claremont Institute </span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">fails to convince this technologically unsophisticated reader that bitcoin “can be used as the girders of a new online architecture” that can reorient man to God. Alberto Mingardi’s examination of “stakeholderism,” the ideology of business control underlying ESG activism, is mandatory reading for anyone concerned with the subject, while<b> Conrad Black and Michael Anton</b> seem to miss the mark on the anti-capitalism of the Reset by being too optimistic and too pessimistic, respectively.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Underlying the criticism is the not-unreasonable fear that the lockdown regime writ large—movement restrictions, restrictions on personal consumption, subjection of the individual’s rights to the determination of the “common good” by a bureaucrat—will feature in the Davos World </b>that Schwab, Malleret, and the World Economic Forum would build. The group’s messaging—most infamously the “8 Predictions for the World in 2030” video that birthed “<b>you’ll own nothing and be happy”</b> that predates COVID-19 and the Great Reset—does not breed confidence. Michael Brendan Dougherty&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/05/supervillains-gather-in-davos/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">wrote</a>&nbsp;for&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">National Review&nbsp;</em>that “Schwab’s obsessions with global political cooperation, environmentalism, and ‘the fourth industrial revolution’—his idea that the next great leap in capitalist productivity will come from integrating technology with the human person itself—guarantees that the presentations [at WEF Davos conferences] will be a mix of utopian globalism that somehow combine visions of global austerity (to reduce carbon) with nightmares about a handful of corporate and political leaders having direct access to your amygdala.” And it is difficult to say that he is wrong.</font></p><hr style="box-sizing: content-box; height: 0px; margin: 30px 0px; border: none; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);" /><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the&nbsp;<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-great-reset-and-its-critics-part-5/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">next installment</a>, World Economic Forum’s technocratic agenda runs counter to reality and human nature.</font></span></p><div class="singletags" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Tags:</strong>&nbsp;<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/china/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">China</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/covid-19/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">COVID-19</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/disinformation/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">disinformation</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/esg/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">environmental social governance (ESG)</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/king-charles-iii/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">King Charles III</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/lockdown/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">lockdown</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/rahm-emanuel/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Rahm Emanuel</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/world-economic-forum-wef/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">World Economic Forum (WEF)</a></font></div></div><div class="singletags" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div class="singletags" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">5 conclusion</font></strong></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The technocratic mentality that pervades the World Economic Forum’s messaging, including&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Great Reset&nbsp;</em>and&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Great Narrative</em>, holds that planners—the “stakeholders” of ESG prospectuses, the politicians and corporate officials who convene at WEF’s Davos conferences—can master the world economy, the global climate, and global governance. But ancient and timeless forces continue to assert themselves.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Global governance? If it ever exists, it dies at the outbreak of major interstate war. </b>Thus, when one-time Davos participant Vladimir Putin attempted to sack Kyiv and decapitate the Ukrainian government, global governance perished as surely as the League of Nations. The Great Powers once again divided into camps as China tepidly backed Russia and the American-European alliance aligned firmly behind Ukraine. NATO IS KICKING PUTIN'S ASS, AND WORLD GOV EXPLAIN'S CHINA RETICENCE</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">Whatever the World Economic Forum and the Biden administration or its climate envoy </span><b style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">John Kerry</b><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> might wish,</span><b style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> geopolitical rivalry between the United States and the People’s Republic of China is inevitable</b><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Americans will not consent to de facto rule by the Chinese Communist Party</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> once they become aware of it. The Chinese Communist Party will continue to “revise” the international order created by the post–World War II United States (and its allies) in its own interests. International deal-making will take a back seat to power geopolitics.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Whither ESG</b>? It is interesting to read Schwab and Malleret’s paeans to environmental, social, and governance practices after the collapse of the cryptocurrency giant FTX into an eight-count indictment against its trendy ex-CEO Sam Bankman-Fried for wire fraud among other offenses. Bankman-Fried was a major [CONSERVATIVE, JUST EASIER TO HIDE] liberal political donor and practitioner of utilitarian&nbsp; LIBTARD&nbsp;<b>“effective altruism,”</b> derived from the utilitarianism of philosopher and&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Great Narrative&nbsp;</em>discussion participant Peter Singer. Critics of ESG have made much of the fact that at least one ESG ratings agency&nbsp;<a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/ftx-founder-manipulated-esg-earn-virtue-signaling-glow-palantir-co-founder" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">rated FTX above ExxonMobil</a>&nbsp; POLLUTER STRANDED ASSETS DENIAL FUNDER for “leadership and governance,” <b>suspecting</b> that Bankman-Fried’s trendy liberal affectations had something to do with it. As for allowing the general public to influence policy, including corporate behavior, democratic representative government already exists throughout the West. Deferring to NGOs is simply a case of gerrymandering the deciding class from one roughly evenly divided on ideological lines to one overwhelmingly of the professional-managerial Left.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What would more international migration bring? Apparently uncontrolled international migration fueled the first generation of populist figures such as Italy’s Matteo Salvini and of course former President Donald Trump, as well as the British vote to leave the European Union. While the Biden administration in the U.S. and elements in Europe might wish to ignore border controls, there is no reason to believe that political forces will allow them to do so indefinitely.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Decarbonization and net-zero emissions? Both are bets on rapid technological progress that may or may not be realized. Forcing them into effect before the technology is scalable, reliable, and available BASS ACKWARDS will reduce the Western middle class’s quality of life CLIMATE CHAOS , providing yet more fuel to the establishment’s populist and conservative rivals.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Control of the narrative against “misinformation” is already contested, as the dissident environmentalist industrialist—who under different circumstances the WEF might praise as one of the visionaries of the Fourth Industrial Revolution—Elon Musk has taken over Twitter and launched a campaign to expose the company’s prior bad actions in information control.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And what about the permanent lockdown NO ONE ADVOCATES THIS YOU FECK that the WEF’s staunchest critics fear? Such is contrary to <b>human nature</b> and blessedly impossible: Humanity demands togetherness, even over something as trivial as sports. The vision of a permanently locked-down world may have been best refuted by the estimated 5 million revelers in Buenos Aires, Argentina, whose assemblies&nbsp;<a href="https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/argentina/huge-crowds-force-authorities-to-abort-argentinas-world-cup-victory-parade.phtml" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">forced the cancellation</a>&nbsp;of the national soccer team’s World Cup trophy parade because the team bus could not safely part the seas of people. What cannot be, will not be.</font></p></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">note tucker benghazi 118th BS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/ryan-zinke-accuses-deep-state/">https://www.alternet.org/ryan-zinke-accuses-deep-state/</a></font></div><div><p style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">United States Congressman Ryan Zinke (R-Montana) delivered a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives on Tuesday in which he proclaimed that a "deep state" along with "liberals" are engaged in a sinister agenda targeting himself and other conservatives.</font></span></p><p style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Prior to his election to Congress in the November 2022 midterms, Zinke served as secretary of the interior under former President Donald Trump. He resigned in December 2018 amid a flurry of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/02/16/1081180054/ryan-zinke-interior-investigation-ig-report" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">ethics scandals</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://rollcall.com/2018/12/15/amid-corruption-charges-zinke-is-leaving-as-interior-secretary/" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">suspicions of corruption</a>.</font></span></p><p style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Nonetheless, on Tuesday, Zinke declared himself a victim of a vast conspiracy and endorsed House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's (R-California) proposal to create a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/08/us/politics/house-republicans-fbi-investigation.html" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">subcommittee tasked with investigating various federal agencies</a>&nbsp;that have open inquiries into Trump.</font></b></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">READ MORE:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.alternet.org/msn/kevin-mccarthy-2659094838/" target="self" title="view post: Paul Krugman: House Republicans’ economics are as 'divorced from reality' as their election lies" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Paul Krugman: House Republicans’ economics are as 'divorced from reality' as their election lies</a></font></strong></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">"Mister Speaker, I rise today in support of a select committee to investigate the weaponization of the federal government,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;something I have a lot of experience firsthand. I proudly served as the fifty-second secretary of interior, and despite the deep state's repeatedly attempts to stop me, I stand before you as a duly elected member of the United States Congress and</span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">&nbsp;tell you that a deep state exists and it is perhaps the strongest covert weapon the left has against the American people,"</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;Zinke said.</span></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"There is no doubt the federal government<b>&nbsp;deep state coordinates with liberal activists and uses politicians and willing media to carry their water. The deep state runs secret messaging campaigns with one goal in mind – to increase its power to censor and persuade the American people. Dark money groups, funded by liberal billionaires and foreign investors, funnel money to shell organizations and repeatedly attempt to destroy the American West</b>.&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">They want to wipe out the American cowboy completely,</span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;remove public access to our lands, and turn Montana into a national park. They want to control our land and our lifestyle,"</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;Zinke alleged before claiming that he amassed so-called evidence from a right-wing non-profit.</span></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"Mister Speaker," Zinke added, "I'd like to submit a five-part series of investigative articles by the </span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">Capitol Research Center</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> entitled,</span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/john-kania-19301511_arabellas-long-war-keep-it-in-the-ground-activity-6866114510109974528--tk/" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Arabella's Long War Keep It in the Ground</a></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;into the congressional record."</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Watch below or&nbsp;<a href="https://www.alternet.org/ryan-zinke-accuses-deep-state" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">at this link</a>.</font></p></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;=</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CRC HIT TOUTED BY ZINKE:</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/arabellas-long-war-part-1"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://capitalresearch.org/article/arabellas-long-war-part-1</font></a></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><div class="singlethe-content the-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 60px; padding-left: 10px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; text-align: center;" /><div style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/arabellas-long-war-part-1/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">“Keep It in the Ground”</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/arabellas-long-war-part-2/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">Web of “Pop-Up” Groups</a></font></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/arabellas-long-war-part-3/" style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/arabellas-long-war-part-3/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Anatomy of an Arabella Campaign</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/arabellas-long-war-part-4/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Harried Until the End</a></font></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Summary:&nbsp;</span></strong><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">For years “dark money” activists ran a coordinated campaign to sabotage and undermine the Trump administration from the offices of Arabella Advisors in Washington, DC. The campaign culminated in the most&nbsp;<b>extreme environmentalist regime in American history under President Joseph Biden.&nbsp;</b>This report goes inside that campaign to destroy Trump’s Department of the Interior and promote the&nbsp;<b>Left’s war on affordable energy.</b></span></font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">In 2019, the Capital Research Center’s&nbsp;<b>groundbreaking</b>&nbsp;report on Arabella Advisors exposed the&nbsp;<a href="http://darkmoneyatm.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">half-billion-dollar network</a>&nbsp;for the first time,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">&nbsp;dragging Arabella into the limelight as the posterchild of the Left’s “dark money.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">” Since then we’ve continued to uncover this now</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;<a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/for-profit/arabella-advisors/#network-financial-overview" style="box-sizing: border-box;">$730 million&nbsp;<b>activist empire</b></a>, tracing its shadowy campaigns on everything from abortion on demand to packing the Supreme Court to its war on the Trump administration.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">This report on the Arabella network examines the<b>&nbsp;professional Left</b>’s years-long campaign to undermine President Donald Trump’s Department of the Interior, laying the groundwork for the Biden administration’s</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;crusade against oil and the most radical environmentalist policies in American history.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Keep It in the Ground”</font></strong></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">The U.S. Department of the Interior is primarily responsible for managing roughly&nbsp;<a href="https://www.doi.gov/blog/how-interior-increasing-access-public-lands#:_{:text=Across%20the%20more%20than%20450,advocate%20for%20America's%20great%20outdoors.}" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">450 million acres</a>&nbsp;of federal land and conservation of their natural resources, most critically the nation’s vast reserves of oil and natural gas. It manages hundreds of dams and reservoirs, regulates drilling on public lands, runs the&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">National Park Service, and maintains public monuments, including dozens&nbsp;<a href="https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/icymi-trump-administration-defends-americas-monuments-and-memorials" style="box-sizing: border-box;">attacked</a>&nbsp;by radical Black Lives Matter activists in 2020.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The department also plays a role in foreign diplomacy and national security. Under President Trump that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/asiia-accomplishments-2017-to-2020_0.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">included</a><b>&nbsp;international wildlife trafficking bans,</b>&nbsp;encouraging trade of precious metals and rare earths, and promoting his Indo-Pacific security and economic strategy.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But the department’s openness to expanding oil and gas production brought the sharpest attacks from the Left. Since the department is entirely under the president’s purview, halting all drilling on public land is far easier than attempting to halt private oil and gas production nationwide—the radical Left’s ultimate goal.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The natural place to start phasing out supply is on our public lands and oceans where a ban on new leasing will keep up to 450 billion tons of carbon pollution in the ground,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/center-for-biological-diversity/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Center for Biological Diversity</a>&nbsp;director Kieran Suckling&nbsp;<a href="https://www.merkley.senate.gov/news/press-releases/merkley-introduces-major-new-legislation-to-stop-new-fossil-fuel-leases-on-federal-lands" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">said</a>&nbsp;in 2015. Bill McKibben, founder of the ultra-leftist&nbsp;<a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/350-org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">350.org</a>, has also&nbsp;<a href="https://www.merkley.senate.gov/news/in-the-news/new-bill-would-keep-fossil-fuel-reserves-on-public-lands-in-the-ground" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">stated</a>&nbsp;that “public lands are one of the easiest places for us to control the flow of carbon into the atmosphere.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Unsurprisingly, that’s been the policy of Democratic presidents and their activist allies for years. President Barack Obama&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/president-obama-cancels-2016-and-2017-oil-lease-sales-in-the-chukchi-and-beaufort-seas#:_{:text=More%20Gifts-,President%20Obama%20cancels%202016%20and%202017%20oil%20lease,the%20Chukchi%20and%20Beaufort%20seas&text=The%20Obama%20Administration%20has%20cancelled,the%20future%20of%20this%20region.}" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">canceled lease sales</a>&nbsp;in the Artic and Atlantic offshore sites and banned the leasing of coal on federal lands. Phasing down “extraction of fossil fuels from our public lands” was in the Democratic Party’s&nbsp;<a href="https://democrats.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/2016_DNC_Platform.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">2016 platform</a>. That same year a 350.org activist asked Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton what she meant by “extraction on public lands is a done deal?” Clinton&nbsp;<a href="https://350action.org/clinton-calls-ban-on-future-extraction-on-public-lands-a-done-deal/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">replied</a>, “That’s where [President Obama] is moving: No future extraction. I agree with that.” Her running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, later&nbsp;<a href="https://richmond.com/news/local/government-politics/tim-kaine-says-he-now-opposes-offshore-drilling-citing-defense-department-concerns/article_8db256c8-ea45-5b4c-bbb1-c7cc54219259.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">assured</a>&nbsp;another 350.org activist that “I actually am now in that position.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But even “phasing down” is too conservative for today’s “keep it in the ground” Left. No less than 20 Democratic presidential hopefuls&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060860731" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">vowed</a>&nbsp;to ban drilling on public lands outright during their party’s 2020 primary. Ever the pawn of the radical Left, on January 27, 2021—exactly one week after his inauguration—President Biden&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/environment/article/Biden-to-halt-new-oil-drilling-in-major-climate-15901950.php#:_{:text=President%20Biden%20is%20expected%20to,oil%20development%20on%20federal%20lands.&text=President%20Biden's%20directive%20on%20new,off%20the%20coast%20of%20Ventura.}" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">indefinitely suspended</a>&nbsp;development of new oil and gas wells on public lands, which the left-leaning&nbsp;<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">San Francisco Chronicle</span>&nbsp;cheered as “a first step to halting the granting of federal drilling leases permanently.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><b>Why does this matter? Federal lands account for roughly&nbsp;<a href="https://www.globalenergyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/2019-07/er-offlimits-16.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">24 percent</a>&nbsp;of America’s oil, natural gas, and coal production.</b>&nbsp;In 2019, total crude oil production reached an all-time high of&nbsp;<a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R46537.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">4.471 billion barrels</a>, with a significant chunk of that growth coming from oil drilled on federal lands. Biden’s ban blocks future development of these key resources, removing them from the supply stream and hampering the&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">energy independence the United States struggled to achieve in recent years. This means higher gasoline and household electricity prices,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">&nbsp;an estimated&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.globalenergyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/2019-07/er-offlimits-16.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box;">$11.3 billion</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">&nbsp;in lost federal royalties and rental fees, and the&nbsp;<b>destruction of hundreds of thousands of jobs across the economy.</b></span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">With a single executive order, the Left could advance its crusade to “keep it in the ground” for years in the name of global warming. The stakes couldn’t be higher—all that stood in its way was the Trump administration.</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the&nbsp;<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/arabellas-long-war-part-2/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">next installment</a>, watch Arabella Advisors target the Interior Department with two “pop-up” groups.</font></span></p><div class="singletags" style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Tags:</strong>&nbsp;<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/350-org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">350.org</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/accountable-us/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Accountable.US</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/arabella-advisors/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Arabella Advisors</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/center-for-american-progress/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Center for American Progress</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/center-for-biological-diversity/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Center for Biological Diversity</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/climate-change/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">climate change</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/department-of-the-interior/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Department of the Interior</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/global-warming/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">global warming</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/hopewell-fund/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Hopewell Fund</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/natural-gas/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">natural gas</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/new-vent/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">new vent</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/oil/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">oil</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/public-lands/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">public lands</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/sixteen-thirty-fund/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Sixteen Thirty Fund</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/western-values-project/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Western Values Project</a>&nbsp; &nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219); text-align: center;">Hayden Ludwig</span></font></div></div><div class="singleextended-author-info" style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219); box-sizing: border-box; padding: 30px; text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0px;"><div class="singleextended-author-infotext" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hayden Ludwig is a Senior Investigative Researcher at Capital Research Center. He is also a columnist at the Washington Free Beacon and writes regularly for the American Conservative. Ludwig is…<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/person/hayden-ludwig/" class="inline-block-link" style="background-color: transparent; letter-spacing: 2px; text-transform: uppercase; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block;">+ MORE BY HAYDEN LUDWIG</a></font></div></div><div class="singleextended-author-info" style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219); box-sizing: border-box; padding: 30px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">----</font></div><div class="singleextended-author-info" style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219); box-sizing: border-box; padding: 30px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">pt 2</font></div><div class="singleextended-author-info" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 30px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><p fira="Fira" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;Web of “Pop-Up” Groups</font></strong></p><p fira="Fira" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">Enter&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/for-profit/arabella-advisors" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Arabella Advisors</a><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">, a&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">consulting firm based in Washington, DC,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">&nbsp;that quietly runs arguably the most powerful activist and lobbying network in politics. Arabella manages four in-house nonprofits collectively called the “sisters,” each of which controls a small army of activists and a legion of “<b>pop-up” groups</b>. And each pop-up group is made to look like a slick, stand-alone website. T</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">hese pop-ups target virtually every issue in politics—control of the courts, abortion access, gun control, and voter registration and mobilization, even the Trump-Russia collusion hoax—</span><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">pushing left-wing policies in every corner. What makes Arabella so powerful is how these “pop-ups” deceive individuals into believing they represent genuine local grassroots interests, such as one pop-up in Alaska created to oppose creation of the&nbsp;<b>Pebble Mine</b>&nbsp;run from Arabella’s plush offices in DC.</span></font></p><p fira="Fira" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">Arabella’s network is extraordinarily well-funded. In 2019 alone, the four “sisters” reported total revenues exceeding&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/for-profit/arabella-advisors/#network-financial-overview" style="box-sizing: border-box;">$730 million</a><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">&nbsp;and poured out $648 million. Between the network’s creation in 2006 and its Form 990 filing for 2019 (the latest available), Arabella’s empire has received more than&nbsp;</span><strong style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219); box-sizing: border-box;">$3 billion</strong><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">&nbsp;and spent nearly&nbsp;</span><strong style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219); box-sizing: border-box;">$2.5 billion</strong><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">. Most of that funding was directed to the network’s flagship 501(c)(3) nonprofit, the&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/new-venture-fund/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">New Venture Fund</a>, whose&nbsp;<a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/new-venture-fund/#donors-to-new-venture-fund" style="box-sizing: border-box;">largest known donors</a>&nbsp;include the Gates, Ford, Hewlett, Packard, and<b>&nbsp;Buffett&nbsp;</b>Foundations.</span></font></p><p fira="Fira" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">Beginning in 2017, Arabella turned its guns on Trump’s Department of the Interior using a</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">&nbsp;pop-up pair:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/western-values-project/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Western Values Project</a>&nbsp;(WVP) and its “sister,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/western-values-project-action/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Western Values Project Action</a>&nbsp;(WVPA).</span></font></p><p fira="Fira" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to their websites, WVP and WVPA were&nbsp;<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20191004111231/https:/westernvaluesproject.org/about-us/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">created</a>&nbsp;in 2013 in Helena, Montana, to expose corrupt corporate lobbyists preying on public lands in the West. In reality, WVP is run by the 501(c)(3) New Venture Fund while WVPA is run by the 501(c)(4) Sixteen Thirty Fund, Arabella’s in-house lobbying shop. Whatever staff the groups actually have would have been paid by one of Arabella’s nonprofits or possibly by Arabella Advisors itself; we’ll likely never know. But in its 2018 Form 990, New Venture Fund revealed that it is the “<a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/sixteen-thirty-fund/#key-staff" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">paymaster</a>” for&nbsp;<b>Sixteen Thirty Fund</b>&nbsp;(which reported zero employees on its own 2018 Form 990) and “pays the salary and immediately invoices Sixteen Thirty Fund, which reimburses the full amount.”</font></p><p fira="Fira" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">It’s common for groups to use both kinds of nonprofit to maximize their ability to lobby through the&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">501(c)(4) and raise non-lobbying funds through the 501(c)(3)</span><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">, since donors may deduct donations to the 501(c)(3) from their taxes. But Arabella takes that tactic to another level, using pop-up fronts for its nonprofits that can take advantage of the New Venture and Sixteen Thirty Fund’s respective tax advantages without disclosing their relationship to one another. Donations to WVP and WVPA in fact benefitted the Arabella-run nonprofits behind the projects, as an archived version of WVP’s website from October 2019&nbsp;</span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20191012042050/https:/westernvaluesproject.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">reveals</a><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">.</span></font></p><p fira="Fira" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">Until late 2019 the website for WVP and WVPA revealed a&nbsp;</span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20191004111231/https:/westernvaluesproject.org/about-us/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">handful of staffers</a><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">, including Chris Saeger, ex-communications director for the Montana Democratic Party and former Service Employees International Union (</span><b style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">SEIU)&nbsp;</b><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">staffer; Jayson O’Neill, a Democratic staffer for Montana’s legislature and Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D); and Yetta Stein, a staffer for the left-wing political action committee&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/political-party/end-citizens-united-ecu/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">End Citizens United</a>&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">and staffer for the 2018 reelection campaign Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT). The archived website also showed a&nbsp;</span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20191004111231/https:/westernvaluesproject.org/about-us/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">small advisory board</a><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">&nbsp;consisting of:</span></font></p><ul fira="Fira" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; list-style-type: square; padding: 0px 0px 0px 20px;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kjersten Forseth, a former chief of state for Colorado State Senate Democrats, former director of the left-wing strategy group&nbsp;<a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/progressnow-colorado/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">ProgressNow Colorado</a>, political director for the Colorado AFL-CIO, and chief political strategist for Rocky Mountain Voter Outreach, a Denver-based get-out-the-vote and ballot initiative firm.</font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kent Salazar, an environmental health manager for Albuquerque, New Mexico, former New Mexico State game commissioner for Gov. Bill Richardson (D), and a board member for the left-wing&nbsp;<a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/national-wildlife-federation/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">National Wildlife Federation</a>.</font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pat Smith, a lawyer representing Indian tribes in Montana, member of the 2010 Montana Redistricting Commission, and appointee of Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D) to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.</font></li></ul><p fira="Fira" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">WVP’s advisory board also included&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/person/caroline-ciccone/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Caroline Ciccone</a><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">, who in 2019 was executive director of the New Venture Fund pop-up and anti-Trump “oversight” group&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/restore-public-trust/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Restore Public Trust</a><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">. Ciccone is a former communications director for the Democratic National Committee (DNC), Obama appointee to the U.S. Small Business Administration, and Democratic strategist. From 2014 to 2017 she led&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/americans-united-for-change/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Americans United for Change</a>&nbsp;(AUFC), a top left-wing strategy group whose national field director Scott Foval was recorded in late 2016 by&nbsp;<b>undercover journalists from Project Veritas&nbsp;</b>bragging that AUFC had paid mentally ill and homeless people to instigate violence at Trump campaign rallies.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">&nbsp;“We know that Trump’s people will [tend to] freak the f— out,” Foval said in the video. “It is not hard to get some of these assholes to ‘pop off.’” The scandal ultimately led back to Robert Creamer, co-founder of the powerful consulting firm&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/for-profit/democracy-partners/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Democracy Partners</a><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">&nbsp;and a former general consultant to AUFC who directed parts of a vast network of advocacy groups all aligned in support of Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid. This led to speculation that his firm helped Clinton’s campaign violate collusion laws. Foval described Creamer’s role in the scandal as the “kingpin” who is “diabolical, and I love him for it.” Within days of the video’s release Creamer resigned, and Foval was fired.</span></font></p><p fira="Fira" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">Also present was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/person/kyle-herrig/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Kyle Herrig</a>, a New Venture Fund board member who sat on the advisory boards of at least five</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;New Venture Fund projects, including&nbsp;<a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/american-oversight/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">American Oversight</a>,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">&nbsp;a judicial activist and litigation group;&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/allied-progress/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Allied Progress</a><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">, which attacked Trump cabinet officials; and the Ciccone-run Restore Public Trust.</span></font></p><p fira="Fira" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In early 2020 it was announced that Western Values Project and these three Arabella “pop-ups” were being rolled into a new organization:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/accountable-us/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Accountable.US</a>,&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">itself</em>&nbsp;a former New Venture Fund project fully established as an independent nonprofit sometime later that year, headed by president Kyle Herrig and executive director Caroline Ciccone. (It appears that Western Values Project Action remains a project of Sixteen Thirty Fund, but that remains unclear as of writing.)</font></p><p fira="Fira" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This reveals that Western Values Project, far from being a grassroots group, is enmeshed in a deeply networked, highly coordinated cabal of professional activists—and it always was.</font></p><p fira="Fira" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the&nbsp;<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/arabellas-long-war-part-3/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">next installment</a>, break down the Arabella campaign against the Interior Department and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.</font></span></p><p fira="Fira" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">----</font></p></div><div class="singleextended-author-info" style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219); box-sizing: border-box; padding: 30px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">pt 3 zinke ad cartoon overturned boat</font></div><div class="singleextended-author-info" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 30px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">anatomy of an&nbsp;</strong><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Arabella Campaign</strong></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">From 2017 to 2018,&nbsp;<b>WVP ran an all-out attack against Trump administration Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke,&nbsp;</b>publishing post after post&nbsp;<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20181009144947/https:/westernvaluesproject.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">savaging</a>&nbsp;Zinke and his staff. WVP even published a massive website,&nbsp;<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170919092100/https:/departmentofinfluence.org/person/david-bernhardt/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">DepartmentofInfluence.org</a>, which compiled boatloads of data on nearly every appointee to the Trump administration’s Department of the Interior. The group’s goal was clear: Drive Ryan Zinke out of office and undermine the department’s policies. They finally succeeded in December 2018, and Zinke resigned in early January 2019 amid ethics complaints alleging he had&nbsp;<a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/415988-interior-secretary-ryan-zinke-steps-down" style="box-sizing: border-box;">misused public funds</a>&nbsp;during official travel and spent large sums on frivolous things.</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CRC has counted nine Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)&nbsp;<a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2021/02/FOIA-Project.-Western-Values-Project-FOIA-2017-2019.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">cases</a>&nbsp;filed by WVP between April 2017 and Zinke’s resignation, all sporting WVP’s supposed address: a<b>&nbsp;UPS store in Whitefish,</b>&nbsp;Montana (704C 13th St. E., #568, Whitefish, MT 59937). As investigative reporter Dave Skinner&nbsp;<a href="https://flatheadbeacon.com/2017/09/06/more-big-bucks/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">points out</a>, “‘Suite 568’ is actually a $150-per-year private mail box, snugged next to a sales placard touting a ‘street address, not a P.O. box number.’”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In these complaints WVP&nbsp;<a href="http://foiaproject.org/dc_view/?id=4063478-DC-1-2017cv02001-complaint" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">describes</a>&nbsp;itself as “a not-for-profit public interest organization” and “a tax-exempt organization within the meaning of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code,” never mentioning its status as a project of the New Venture Fund or its connection to Arabella Advisors. At least one FOIA request was co-filed with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/american-oversight/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">American Oversight</a>, another former New Venture Fund pop-up run by Kyle Herrig that also used a UPS Store address in its filings (1030 15th St., NW, Suite B255, Washington, DC 20005) and describes itself as “a nonpartisan, non-profit section 501(c)(3) organization.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These FOIA complaints exclusively targeted the Department of the Interior. Highlights include:</font></span></p><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; list-style-type: square; padding: 0px 0px 0px 20px;"><li style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Requests for Zinke’s&nbsp;<a href="http://foiaproject.org/dc_view/?id=5005093-DC-1-2018cv02336-complaint" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">travel receipts</a>, “a daily schedule of the Secretary’s events, meetings and activities including locations and attendees”;</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Seeking correspondence between department heads and members of various&nbsp;<a href="http://foiaproject.org/dc_view/?id=4117476-DC-1-2017cv02190-complaint" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">oil and gas interests</a>, such as the American Petroleum Institute, Colorado Oil and Gas Association, and Independent Petroleum Association of America;</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Demanding access to all records, emails, and expenditures pertaining to&nbsp;<a href="http://foiaproject.org/dc_view/?id=4081461-DC-1-2017cv02070-complaint" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Lolita Zinke</a>, Ryan Zinke’s wife;</font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Asserting that Zinke&nbsp;<a href="http://foiaproject.org/dc_view/?id=3985460-DC-1-2017cv01779-complaint" style="box-sizing: border-box;">threatened</a>&nbsp;Alaska Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan for voting against the 2017 effort to repeal Obamacare; and</font></span></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Multiple FOIA complaints&nbsp;<a href="http://foiaproject.org/dc_view/?id=3680511-DC-1-2017cv00757-complaint" style="box-sizing: border-box;">complaining</a>&nbsp;that department had not complied with prior FOIA complaints.</font></span></li></ul><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On October 22, 2018, the Department of the Interior’s Office of Inspector General released its&nbsp;<a href="https://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/national/doi-inspector-general-report-on-secretary-zinkes-alleged-abuse-of-office/3245/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">investigative report</a>&nbsp;into Zinke’s alleged ethics abuses and recommended it to the Department of Justice. The office noted that it “initiated this investigation” in December 2017 “based on information we received while investigating [Zinke’s] use of noncommercial aircraft for U.S. Governmental travel.”&nbsp;<b>The source of that information isn’t named, but it isn’t a stretch to believe it originated with Western Values Project.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Eight days later on October 30, WVP released its&nbsp;<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190125004826/https:/westernvaluesproject.org/western-values-project-statement-on-zinke-probe-referred-to-doj/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">statement</a>&nbsp;on the probe calling on Zinke to&nbsp;<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190502052858/https:/westernvaluesproject.org/western-values-project-calls-for-secretary-zinkes-resignation/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">resign</a>. It launched a website (<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190202231315/http:/www.hasryanzinkebeenfiredyet.com/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">HasRyanZinkeBeenFiredYet.com</a>) demanding the same. On November 9, WVPA released&nbsp;<a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2021/02/Western-Values-Project-Zinke-Attack-Ad-Press-Release-2019.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">a $30,000 attack ad</a>&nbsp;in seven Montana newspapers accusing Zinke’s “priorities” of being “<a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2021/02/Western-Values-Project-Zinke-Attack-Ad-2019.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">upside down</a>” and calling for his resignation—presumably paid for by the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which controls WVPA’s finances. One month later Zinke resigned.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">INSERT IMAGE:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2021/02/Western-Values-Project-Zinke-Attack-Ad-2019.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2021/02/Western-Values-Project-Zinke-Attack-Ad-2019.pdf</a></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Big Green’s Campaign Rolls On</font></strong></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">Joining WVP and WVPA was the&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/center-for-western-priorities/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Center for Western Priorities</a>&nbsp;(CWP), a front for the California mega-activist group&nbsp;<a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/resources-legacy-fund/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Resources Legacy Fund</a></span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">—by my count the&nbsp;</span><a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/environmentalists-spent-a-record-2-4-billion-pushing-global-warming-ideology/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">16th-largest environmentalist group in the country</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">, spending over $42 million in 2018 alone. CWP painted Zinke as a feckless tool of the oil and gas industry,&nbsp;</span><a href="https://westernpriorities.org/2018/12/15/ryan-zinke-to-resign-as-interior-secretary-leaving-behind-a-legacy-of-corruption/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">accusing</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">&nbsp;him of “following President Trump’s marching orders to attack our public lands” and fomenting an “illegal attack on America’s national monuments.” When Zinke resigned in January 2019, CWP&nbsp;</span><a href="https://westernpriorities.org/2019/01/02/winners-and-losers-from-ryan-zinkes-tenure-at-the-interior-department/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">labeled</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">&nbsp;him “the most anti-conservation Interior Secretary of all time.”</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Almost immediately after Ryan Zinke resigned in December 2018,&nbsp;<b>CWP and WVP turned their guns on undermining Deputy Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt, who became acting secretary on January 2, 2019, and was officially confirmed in April.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bernhardt served in the George W. Bush administration’s Department of the Interior, leaving in 2009 as the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-115shrg26073/html/CHRG-115shrg26073.htm" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">department’s solicitor</a>. After that he led the Denver firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck’s natural resources law practice, where his clients&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/25/us/politics/interior-secretary-zinke-staff-conservation-regulations.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">included</a>&nbsp;Halliburton Energy Services and the Independent Petroleum Association of America, and he lobbied for Cobalt International Energy and Samson Resources. Before his appointment to the Trump administration, Bernhardt was also&nbsp;<a href="https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/04/28/trump-appoints-valley-water-districts-lobbyist-to-interior-department-post/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">registered</a>&nbsp;as a lobbyist for the Westlands Water District in California’s San Joaquin Valley.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">On December 17, CWP policy director Jesse Prentice-Dunn published a long hit piece calling Bernhardt a “<a href="https://medium.com/westwise/walking-conflict-of-interest-fffe8593feaa" style="box-sizing: border-box;">walking conflict of interest</a>” who would continue “Ryan Zinke’s culture of corruption</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">” and accusing the department of shilling for Big Oil. That same day WVP published the website&nbsp;</span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20181217174459/https:/www.davidbernhardt.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">DavidBernhardt.org</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">, calling Bernhardt “the ultimate DC swamp creature” and an “ex-lobbyist who is too conflicted to be Interior Secretary,” while detailing a laundry list of ethics charges in an attempt to derail his confirmation to the post.&nbsp;</span><a href="https://westernpriorities.org/2019/03/26/memo-background-on-acting-interior-secretary-david-bernhardts-ties-to-the-oil-and-gas-industry-and-conflicts-of-interests/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Memos</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">&nbsp;about Bernhardt’s background and conflicts of interest and&nbsp;</span><a href="https://westernvaluesproject.org/bernhardts-interior-ignores-own-representations-to-court-over-public-records-deadline/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">more FOIA requests</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">&nbsp;followed from WVP and CWP, including one from&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/democracy-forward/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Democracy Forward</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">, a leftist litigation group created by Clinton crony Marc Elias (of&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/for-profit/perkins-coie/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Perkins Coie</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">&nbsp;fame) in 2017 to target the Trump administration.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">In February, the&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/campaign-for-accountability/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Campaign for Accountability</a>&nbsp;(CFA), a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/correction-funding-for-nonprofits-google-transparency-campaign/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">former “pop-up”</a>&nbsp;of the Arabella-run Hopewell Fund,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2021/02/campaign-for-accountability-david-bernhardt-investigation-petition.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box;">petitioned</a>&nbsp;the Interior Department inspector general to investigate Bernhardt’s ties to Westlands Water District</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">&nbsp;as a conflict of interest and urged the Senate to&nbsp;</span><a href="https://campaignforaccountability.org/statement-on-the-appointment-of-david-bernhardt-as-the-acting-secretary-of-the-department-of-the-interior/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">reject</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">&nbsp;his confirmation. CFA, which specialized in targeting Trump political appointees, was founded by alumni of another left-wing litigation group,&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/citizens-for-responsibility-and-ethics-in-washington/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">&nbsp;(CREW), and has been represented by the ex-Arabella pop-up&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/american-oversight/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">American Oversight</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">&nbsp;in past lawsuits.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Center for American Progress joined in,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/news/2019/03/15/467373/david-bernhardt-president-trumps-conflicted-cabinet-nominee/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">labeling</a>&nbsp;Bernhardt “the most conflicted Trump Cabinet nominee.”</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">&nbsp;Greenpeace and the Center for Biological Diversity urged the department’s inspector general to&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/interior-inspector-general-urged-to-investigate-david-bernhardt/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">investigate</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">&nbsp;those conflicts of interest, melodramatically declaring him “the most dangerous man in America for endangered species and public lands.” The Sierra Club demanded the Senate&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2019/03/fossil-fuel-lobbyist-david-bernhardt-proves-he-can-t-be-trusted-interior" style="box-sizing: border-box;">reject</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">&nbsp;his confirmation, as did the&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.npca.org/articles/2106-parks-group-rejects-nomination-of-david-bernhardt-for-interior-secretary" style="box-sizing: border-box;">National Parks Conservation Association</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">&nbsp;and the&nbsp;</span><a href="https://act.nrdc.org/letter/af-bernhardt-190315" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Natural Resources Defense Council</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">&nbsp;(NRDC).</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In March, WVPA launched a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2021/02/western-values-project-action-2019-ad-buy-bernhardt.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box;">six-figure television ad buy</a>&nbsp;targeting Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich (NM) and moderate Republican Sens. Cory Gardner (CO) and Martha McSally (AZ) to oppose Bernhardt’s confirmation. The assault continued until the Senate confirmed Bernhardt in April 2019. From then on the group’s crusade against Trump’s Department of the Interior focused on thwarting its agenda.</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the&nbsp;<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/arabellas-long-war-part-4/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">next installment</a>, the professional Left’s years-long campaign culminates in the Biden Administration’s rush toward radical “green” policies.</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">----</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">pt 4</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Harried Until the End</font></strong></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WVP filed another five FOIA requests against the Department of the Interior between 2019 and 2020, almost certainly with the intent of discovering ammo for future ethics complaints. Among its requests were all&nbsp;<a href="http://foiaproject.org/dc_view/?id=6350796-DC-1-2019cv02527-complaint" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">communications</a>&nbsp;between the department and Bernhardt’s former clients from Brownstein Hyatt and the Westlands Water District as well as copies of “all text messages sent by Secretary David Benhardt from July 1, 2017,” through February 2020. The leftist website Outside Online even set up a “<a href="https://www.outsideonline.com/2390596/david-bernhardt-scandal-tracker" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">David Bernhardt Scandal Tracker</a>” days after his confirmation.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But much of the Left’s campaign shifted to halting Trump’s supposed war on public lands until he left office in January 2021. “Yes, Trump really is coming to take your public lands,” WVP&nbsp;<a href="https://westernvaluesproject.org/yes-trump-really-is-coming-to-take-your-public-lands/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">howled</a>&nbsp;in late 2019, claiming the administration was selling off federal land to oil interests bent on pillaging it. In reality, the Bureau of Land Management (which is part of the Interior Department) continued to<b>&nbsp;<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">lease</span>&nbsp;l</b>ands to drilling companies in 5–10 year options, a decades-old practice. As a result, oil and gas production soared in 2019, particularly in New Mexico and Wyoming, which sit atop massive deposits.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">The Department of the Interior disbursed a staggering&nbsp;<a href="https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/natural-gas/102819-us-drilling-on-federal-and-indian-lands-surges-in-2019" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">$11.69 billion</a>&nbsp;to the states in 2019 alone from energy production on federal and Indian-owned lands, a $2.76 billion increase over 2018.&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Gasoline prices&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_pri_gnd_dcus_nus_a.htm" style="box-sizing: border-box;">dropped</a>&nbsp;from a nationwide average of $2.813 in 2018 to $2.691 in 2019 to $2.258 in 2020. [NO MENTION OF EPIC PANDEMIC FAIL]</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">&nbsp;And the United States achieved&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/fossil-fuels/gas-and-oil/the-united-states-was-energy-independent-in-2019-for-the-first-time-since-1957/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">energy independence</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">&nbsp;in 2019, with energy production exceeding consumption for the</span><b style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">&nbsp;<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">first time</span>&nbsp;</b><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">since 1957. In a single year, energy production increased by an impressive 5.7 percent, with so-called fossil fuels accounting for&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/fossil-fuels/gas-and-oil/the-united-states-was-energy-independent-in-2019-for-the-first-time-since-1957/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">80 percent</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">&nbsp;of all energy production and consumption that year.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WVP harried Trump and his cabinet out of office,&nbsp;<a href="https://medium.com/westwise/inside-interior-secretary-david-bernhardts-wildly-destructive-track-record-e57f7ddb7298" style="box-sizing: border-box;">blasting</a>&nbsp;“Secretary David Bernhardt’s Wildly Destructive Track Record” in December 2020—which included such silliness as staging Trump’s May 2020 Fox News town hall inside the Lincoln Memorial, allowing national parks to be used as “centerpieces” for his reelection campaign, and holding “expensive military-infused Independence Day rallies on the National Mall” (the horror!).</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Targeting Trump’s energy and environmental policies were among Biden’s first moves in office. Biden cancelled a planned expansion to the Keystone oil pipeline (Keystone XL or “export limited”), pledged to protect 30 percent of U.S. land and water by 2030, and froze new leases for oil and gas development on federal land.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Biden’s nominee for the department, Rep. Debra Haaland (D-NM), was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/03/15/977558590/deb-haaland-confirmed-as-first-native-american-interior-secretary" style="box-sizing: border-box;">confirmed</a>&nbsp;in March 2021 on a nearly party line vote (four Republicans joined with every Democrat in the Senate). Haaland has been&nbsp;<a href="https://nondoc.com/2021/03/18/confirmation-of-interior-secretary-deb-haaland/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">criticized</a>&nbsp;by conservatives as a far-left extremist with a&nbsp;<a href="https://scorecard.lcv.org/moc/debra-haaland" style="box-sizing: border-box;">perfect 2020 score and 98 percent lifetime score</a>&nbsp;from the&nbsp;<b>League of Conservation Voters,</b></span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><b>&nbsp;which ranks politicians for their fidelity to leftist environmental legislation</b>. (Incidentally, Haaland received a&nbsp;</span><a href="https://justfacts.votesmart.org/candidate/evaluations/149368/deb-haaland" style="box-sizing: border-box;">100 percent score</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">&nbsp;from the pro-abortion groups Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America.) While Haaland told Congress during her confirmation process that&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/02/23/970242295/interior-nominee-deb-haaland-faces-tough-questions-on-climate-goals" style="box-sizing: border-box;">fossil fuels</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">&nbsp;“will continue to play a major role in America for years to come,” she’s a global warming ideologue who&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2021/02/debra-haaland-2018-campaign-site-energy.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box;">trumpeted</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">&nbsp;“keep fossil fuels in the ground,” voting “against all new fossil fuel infrastructure,” and transitioning to “100% clean energy” in her 2018 reelection campaign.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In May, the Biden administration proposed&nbsp;<a href="https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/president-bidens-fiscal-year-2022-budget-makes-significant-investments-interior" style="box-sizing: border-box;">ramping up</a>&nbsp;the Interior Department’s 2022 budget by $2.5 billion (17 percent) to $17.6 billion in order to “address the climate crisis” and create “good-paying union jobs.” Biden wants to conserve 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030 (it’s currently about 26 percent), a plan proposed by liberal groups in the states as “<a href="https://blogs.berkeley.edu/2021/01/25/heres-how-biden-can-help-conserve-30-percent-of-u-s-land-by-2030/#:_{:text=The%20plan%20is%20known%20as,carbon%20in%20plants%20and%20soil.}" style="box-sizing: border-box;">30 by 30</a>” largely as a measure to “slow climate change” by storing carbon dioxide in plants and soil. He also wants to spend $86 million on the “Civilian Climate Corps,” a reboot of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal–era Civilian Conservation Corps. He also wants to spend $300 million “plugging orphan oil and gas wells” and $249 million to boost renewable energy production on public lands.</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">With pressure from the far Left and willing enablers embedded in the executive branch, the Biden administration will undoubtedly continue down the road toward ever more radical “green” policies—with Arabella’s support. Only one question remains: How much does Biden owe to Arabella’s long war against the Trump Department of the Interior?</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">end</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">----</font></p></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">sw 2 22 all below</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Funding</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Capital Research Center is not required to disclose its funders but major foundation supporters can be found through its IRS filings. Here are some known contributors:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bradley Impact Fund: $120K&nbsp; $119,250 (2013-2018)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Charles Koch Foundation: $60,888 (2011-2017)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation: $660,000 (1998-2008)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donors Capital Fund: $332,500 (2002-2017)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DonorsTrust: $273,150 (2002-2018)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Edward A. & Catherine L. Lozick Foundation: $2,500 (2014)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jaquelin Hume Foundation: $175,000 (1999-2004)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation: $2,462,500 million (1998-2018)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rodney Fund: $86,000 (1999-2005)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sarah Scaife Foundation: $1,830,000 (2012-2018)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Searle Freedom Trust: $255,000 (2006-2018)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shelby Cullom Davis Foundation: $27,000 (2000-2006)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Corporate sponsors</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ExxonMobil</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While CRC publications identify corporate funding of what they perceive as liberal non-profit groups, they do not disclose their own corporate sponsors. However, voluntary disclosures and documents revealed as a result of court actions provide a small window into how CRC interacts with corporations. In 2002, ExxonMobil donated $25,000 to the CRC for the Green Watch project with another $25,000 in 2003, according to corporate giving reports no longer available on Exxon's website, but still available via ExxonSecrets.org. "Capital Research Center and Greenwatch has received $215,000 from ExxonMobil since 1998," and up to 2006, according to ExxonSecrets. [40] According to Exxon's website, the oil company gave another $50,000 in 2007, for "public information and policy research." [41]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">inflwatch</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><table class="profile-sidebarlist dl-horizontal" style="border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Montserrat, " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" table-layout="table-layout" fixed="fixed" color="color" rgb="rgb" width="width"><tbody style="box-sizing: border-box;"><tr class="profile-sidebarlist-row" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><td class="profile-sidebarlist-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 7px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word; hyphens: auto; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">c<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s;">apitalresearch.org</a></font></p></td></tr><tr class="profile-sidebarlist-row" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><td class="profile-sidebarlist-label" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 7px 0px; width: 111.771px; vertical-align: top; font-weight: 800; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Location:</font></td><td class="profile-sidebarlist-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 7px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word; hyphens: auto; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WASHINGTON, DC</font></p></td></tr><tr class="profile-sidebarlist-row" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><td class="profile-sidebarlist-label" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 7px 0px; width: 111.771px; vertical-align: top; font-weight: 800; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tax ID:</font></td><td class="profile-sidebarlist-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 7px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word; hyphens: auto; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">52-1289734</font></p></td></tr><tr class="profile-sidebarlist-row" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><td class="profile-sidebarlist-label" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 7px 0px; width: 111.771px; vertical-align: top; font-weight: 800; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tax-Exempt Status:</font></td><td class="profile-sidebarlist-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 7px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word; hyphens: auto; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">501(c)(3)&nbsp;<a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/capital-research-center/#" data-toggle="tooltip" data-placement="top" title="" data-original-title="Religious, Educational, Charitable, Scientific, Literary, Testing for Public Safety, to Foster National or International Amateur Sports Competition, or Prevention of Cruelty to Children or Animals Organizations" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s;"><span class="fa fa-question-circle" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1; text-rendering: auto; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></a></font></p></td></tr><tr class="profile-sidebarlist-row" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><td class="profile-sidebarlist-label" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 7px 0px; width: 111.771px; vertical-align: top; font-weight: 800; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Budget (2015):</font></td><td class="profile-sidebarlist-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 7px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word; hyphens: auto; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Revenue: $2,561,903<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Expenses: $2,030,597<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Assets: $14,390,801</font></p></td></tr><tr class="profile-sidebarlist-row" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><td class="profile-sidebarlist-label" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 7px 0px; width: 111.771px; vertical-align: top; font-weight: 800; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Formation:</font></td><td class="profile-sidebarlist-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 7px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word; hyphens: auto; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1984 in Washington, D.C.</font></p></td></tr><tr class="profile-sidebarlist-row" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><td class="profile-sidebarlist-label" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 7px 0px; width: 111.771px; vertical-align: top; font-weight: 800; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Founder:</font></td><td class="profile-sidebarlist-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 7px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word; hyphens: auto; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Willa Johnson</font></p></td></tr><tr class="profile-sidebarlist-row" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><td class="profile-sidebarlist-label" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 7px 0px; width: 111.771px; vertical-align: top; font-weight: 800; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Type:</font></td><td class="profile-sidebarlist-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 7px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word; hyphens: auto; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Right-of-Center Think Tank</font></p></td></tr><tr class="profile-sidebarlist-row" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><td class="profile-sidebarlist-label" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 7px 0px; width: 111.771px; vertical-align: top; font-weight: 800; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President:</font></td><td class="profile-sidebarlist-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 7px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word; hyphens: auto; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Scott Walter</font></p></td></tr></tbody></table><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div class="profile-main-content the-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 60px; font-family: Georgia, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;Capital Research Center (CRC) is a right-leaning nonprofit think tank specializing in the study of policy affecting and influence exercised by nonprofit organizations. The organization was founded in 1984 by Willa Ann Johnson, a Reagan administration official and then-senior vice president of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/heritage-foundation/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s;">Heritage Foundation</a>.<span class="profile-referencesup" id="ref-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 0; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; top: -0.5em;"><a class="profile-referencelink" href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/capital-research-center/#note-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-weight="font-weight" margin-left="margin-left" px="px" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" opacity="opacity" font-size="font-size">[1]</a></span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CRC operates a number of programs, including conducting organizational research on nonprofit organizations and political influencers, publishing a monthly magazine titled&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Capital Research</em>, producing documentary films through the “Dangerous Documentaries” label, and operating the website InfluenceWatch.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CRC is led by the organization’s president, former George W. Bush White House aide Scott Walter, and board chair, the Hoover Institution’s Michael Franc.<span class="profile-referencesup" id="ref-2" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 0; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; top: -0.5em;"><a class="profile-referencelink" href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/capital-research-center/#note-2" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-weight="font-weight" margin-left="margin-left" px="px" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" opacity="opacity" font-size="font-size">[2]</a></span></font></p><div class="profile-toc" id="profile-toc" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; padding: 24px; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249); border: 1px solid rgb(226, 226, 226); max-width: 400px; min-width: 225px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><h4 class="profile-tocheading" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; font-family: Montserrat, " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-weight="font-weight" line-height="line-height" color="color" rgb="rgb" margin="margin" px="px" font-size="font-size" text-transform="text-transform" uppercase="uppercase" letter-spacing="letter-spacing"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CONTENTS</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></h4><div class="profile-tocinner" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-type: none;"><li class="first" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.4em;"><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/capital-research-center/#history" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s; font-weight: 700;">History</a></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.4em;"><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/capital-research-center/#current-activities" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s; font-weight: 700;">Current Activities</a><ul class="menu_level_1" style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-top: 0.4em; margin-bottom: 1em; line-height: 1.25em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1.2em; list-style-type: square;"><li class="first" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.5em;"><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/capital-research-center/#philanthropic-research" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s;">Philanthropic Research</a></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.5em;"><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/capital-research-center/#publications" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s;">Publications</a></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.5em;"><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/capital-research-center/#dangerous-documentaries" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s;">Dangerous Documentaries</a></li><li class="last" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/capital-research-center/#influencewatch" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s;">InfluenceWatch</a></li></ul></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.4em;"><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/capital-research-center/#funding" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s; font-weight: 700;">Funding</a></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.4em;"><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/capital-research-center/#people" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s; font-weight: 700;">People</a></li><li class="last" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.4em;"><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/capital-research-center/#external-links" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s; font-weight: 700;">External Links</a></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.4em;"><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/capital-research-center/#references" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s; font-weight: 700;">References</a></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.4em;"><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/capital-research-center/#donor-orgs" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s; font-weight: 700;">Donor Organizations</a></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/capital-research-center/#non-profit-info" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s; font-weight: 700;">Form 990 Information</a></li></ul></div></div><h2 id="history" style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 40px; margin-bottom: 24px; padding-bottom: 7.5px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(202, 202, 202);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">History</font></h2><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Capital Research Center was founded in 1984 under the direction of Willa Ann Johnson, who had served as a Reagan administration official. During Johnson’s tenure, CRC published&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Patterns of Corporate Philanthropy</em>, a periodic analysis of the political valence of corporate charitable giving.<span class="profile-referencesup" id="ref-3" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 0; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; top: -0.5em;"><a class="profile-referencelink" href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/capital-research-center/#note-3" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-weight="font-weight" margin-left="margin-left" px="px" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" opacity="opacity" font-size="font-size">[3]</a></span>&nbsp;Johnson was succeeded as president and chair of CRC in 1994 by Terrence Scanlon, the former chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission during the Reagan administration.<span class="profile-referencesup" id="ref-4" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 0; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; top: -0.5em;"><a class="profile-referencelink" href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/capital-research-center/#note-4" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-weight="font-weight" margin-left="margin-left" px="px" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" opacity="opacity" font-size="font-size">[4]</a></span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2016, Scott Walter succeeded Scanlon as president of CRC, directing the organization’s day-to-day operations. Michael Franc, director of the Hoover Institution’s Washington, D.C. programs, took over duties as chair of the CRC board of trustees responsible for the institutional governance of the organization.<span class="profile-referencesup" id="ref-5" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 0; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; top: -0.5em;"><a class="profile-referencelink" href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/capital-research-center/#note-5" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-weight="font-weight" margin-left="margin-left" px="px" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" opacity="opacity" font-size="font-size">[5]</a></span></font></p><h2 id="current-activities" style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 40px; margin-bottom: 24px; padding-bottom: 7.5px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(202, 202, 202);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Current Activities</font></h2><h3 id="philanthropic-research" style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; font-family: Montserrat, " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" line-height="line-height" color="color" inherit="inherit" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" font-size="font-size" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" text-transform="text-transform" uppercase="uppercase"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PHILANTHROPIC RESEARCH</font></h3><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Capital Research Center engages in research into philanthropy’s interaction with in the public policy process, especially as it relates to the intentions of donors. The group has published books on problems of institutional political behavior and the often unsuccessful protection of capitalist and center-right donors’ intentions,<span class="profile-referencesup" id="ref-6" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 0; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; top: -0.5em;"><a class="profile-referencelink" href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/capital-research-center/#note-6" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-weight="font-weight" margin-left="margin-left" px="px" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" opacity="opacity" font-size="font-size">[6]</a></span>&nbsp;and CRC president Scott Walter has written articles on philanthropic policy.<span class="profile-referencesup" id="ref-7" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 0; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; top: -0.5em;"><a class="profile-referencelink" href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/capital-research-center/#note-7" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-weight="font-weight" margin-left="margin-left" px="px" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" opacity="opacity" font-size="font-size">[7]</a></span></font></p><h3 id="publications" style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; font-family: Montserrat, " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" line-height="line-height" color="color" inherit="inherit" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" font-size="font-size" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" text-transform="text-transform" uppercase="uppercase"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PUBLICATIONS</font></h3><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Capital Research Center releases a monthly magazine, titled&nbsp;<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/publication/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Capital Research</em></a>, with research articles and news items on nonprofit policy, the interaction of influencers with the public policy process, and public policy debates.<span class="profile-referencesup" id="ref-8" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 0; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; top: -0.5em;"><a class="profile-referencelink" href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/capital-research-center/#note-8" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-weight="font-weight" margin-left="margin-left" px="px" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" opacity="opacity" font-size="font-size">[8]</a></span>&nbsp;CRC additionally publishes research-based blog posts on philanthropic policy, political and policy debates, and organizations involved in the public policy process.<span class="profile-referencesup" id="ref-9" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 0; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; top: -0.5em;"><a class="profile-referencelink" href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/capital-research-center/#note-9" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-weight="font-weight" margin-left="margin-left" px="px" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" opacity="opacity" font-size="font-size">[9]</a></span></font></p><h3 id="dangerous-documentaries" style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; font-family: Montserrat, " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" line-height="line-height" color="color" inherit="inherit" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" font-size="font-size" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" text-transform="text-transform" uppercase="uppercase"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DANGEROUS DOCUMENTARIES</font></h3><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Capital Research Center runs a film production program which goes by the name “<a href="https://www.dangerousdocumentaries.com/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s;">Dangerous Documentaries</a>.” Dangerous Documentaries funds films made by outside filmmakers. The group co-financed&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">No Safe Spaces</em>, a film on college free speech issues featuring comedian and podcaster Adam Carolla and conservative commentator Dennis Prager.<span class="profile-referencesup" id="ref-10" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 0; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; top: -0.5em;"><a class="profile-referencelink" href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/capital-research-center/#note-10" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-weight="font-weight" margin-left="margin-left" px="px" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" opacity="opacity" font-size="font-size">[10]</a></span></font></p><h3 id="influencewatch" style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; font-family: Montserrat, " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" line-height="line-height" color="color" inherit="inherit" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" font-size="font-size" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" text-transform="text-transform" uppercase="uppercase"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">INFLUENCEWATCH</font></h3><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Capital Research Center is the publisher of the InfluenceWatch website, a repository of information on groups and people involved in public policy advocacy. The research housed at InfluenceWatch has been cited by commentators in the&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">New York Post</em>.<span class="profile-referencesup" id="ref-11" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 0; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; top: -0.5em;"><a class="profile-referencelink" href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/capital-research-center/#note-11" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-weight="font-weight" margin-left="margin-left" px="px" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" opacity="opacity" font-size="font-size">[11]</a></span></font></p><h2 id="funding" style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 40px; margin-bottom: 24px; padding-bottom: 7.5px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(202, 202, 202);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Funding</font></h2><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Capital Research Center has received “substantial support” from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation<span class="profile-referencesup" id="ref-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 0; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; top: -0.5em;"><a class="profile-referencelink" href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/capital-research-center/#note-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-weight="font-weight" margin-left="margin-left" px="px" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" opacity="opacity" font-size="font-size">[12]</a></span>&nbsp;and grants from the John William Pope Foundation<span class="profile-referencesup" id="ref-13" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 0; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; top: -0.5em;"><a class="profile-referencelink" href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/capital-research-center/#note-13" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-weight="font-weight" margin-left="margin-left" px="px" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" opacity="opacity" font-size="font-size">[13]</a></span>&nbsp;and the William E. Simon Foundation.<span class="profile-referencesup" id="ref-14" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 0; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; top: -0.5em;"><a class="profile-referencelink" href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/capital-research-center/#note-14" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-weight="font-weight" margin-left="margin-left" px="px" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" opacity="opacity" font-size="font-size">[14]</a></span>&nbsp;CRC asserts that it takes no funding from governments and performs no contract work.<span class="profile-referencesup" id="ref-15" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 0; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; top: -0.5em;"><a class="profile-referencelink" href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/capital-research-center/#note-15" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-weight="font-weight" margin-left="margin-left" px="px" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" opacity="opacity" font-size="font-size">[15]</a></span></font></p><h2 id="people" style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 40px; margin-bottom: 24px; padding-bottom: 7.5px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(202, 202, 202);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">People</font></h2><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CRC’s president is Scott Walter, who took office in 2016. A philanthropic consultant and former editor of publications released by the Philanthropy Roundtable and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/american-enterprise-institute/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s;">American Enterprise Institute</a>, Walter most prominently served on the Domestic Policy Council in the George W. Bush administration.<span class="profile-referencesup" id="ref-16" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 0; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; top: -0.5em;"><a class="profile-referencelink" href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/capital-research-center/#note-16" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-weight="font-weight" margin-left="margin-left" px="px" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" opacity="opacity" font-size="font-size">[16]</a></span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CRC is governed by a board of trustees chaired by Michael Franc, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution who has worked for Congressional Republican leadership and the conservative Heritage Foundation.<span class="profile-referencesup" id="ref-17" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 0; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; top: -0.5em;"><a class="profile-referencelink" href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/capital-research-center/#note-17" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-weight="font-weight" margin-left="margin-left" px="px" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" opacity="opacity" font-size="font-size">[17]</a></span>&nbsp;Other CRC trustees include Edwin Meese, who served as U.S. Attorney General in the Reagan administration.<span class="profile-referencesup" id="ref-18" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 0; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; top: -0.5em;"><a class="profile-referencelink" href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/capital-research-center/#note-18" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-weight="font-weight" margin-left="margin-left" px="px" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" opacity="opacity" font-size="font-size">[18]</a></span></font></p><h2 id="external-links" style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 40px; margin-bottom: 24px; padding-bottom: 7.5px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(202, 202, 202);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">External Links</font></h2><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 24px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ballotpedia:&nbsp;<a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Capital_Research_Center" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s;">Capital Research Center</a></font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 24px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Facebook:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenter/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s;">Capital Research Center</a></font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 24px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/capitalresearch" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s;">@CapitalResearch</a></font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 24px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Instagram:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/capital.research.center/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s;">Capital Research Center</a></font></span></p></div><div class="profile-section" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 60px; font-family: Georgia, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><h4 class="content-box-subheading" id="references" style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 12px; margin-bottom: 30px; border-top: 4px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); padding-top: 10px; display: flex;"><div class="content-box-subheadingtext" style="box-sizing: border-box; flex-grow: 1;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">References</font></div><div class="content-box-subheadingtext" style="font-style: italic; box-sizing: border-box; flex-grow: 1;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></div></h4></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">orientation CPI</font></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2022/09/13/maga-group-grooms-members-of-congress-and-their-staff-for-america-first-movement/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2022/09/13/maga-group-grooms-members-of-congress-and-their-staff-for-america-first-movement/</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CPI hit squad:</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><p class="p1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="word-spacing: 3.6px;"><b>CPI has also launched a number of spin-offs to further right-wing causes, including the&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">American Accountability Foundation (AAF</span>), America First Legal, Center for Renewing America, American Cornerstone Institute, American Moment, and the State Freedom Caucus Network.</b></span></font></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="word-spacing: 3.6px;">
</span></font></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="word-spacing: 3.6px;">Staffers Coached in Conservative Oversight</span></font></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="word-spacing: 3.6px;">From May 5–6, seven House Republican staffers and three Senate Republican staffers attended an Effective Oversight Training Retreat paid for by AAF and led by CPI, AAF, and the Heritage Foundation—all ostensibly nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organizations.</span></font></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="word-spacing: 3.6px;">
</span></font></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="word-spacing: 3.6px;">Attendees participated in six training sessions, according to an agenda obtained by CMD, including on “how to work with legal experts to leverage research and advance conservative priorities in the courts,” “working with outside groups involved in oversight,” and&nbsp;<b>“how to conduct effect research into Presidential appointees and nominees” to “help congressional staff perform proper oversight.”</b></span></font></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="word-spacing: 3.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>The latter session was led by AAF’s founder Tom Jones, who is credited with leading GOP opposition to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation&nbsp;</b>and for sinking the nomination of Sarah Bloom Raskin for vice chair for supervision of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, among others.</span></font></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="word-spacing: 3.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>AAF runs the website bidennoms.com,&nbsp;</b>which currently features opposition campaigns against Phillip Washington for administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA); Gigi B. Sohn to be a member of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC); Kalpana Kotagal to be a member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC); and Dilawar Syed for deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration (SBA).</span></font></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="word-spacing: 3.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></font></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="word-spacing: 3.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Kotagal appears to be a top target of AAF, prompting it to create the separate website kalpanakotagal.com, where she is labeled a “radical leftist” who is “poised to weaponize the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission with an&nbsp;<b>anti-American agenda.”</b></span></font></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="word-spacing: 3.6px;">SCREENSHOT FROM WWW.KALPANAKOTAGAL.COM</span></font></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="word-spacing: 3.6px;"><b>Kotagal is actually an accomplished employment and civil rights plaintiffs’ litigator, perhaps best known for co-authoring the “Inclusion Rider,” a contract provision in Hollywood designed to increase diversity in casting and production staff.</b></span></font></p><p class="p1" style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px;"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="word-spacing: 3.6px;"><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In addition to staffers from CPI, AAF, and Heritage, others from the right-wing </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Capital Research Center</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, the Republican Study Committee, and Compass Legal also led training sessions.</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;CPI launched Compass Legal to take “care of things like legal filings” and help nonprofits “to comply with federal tax law so they can keep their nonprofit status,” according to its 2021 Annual Report.</span></span></font></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1/22 off bS&nbsp; neo-con koch?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">BETH BOTTCHER</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Philanthropy Officer</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">KEN BRAUN</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Senior Investigative Researcher</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">KATIE CAGLE</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Digital Media Associate</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HEATHER CORDASCO</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Senior Philanthropy Officer</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">KRISTEN EASTLICK</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Senior Vice President</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LAURA ELLIOTT</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chief of Staff</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">KATE FLACK</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Development Manager</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MICHAEL E. HARTMANN</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Strategic Giving</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CATHERINE HERAVI</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Staff Accountant</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CHRISTOPHER KRUKEWITT</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chief Financial & Operations Officer</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">SARAH LEE</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Director of Communications and External Relations [lobby? grants?]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HAYDEN LUDWIG</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Senior Investigative Researcher</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MADELINE MATNEY</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Development Associate [fundraiser?]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">JON RODEBACK</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Managing Editor and Director of Content</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ROBERT STILSON</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Research Specialist</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PARKER THAYER</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Research Assistant</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DAN THOMPSON</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Vice President of Philanthropy & Development</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">SCOTT WALTER</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MICHAEL WATSON</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Research Director</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fellows</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DR. STEVEN J. ALLEN</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Distinguished Senior Fellow [wog]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MICHAEL E. HARTMANN</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Strategic Giving</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MARTIN MORSE WOOSTER</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Senior Fellow</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Board of Trustees</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ROBERT E. CHALLEY</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chairman of the Board, The Park Place Group</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GORDON CUMMINGS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Philanthropic Advisor</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MICHAEL FRANC</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Hoover Institution</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HON. EDWIN MEESE III</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fellow, The Heritage Foundation</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WILLIAM MEYERSOHN</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Real Estate Consultant</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ERIC O’KEEFE</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chairman, Citizens for Self-Governance</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">THOMAS S. WINTER</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Editor-in-Chief, Human Events</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MARION G. WELLS†</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1926-2016</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GIL COLLINS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trustee emeritus. Trustee, Intercollegiate Studies Institute</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">National Advisory Board</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DR. LARRY P. ARNN</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President, Hillsdale College</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DR. JOHN A. BADEN</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chairman, Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment (FREE)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MIDGE DECTER</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Author</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CHRISTOPHER LONG</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trustee, Intercollegiate Studies Institute</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ADAM MEYERSON</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Former President, The Philanthropy Roundtable</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">KATE O’BEIRNE†</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1949-2017</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">P.J. O’ROURKE</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Author and Columnist</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DR. WALTER WILLIAMS† keynote spker,&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1936-2020 thos sowell, free to choose</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As an economist, Walter Williams never got the credit he deserved. His book "Race and Economics" is a must-read introduction to the subject. Amazon has it ranked 5th in sales among civil rights books, 9 years after it was published.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another book of his, on the effects of economics under the white supremacist apartheid regime in South Africa, was titled "South Africa's War Against Capitalism." He went to South Africa to study the situation directly. Many of the things he brought out have implications for racial discrimination in other places around the world.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ROBERT L. WOODSON, SR.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Founder & President, National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Payment — Unlike many DC internships, CRC interns are compensated and are paid the DC minimum wage.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Full-Time Work — CRC interns are scheduled to work 37.5 hours each week. (We may be able to accommodate part-time schedules based on circumstances, but please indicate that in your application email.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Meaningful Projects — CRC interns are assigned high-priority projects, and they are expected to excel in entrepreneurial endeavors.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Networking — Our coveted positions offer an enclave into the thriving world of the conservative movement.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CLIMATE LAWSUITS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Democracy Dies in Dark-Moneyness: Soros Funding Behind Off-Books Congressional “Staff” to Investigate Political Opponents of Climate Agenda</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;Charles Rotter&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp; It represents a test of principle for the Republican congressional minority, “Dark Money” scold Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, and any elected congressional Democrats who would like to demonstrate their rhetoric…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">democracy Dies in Dark-Moneyness: Soros Funding Behind Off-Books Congressional “Staff” to Investigate Political Opponents of Climate Agenda</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;Charles Rotter 68 Comments</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">From Government Accountability & Oversight</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WEBEDITOR&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Following up on this story, and related complaints filed with congressional ethics watchdog offices, courtesy of Capital Research Center’s intrepid Hayden Ludwig we now see that the money behind privately financed congressional investigative staff is coming from none other than George Soros’s Open Society ventures.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Specifically, it appears that $300,000 went from Soros’ c4 (Open Society Policy Institute) to 1630 Fund for Co-Equal Action, with the grant tag, “to support work to enhance congressional effectiveness and oversight”.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another $282,2000 went to the Hill-support operation courtesy of “eBay founder Pierre Omidyar’s Democracy Fund Voice in 2019 to ‘provide information and advice that helps members of Congress advance policies and conduct effective oversight.’”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As we now know, thanks to those two ethics complaints and yesterday’s common public right of access lawsuit for records filed against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, et al., that means providing off-books congressional investigators to augment professional staff, improperly for any Member or office which partakes, to pursue private party, political opponents.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Which is a donor-dangle to Members to violate not only House Rules but federal law, should they bite. Which House Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Ro Khanna has confessed to doing. As all laid out in those complaints. One recipient of which, the House Inspector General, immediately waved off as not being his job. Even though it seems to fall pretty cleanly within his remit of investigating management of House resources.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Democracy dies in dark-moneyness, etc. Note that this money came via Arabella’s c4 umbrella group — a hard core political entity, not some arguably nonpartisan c3 “charity” or public education institution.&nbsp; For a slew of quotes and critiques of the 1630 Fund c4 by WaPo, Politico et al. see CRC’s compilation here.&nbsp; So, we now know that partisan financing of prosecutorial or quasi-judicial activities goes beyond just Soros prosecutors, above-board and legal, or Michael Bloomberg’s scheme planting privately hired activist prosecutors to pursue his agenda through state attorneys general offices which falls into a much grayer area. It extends to off-books congressional staff, who represent a facial violation (by Members who partake) of House Rules and federal law.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This operation — hiding in plain sight courtesy of a New York Times rollout piece so clumsily incurious that it never considered the propriety or even legality of what it nonetheless confesses is revolutionary, a “unique approach” now being tried in apparent response to the election of Donald Trump as President — is a pulse-check for the institution of journalism. But, even though it’s people we like, pushing idea we agree with?&nbsp; It represents a test of principle for the Republican congressional minority, “Dark Money” scold Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, and any elected congressional Democrats who would like to demonstrate their rhetoric about good governance is remotely sincere.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">---</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ref1</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://capitalresearch.org/article/new-ethics-complaint-soros-funded-arabella-front-helped-democrats-break-congressional-ethics-rules/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">big news is developing on the Arabella front.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Last week, the watchdog group Government Accountability & Oversight filed ethics complaints alleging that House Democrats broke a prohibition on private financing of official congressional business, and an Arabella-run “pop-up” group is at the heart of the still-unfolding story.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">House Rule 24 prohibits “outside private donations, funds, or in-kind goods or services” to cover the expenses of a congressional office in order to prevent private interests from gaining untoward influence over public affairs.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to the complaints, however, the Arabella-run group Co-Equal provided in-kind donations to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform in the form of donor-provided “consultants” and “progressive” litigators to help House Democrats with a year-long investigation into private parties whose political speech has “frustrated” the Left’s climate action agenda.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In other words, if the complaints are true, a nonprofit helped House Democrats break ethics rules to go after so-called climate deniers standing in the way of a Green New Deal revolution. Not good optics for the supposedly politically neutral Arabella Advisors.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Scheming in the Dark</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Arabella Advisors is a for-profit consultancy based in Washington, DC. The company commands a set of four in-house nonprofits that collectively brought in $1.7 billion in 2020 alone—and $4.7 billion since 2006—from left-leaning foundations and donors.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Arabella’s nonprofits run hundreds of “pop-up” groups that are little more than websites masquerading as standalone, grassroots nonprofits. Sometimes they operate in twos: Co-Equal is fiscally sponsored by the 501(c)(3) Hopewell Fund, while its lobbying arm, Co-Equal Action, is run by Arabella’s 501(c)(4) Sixteen Thirty Fund.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Enter George Soros. A 2018 document reveals the leftist billionaire granted $300,000 to Co-Equal Action via Sixteen Thirty Fund to “support work to enhance congressional effectiveness and oversight” from his 501(c)(4) Open Society Policy Center—almost certainly referring to Co-Equal’s campaign to illegally fund House Democrats’ climate witch hunt.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Add another $282,000 from eBay founder Pierre Omidyar’s Democracy Fund Voice in 2019 to “provide information and advice that helps members of Congress advance policies and conduct effective oversight.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tried and True?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This isn’t the first time liberal donors have tried to “help” Congress pursue their climate opponents. In 2019, Michael Bloomberg funded an effort to embed privately funded lawyers into the offices of state attorneys general (AGs) in nine states and the District of Columbia via the Bloomberg-funded State Energy Environmental Impact Center.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bloomberg’s campaign effectively bypassing legislative budgets with “private mercenaries” engaged in “law enforcement for rent,” according to Chris Horner, a Competitive Enterprise Institute senior fellow. In Virginia, Republican lawmakers blocked the effort from reaching the Democratic AG in 2019.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Prosecuting Wrongthink</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This time around Arabella’s goal appears to be to help the U.S. Justice Department prosecute climate “crimes,” according to the complaints.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As part of his “clean energy revolution,” Joe Biden promised on the campaign trail to “pursue [polluters] to the fullest extent permitted by law and . . . seek additional legislation to hold corporate executives personally responsible—including jail time when merited.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jailing dissenters is now “environmental justice,” to use lefty lingo.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Perhaps its Arabella’s liberal donors who should be most wary—the company isn’t so transparent nor trustworthy as it claims. Far from the boutique philanthropy advisors that doesn’t “engage in any kind of legislative activity,” the Arabella network is DC politics incarnate, according to outgoing CEO Sampriti Ganguli.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This is a developing story with more to follow.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tags: Arabella Advisors, Co-Equal, Democracy Fund Voice, Democratic Party, environmental justice, George Soros, Green New Deal, Hopewell Fund, Open Society Policy Center, Pierre Omidyar, Sixteen Thirty Fund, skeptics</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hayden Ludwig is a Senior Investigative Researcher at Capital Research Center. He is also a columnist at the Washington Free Beacon. Ludwig is a native of Orange County, California, and holds a Master’s of Public Policy from George Mason University.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AUTHORED CONTENT</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DECEPTION & MISDIRECTION</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">New Ethics Complaint:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Soros-Funded Arabella Front Helped Democrats Break Congressional Ethics Rules</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Article on January 25, 2022 by Hayden Ludwig</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GREEN WATCH</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Forced Electrification: Environmentalists’ War on Consumers</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Article on January 24, 2022 by Hayden Ludwig</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GREEN WATCH</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Forced Electrification: The Stealth War on Your Dishwasher</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Article on January 24, 2022 by Hayden Ludwig</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GREEN WATCH</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Forced Electrification: What’s Wrong with Natural Gas?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Article on January 24, 2022 by Hayden Ludwig</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GREEN WATCH</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Forced Electrification: “Net-Zero Carbon”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Article on January 24, 2022 by Hayden Ludwig</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Senior Investigative Researcher</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">+ SEE ALL CONTENT BY HAYDEN LUDWIG</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ref2</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[no ital]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://govoversight.org/records-lawsuit-filed-against-house-leadership-re-use-of-donor-provided-consultants-as-congressional-investigative-staff/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Records Lawsuit Filed Against House Leadership Re: Use of Donor-Provided Consultants as Congressional Investigative Staff</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WEBEDITOR In The News, Private Funding of Government&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Today, award-winning[new blk p that did not come?] independent journalist Rob Schilling filed a lawsuit against Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and the Clerk and Chief Administrator of the House of Representatives to exercise the public’s common law right of access to records. Specifically, Schilling’s suit seeks certain described emails, and any Skype and similar recordings and logs, pertaining to the use by two committee chairs of donor-provided consultants as professional staff to perform official business.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This follows the revelation that Congress also had joined in a practice, initiated by Democratic governors and attorneys general with the assistance of major donors after the election of Donald Trump as President, of using privately funded staff to perform official business to advance the “climate” agenda. Public records show budgets for tens of millions of dollars of in-kind gifts to governors in the form of non-employee climate “staff” and media consultants, and that progressive state attorneys general took in donor-hired and -provided prosecutors.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now, it appears that the House Committee on Oversight & Reform is using donor-provided consultants as staff to guide what Environment Subcommittee Chairman Ro Khanna told activists to expect will be a “year-long” investigation of private parties, already expanded, for political speech that Rep. Khanna believes has frustrated attempts to legislate the agenda.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Scapegoating congressional failures is not a constitutionally permissible use of Congress’s investigative powers — with or without the financial assistance of activist donors. While the constitutionality of this “year-long” investigation is not yet at hand, Schilling was one of two parties filing two complaints with congressional ethics watchdogs over this work, the Inspector General of the House and the Office of Congressional Ethics.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As the complaints noted, the gray area exploited by some governors and AGs is not present here: House Rules and federal law prohibit private financing of the performance of official House business, in-kind or otherwise.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This new congressional investigation began with oil company executives in October but, according to past behavior and recent hints, seems likely to extend soon to others the “climate” industry views as having impeded its desires. A previous AGs’ campaign noted in today’s suit led to subpoenas to over 100 think tanks, scientists, and others also in the name of pursuing energy companies for purported climate-related sins. This blew up on the AGs when the targets challenged the obvious violation of private individuals’ First Amendment rights, thanks to the&nbsp; &nbsp;subpoena battle fought by the Competitive Enterprise Institute.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The AG leading that charge retreated. However, many of the same AG offices involved in that scheme then brought on attorneys privately hired and placed in their offices by a group created by billionaire climate activist Michael Bloomberg, which offices then resumed the investigations. It has thus become clear that none of these abuses of power, in the name of enormous payouts and massive new governmental authority, were ever truly abandoned.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If anything, they have expanded. The complaint also notes the prospect that the Committee objective is to engineer criminal referrals to the U.S. Department of Justice, in aid of a Biden-Harris campaign promise to engage DoJ on behalf of the climate industry in its lawsuits against private industry. Indeed, the Oversight Chairmen told activists they were eyeing perjury charges against witnesses…a week before any testimony was taken or any questions posed.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Further, however, prompting Schilling’s requests was Committee leadership also letting slip that it had brought in consultants to help guide the campaign, describing them in a way strongly indicating — thanks both to the New York Times and the group itself — use of a group funded by Arabella Advisors, the “mothership” behind a Democratic “Dark money juggernaut.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The suit notes that this expansion of donor-provided climate “staff” comes after previous revelations of a $50 million per year budget request for off-books climate staff for progressive governors by 2020. Then came Bloomberg’s millions to staff up AGs to, e.g., push climate prosecutions that — with ever-changing rationales but a constant demand for hundreds of billions of dollars to be politically distributed — appear to be little more than shakedowns.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now the spawn of both disgraces prowls the halls of Congress, and in this case there is no room to excuse the behavior which on its face violates 31 U.S. Code § 1342, House Rules and ethics requirements/prohibitions (House Rule XXIV and official House interpretations thereof).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fortunately, the NYT launched the outside consultants’ effort, hiding it in plain sight with a promotional piece that, tellingly, made no inquiry into what skeptical voices — let alone House Rules or federal law — say about what the Times nonetheless admits (if with understatement) is a “unique approach”. That same article, and the consultants’ website admissions, now tie the hands of the Members of Congress who brought in outside parties on the basis, indeed the confession, that the House did not grant them the level of professional staff the “climate” movement feels it should have to use the power of government to pursue political opponents.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Those opponents have apparently frustrated the “climate” movement beyond the point of caring about rules, a matter which House Inspector General has already declined to examine, about which the Congressional Office on Ethics which has a complaint, and the House Committee on Administration. The latter’s Ranking Minority Member Rodney Davis has already stirred to action out of his own frustration with what he views as coverup by the House leadership.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For now, Schilling’s common law right of access suit seeks to exercise the public’s right to know about this metastasizing of off-books private staffing to Congress, again (as was the case with the AGs) for adjudicative/quasi-judicial matters against private, political opponents.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Plaintiff Robert Schilling hosts The Schilling Show radio program broadcast on Newsradio 1070 and 98.9 FM WINA in Central Virginia, and the founder and editor of a news, analysis, and commentary web site, SchillingShow.com, whose reporting and investigative journalism has been awarded multiple times by the Associated Press and the Virginia Association of Broadcasters, including two “Superior Awards for Best Investigative Reporting” from the Associated Press.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GAO Board Member Matthew D. Hardin filed suit for Schilling, following requests for the records made in November and December 2021, which all of the named defendants ignored.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha:note that they publicize these dumb free procedural scams (evil b/c use abti-corrput means to help corps fry world] but the exoneration is never spoken of, or comes much later so has no pos effect.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ref3 rule 24</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://govoversight.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Complaint-to-House-Inspector-General.pdf</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">12 pp</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">January 13, 2022 Mr. Michael Ptasienski Inspector General United States House of Representatives 386 Ford Building Washington, DC 20515-9990 Via Email to: HouseIG@mail.house.gov&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dear Inspector General Ptasienski, We write pursuant to Res. 423, the House Administration Reform Resolution of 1992 amending the Rules of the House of Representatives. As noted by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) (https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/IF11024.pdf) (emphases added): The House IG is authorized to accept alleged violations of law or misconduct by House employees and to investigate … acceptance of gratuities, mismanagement and waste of funds, conflicts of interest, abuse of authority, theft or abuse of government property, computer crimes, purchase card fraud, improper use of House resources, and violations related to administration of the House. Should the IG receive information outside of its authority, it is to refer the information to other House entities (e.g., the House Ethics Committee), or noncongressional entities (e.g., the Department of Veterans Affairs), as appropriate.&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The following information pertains to the use of privately financed or unpaid services and other in-kind support for the performance of official House business. It specifically suggests, in some detail, that outside parties are underwriting the provision of outside professional staff to, at minimum, the House Committee on Oversight & Reform, including specifically for a recently initiated “year-long” investigation that includes subpoenas issued to other private parties. This development, which on its face is in violation of House Rules (XXIV) and ethics requirements, represents the extension of a new but rapidly expanding practice of privately underwriting governmental staff, for “climate” policy and even investigating private parties viewed as impeding advancement of the climate policy agenda. This practice appears to have begun in 2018 when, public records reveal, certain governors’ staff prepared a budget for private underwriting of “climate” staff, off the books, on the express reason that “it can’t always be us staff” staffing elected officials. 1 These aides...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Conclusion</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Statements including those made by House Oversight Committee leadership and certain</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">activists strongly suggest that these new hearings described herein are also privately staffed by</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">consultants provided to the Oversight Committee for this purpose by private donors. The website</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">of certain parties described by Chairman Khanna, and news coverage hailing the “unique”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">provision by at least one of the sources for these consultants, further supports this conclusion.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As with the Federal Bureau of Investigations’ now-infamous Operation “Crossfire</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hurricane,”31 here the public has reason to be concerned that privately afforded consultants</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">played a role in engineering compelled testimony and subpoenas to private parties,[gun sellers?!] in what is</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">apparently the first of a “year-long” series of such endeavors targeting political opponents with</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">the partial staffing by outside, donor-provided consultants, possibly without properly contracting</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">with and disclosing the relationship as required by law or attestation that the volunteers serve</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“without compensation from any source”, or, alternately, neither obtaining approval of nor</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">posting the required consultant agreements.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For the reasons set forth above we respectfully suggest your office investigate the</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">propriety or impropriety of the activities described above.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Government Accountability & Oversight32 Robert Schilling33</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">info@govoversight.org schilling@allhookedup.com</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">cc: Theodore E. Deutch, Chairman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">House Committee on Ethics</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1015 Longworth House Office Building</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Washington, DC 20515</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Congresswoman Jackie Walorski, Ranking Minority Member</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1015 Longworth House Office Building</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Washington, DC 20515</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">House Committee on Administration</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;Zoe Lofgren, Chair</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1309 Longworth House Office Building</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Washington, D.C. 20515&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2x?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/12/11921/%E2%80%9Cenergy-depth%E2%80%9D-%E2%80%93-reporters%E2%80%99-guide-its-founding-funding-and-flacks</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx grafix</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Energy In Depth" – A Reporters' Guide to Its Founding, Funding, and Flacks</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Submitted by Lisa Graves on December 28, 2012</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What is Energy In Depth, really? EID describes itself as "a research, education and public outreach campaign focused on getting the facts out" about hydraulic fracturing, widely known as "fracking." It's a website created by a trade group for the gas industry -- the "Independent Petroleum Association of America" (IPAA) -- and a public relations firm.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Exponentially Increasing Natural Gas Exports</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In short, IPAA/EID is a PR operation for the industry's multi-billion dollar financial interests in "unconventional" drilling for what is popularly known as "natural gas." Although this expanded drilling is often described as essential to our "national security," the Center for Media and Democracy/PRWatch has shown that the industry is increasingly exporting gas to be sold in other countries. IPAA/EID's PR efforts pay special attention to the "Marcellus shale" gas that lies deep beneath the surface in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, and neighboring states, which constitutes a lucrative market for multi-national firms and their domestic counter-parts to exploit.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">IPAA/EID's "about" page says its "supporting members" are state associations of gas producers. It displays their logos, instead of the global corporations that launched it.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What the logos cloak -- in classic PR sleight of hand -- are the larger interests behind the IPAA/EID operation.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It has been described by some in the press as merely a "pro-drilling group" (in contrast with "anti-drilling" groups or citizens), but here's how IPAA described EID in a leaked internal memo from 2009, obtained by DeSmogBlog last year. IPAA privately told its allies that EID was its new "online resource center to combat new environmental regulations," created with funding from Shell, BP, Chevron, and more.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In other words, IPAA/EID is more accurately described as a front group launched by global gas companies in order to fight a public relations battle against new environmental protections on fracking.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Behind IPAA/EID: Some of the Biggest Corporations in the World</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The leaked IPAA memo reveals that the EID campaign was created through the "financial commitments" of some of the biggest companies (with some of the worst environmental records) on the planet. To wit:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shell, which is the second largest company in the world in terms of revenue, with income of almost a half a trillion dollars in 2011: $470 billion, just behind Exxon. Royal Dutch Shell is a Dutch company registered in London. In 2010, Shell bought "East Resources," which had gas holdings in Pennsylvania and nearby, for $4.7 billion. Shell's environmental record includes the largest fresh water spill of oil in the world (in 1999 in Argentina), a major oil spill near Alaska in 1988, and numerous spills in the Niger delta in Africa. (East Resources' founder, Terry Pegula, and his wife gave at least $300,000 to Tom Corbett's campaign for governor of Pennsylvania.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">BP, which is the sixth largest company in the world in terms of revenue, with revenue of $375 billion in 2011. BP is a British oil and gas company, which took over two US companies, Amoco and ARCO (Atlantic Richfield Company) about a decade ago. Last month, BP and three of its employees were indicted on criminal charges, including manslaughter and obstruction of Congress, in connection with the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, and it also agreed to pay a $4 billion fine related to the disaster. (And, although many are unaware of it, BP's decisions also made the Exxon Valdez disaster worse.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chevron, which is a U.S. company that is the tenth largest in the world in terms of revenue, with income of $253 billion in 2011. Last year, Chevron obtained gas leases for over a million acres, plus hundreds of thousands of acres of development rights, from smaller companies like Chief Oil & Gas. Chevron and other companies have been sued for damaging our environment through the use of the MTBE gasoline additive that has contaminated water and soil. (Chief's CEO, Trevor Rees-Jones, has been active in politics, giving at least two million dollars to Karl Rove's Crossroads operations.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Corporations that Helped Launch EID</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another corporation whose funding helped launch IPAA/EID is XTO Energy, which became a subsidiary of ExxonMobil in 2010. XTO was a billion-dollar Fortune 500 company that became the largest producer of natural gas in the US after it acquired Hunt Petroleum for $4.2 billion in 2008. ExxonMobil is the largest company in the world, with revenue of $486 billion in 2011. (Exxon's environmental record includes the notorious Exxon Valdez disaster, and it has spent millions of dollars over the years funding groups that front industry propaganda, as documented by Greenpeace.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Other corporations whose funding helped launch IPAA/EID include two Canadian gas companies, EnCana and Talisman, plus Occidental Petroleum (California's largest gas producer) and Marathon (now Marathon Oil Corporation, which also has major interests in gas).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Other IPAA/EID funders include Schlumberger, the world's largest petroleum field services company, which began long ago as a French firm but has been headquartered in Texas for many years. The IPAA memo also lists Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil field services companies, which helped pioneer "proprietary" fracking fluids and whose Energy Services Group is involved in supporting fracking activities. (Halliburton recently settled a criminal corruption case alleging bribery by its then-CEO, Dick Cheney, and a former subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown, and Root (KBR), in connection with its natural gas operations in Nigeria.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">IPAA/EID was also launched with the financial support of the American Petroleum Institute (API), a non-profit trade group that represents many of these same interests. API had revenue of over $181 million in 2010 from "membership dues" from corporations and other sources, and it spent one-third of its income on the Edelman PR firm. According to its IRS Form "990," API gave nearly $200,000 to IPAA for "energy education" between 2008 and 2010.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another IPAA/EID funder mentioned in the IPAA memo is Anadarko Petroleum Company, which has gas wells in Pennsylvania and Texas. Anadarko owned a 25% stake in the Deepwater Horizon, with BP, Halliburton, and others.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Military Counter-Insurgency Manual]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Anadarko made the news on fracking last year after its Public Affairs Manager, Matt Carmichael, promoted the use of military "psyops" in Pennsylvania communities to combat "an insurgency" of citizens concerned about fracking (as recorded by Sharon Wilson of the Oil and Gas Accountability Project). IPAA/EID's Chris Tucker tried to spin those comments by claiming they were meant as a joke, despite all evidence to the contrary. Carmichael is a former senior communications guy for KBR, which was a subsidiary of war contractor Halliburton.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">None of these major for-profit companies or API -- the financial underwriters that launched IPAA/EID -- are listed on the campaign's website or in its description of its supporters.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">IPAA/EID Targets the Park Foundation While Keeping Its Corporate Funders Secret</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">IPAA/EID has been on the attack against critics of the fracking that is so lucrative for its secretive financial backers.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Here's a recent example of its disinformation: the Capital Research Center (CRC) -- itself part of the CEO-fueled echo chamber -- quoted EID's flack Tom Shepstone this month implying that the Park Foundation spent more than $17 million helping to oppose fracking in just one year. Wrote CRC: "In 2009, the Park Foundation had net assets of $246 million and spent $23 million, which included $17.6 million in grants and contributions to green groups opposed to fracking, according to Shepstone," a Pennsylvanian whose official title is "Campaign Director" for EID's "Northeast Marcellus Initiative."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But, as reported earlier this year, the Park Foundation's public filings show that only a fraction of that amount was spent on grants for projects to educate the public about fracking. The total for 2009 was approximately $700,000, which is 1/25th of what Shepstone claimed. In contrast, the industry's biggest trade group, API, spends over a $180 million a year on its entire budget, including tens of millions of dollars on PR.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This is not the first time Shepstone has had trouble with numbers. In 2000, a court approved his federal bankruptcy after he and his wife racked up more than $725,000 in debt as compared with their assets -- described as a house on five acres (valued at $125,000), a new car loan for a Chevy S-10 Blazer, and $200 worth of clothes, although he attested that they made almost $90,000 annually a few years earlier -- with some personal debt including some debt related to his businesses, described as "Shepstone Management Corp." in Honesdale and "North Country Farm and Gardens Corp.," at 160 Roosevelt Highway in Waymart. They were also subject to an IRS tax lien for more than $20,000 in unpaid taxes attributed to "Tom Shepstake" and his wife in 1996, a claim that was later settled. Americans do, of course, have the right to declare bankruptcy when their financial calculations go awry and get a second chance, like Shepstone.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CRC used Shepstone's recent math on Park to buttress the absurd thesis that "Environmentalists often depict themselves as scrappy underdogs fighting the power of entrenched special interests. But the case of the Marcellus Shale -- and the untold energy resources that could be recovered safely by new drilling technology such as fracking -- pits 'the little guy' against powerful 'green' forces such as the Park Foundation and the Natural Resources Defense Council."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Park Foundation grants]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Like IPAA/EID, CRC keeps many of its big funders secret, although foundation filings show that its funders have included the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, the family foundation of the CEO of the multi-billion dollar Koch Industries -- which in turn is led by Charles and his brother David Koch and is one of the richest privately held gas, oil, and chemical companies in the world. Koch Industries has reaped undisclosed profits from ventures benefiting from expanded fracking, such as from the lower cost of the natural gas used as a feeder to make its fertilizer by Koch Nitrogen, one of the Koch companies.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Only in the distorted worldview of CRC does an industry made up of some of the most profitable corporations in the history of the world -- ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, Chevron, Koch Industries, Halliburton, and more -- get portrayed as "the little guy" fighting for fracking against a putative Goliath in the form of the Park Foundation.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In contrast to Shepstone's dramatically inflated figures, "[s]ince 2008, the foundation has given at least $2.8 million to groups and publications fighting shale drilling," according to EnergyWire. That cumulative spending is less than a quarter of what Shepstone claimed the Park Foundation spent in one year alone.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But such efforts to discredit the growing grassroots movement of citizens concerned about fracking -- such as by insinuating that it's all about "buckets of money" from Park, according to Shepstone -- are particularly deceptive when made by operations like CRC and IPAA/EID, which don't disclose the identities of their major funders such as the for-profit businesses that paved the way for EID's campaign.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Uncloaking the Revenue Stream of IPAA's PR Machine</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Because EID was created as an operation within the IPAA, it does not file its own IRS Form 990 tax form, and so its true revenues and expenses are hidden from public view.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What is known is that, in 2010, IPAA had revenue of more than $8 million ($8,714,606) and spent almost the same. This revenue and expense rate is relatively consistent with the two preceding years.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">IPAA is described as a trade association organized under 501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code. It shares space and staff with its "IPAA Educational Foundation" (IPAAEF), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, which means that in general contributions to the latter can be counted as a charitable tax deduction by its donors. IPAAEF has annual revenue of almost a half million dollars a year, and it reports paying a "management fee" to IPAA of a little more than $200,000 a year. IPAAEF describes its activities as including grants to fund students "as interns at petroleum companies." According to its Form 990, one of IPAAEF's main activities each year appears to be its "Wildcatters Ball," which cost $227,270 in 2010. IPAA also hosts an annual golf tournament that costs almost $200,000.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">IPAA has assets worth over $8 million, as of the end of 2010. It invested about $6.5 million of this in publicly traded securities. It did not disclose the identities of these stocks or bonds and whether any of its investments are related to the gas industry. In 2010, it reported investment income of about $215,000.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">IPAA at NASDAQIPAA was also listed in a publicly filed licensing agreement in 2002 between the FBR Family of Funds and the "IPAA Energy Index." According to that agreement, "the FBR/IPAA Energy Index Fund is a series of a registered open-end management investment company whose objective is to track the price and yield performance of publicly-traded common stocks of companies represented by the IPAA Energy Index. The Fund is a no-load mutual fund, and its assets are invested by FBR Fund Advisers, Inc." There is little public information about what happened under that agreement or whether or not IPAA has other relationships with investment funds or groups speculating on fracking. It has showcased presentations on capital investment in fracking featuring information from investment bankers like Goldman Sachs.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As a non-profit organization, IPAA's tax benefits under the federal tax code are predicated on it not being "organized for profit and no part of the net earnings of which [can] inure[] to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual." There is no public information indicating whether or not any of its employees invested in the FBR Fund or other energy funds, stocks or other investment vehicles, or whether it has any policy barring its employees from such investments or land speculation in fracking regions. It has no published conflict-of-interest policy on this issue, but there is no legal requirement that it adopt one (other than for conflicts involving payments from the non-profit entity to people related to principals in the organization).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2010, IPAA received $3.8 million from membership dues and most of the remainder of its $8 million budget from program fees for nearly two dozen conferences a year. IPAA's annual dues for gas companies are calculated on a sliding scale based on the "Barrel of Oil Equivalents" (BOE) and range from $4,000 to $60,000 per year depending on whether a company's BOE is under 750,000 or more than 50 million BOE. By reference, Anadarko Petroleum, a funder of IPAA/EID that is described as one of the world's largest oil and gas exploration firms, "had production of 206 million BOE" as of 2008.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Companies that pay these dues can deduct 65% of them as business expenses; 35% of the dues are considered lobbying expenses. In 2010, IPAA reports that it spent $1.3 million on lobbying and political expenditures. IPAA also has a related "527"-type organization involved in political campaigns, called the "IPAA Wildcatters Fund," which had $542,639 in receipts in the run up to the 2012 elections. IPAA also told the IRS in 2010 that it had "joined forces with the Business Industry Political Action Committee," whose slogan used to be "Electing Business to Congress" and is now "Powering Business Political Success."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Who Leads IPAA/EID and for How Much?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The portion of IPAA's annual revenues or expenses that fund its EID campaign is not disclosed.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What is known is that in 2010, IPAA paid its president, Barrett (Barry) Russell, more than one-half million dollars in total compensation ($511,000 and a promise of health insurance for him and his wife for life). Russell was elected president of the IPAA in 2000. He also has seat on the board of the Business Industry Political Action Committee and the National Energy Education Development Project. He's been IPAA's "chief legal and financial officer since 1988 and an officer of IPAA's educational foundation since its inception." He previously worked for the EPA, and he also worked for consulting firms, such as Booz, Allen and Hamilton, specializing in mergers and acquisitions.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">IPAA paid another nearly one million dollars in total compensation for its next five highest paid employees combined (who each earn over $200,000 a year). This list includes Lee Fuller and Jeff Eshelman, who are specifically listed on the EID website as part of the EID team.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fuller, a chemical engineer, is IPAA's Vice President of Government Relations, and he is listed on the website as EID's "Executive Director." He began working for IPAA in 1998 after working as a lobbyist for the gas industry for 12 years following an eight-year job staffing the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, where he handled rules on drilling fluids, wells, and Superfund sites. Eshelman is also a Vice President for IPAA and has served as its spokesman for a number of years.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Big Raises</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2010, these and other IPAA executives got big raises, including a raise of more than $60,000 for the president. The salary increases for other IPAA executives that year ranged from $21,000 per year to $53,000 per year.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There is no information in IPAA's 2010 public tax filings about what the 13 other staffers listed on its EID campaign website are paid per year because only the top highest paid staffers are required to be disclosed (and also some of the EID team are recent hires). There also appears to be no publicly posted conflict-of-interest rule in this field that would require the disclosure of any fracking-related stock or real property holdings that would benefit from limiting restrictions on fracking by any IPAA/EID team member.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shining a Spotlight on the IPAA/EID Marcellus Team</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to the leaked memo from IPAA, EID's reason for being is to serve as a "major initiative to respond to . . . attacks" on fracking and amplify "coordinated messages." Although IPAA/EID's reach is nationwide, one area where it appears to be particularly aggressive is Pennsylvania, through the blogging and outreach of Tom Shepstone.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shepstone is described as the Campaign Leader of the EID Marcellus team. Before joining IPAA/EID, Shepstone worked primarily as a consultant writing reports for towns about land planning, at taxpayer expense. Even before he became the gas industry's campaigner in the region, he was apparently recommending industry-friendly land use rules, such as including a so-called "right to mine" in recommendations, expressly urging towns not to interfere with the development of natural gas, and not including recommendations for extra setback distances from property lines for industrial activities versus other structures. Shepstone was previously an IACP certified planner, which has conflict-of-interest rules, but he has said that he stopped paying dues and was not dropped by the American Planning Association.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the period between his bankruptcy and his public association with IPAA/EID last year, Shepstone was often quoted in the press with the description "local businessman." He also wrote online comments praising right-wing diatribes. For example, he gave the highest review to the book, "The Red Decade: the Classic Work on Communism in America During the Thirties," which he said provided "[g]reat insights for those who recognize we are reliving the 1930s," and showed how those with a "liberal/leftist" mindset are prone to be "manipulated by totalitarian thugs."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Right-Wing Screed Endorsed by Shepstone</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In another public review, Shepstone gave the highest marks to "The Liberal Mind: the Psychological Causes of Political Madness," which he said would help readers "completely understand how Obama thinks" and explains the president as well as Bill and Hillary Clinton "in their totality." He also claimed that reading this and Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals" -- a favorite boogeyman of right-wing talk show hosts -- would help "predict" President Obama's actions. The "Liberal Mind" book endorsed by Shepstone actually claims repeatedly that embracing progressive values is a mental disorder that is "the product of psychopathology," which undermines "the ability of families to raise children to be self-reliant" and "threatens to destroy the West's greatest achievement: the American dream of civilized liberty."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Given Shepstone's warm embrace of such fringe views, it is not entirely surprising that the IPAA/EID Marcellus website for the campaign he leads takes pains to try to score right-wing points in claiming that "the shale 'revolution' in the United States is impacting our 'friends' in Russia and Iran." It is also unsurprising that some of Shepstone's writings for IPAA/EID refer derisively to his fellow citizens exercising their fundamental First Amendment rights. To take a few recent examples of the tenor of his remarks, he put down an advocate asking serious and legitimate questions about the consequences of fracking in the community as an "aging activist seeking relevance in a modern world" and he also derided a community protest of 150 citizens as "a pathetic failure."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But, beyond his apparent animosity toward progressives and other concerned Americans, it is Shepstone's claims that are particularly astonishing. Here's a sampling of his disinformation sound bites:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Hydrofracking Improves Water Quality!" – When Shepstone made this claim at a public meeting, he was met with a spontaneous burst of laughter in disbelief, but he claimed it was true because more wells will be tested due to fracking than are currently monitored. In claiming fracking improves water quality, Shepstone conveniently ignores the millions of gallons of fresh water contaminated in the process of fracking each well, resulting in waste water whose "brine" is not even recommended for use on roads because of the risk of ground water contamination. He also ignores concerns that the water may become contaminated with dissolved radium due to the radioactive uranium rock in the region, requiring additional treatment, among other concerns that have been raised across the country about the potential for contamination of America's precious aquifers and the spoiling of Americans' wells.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Natural gas produces water rather than depleting it" – Shepstone made this claim apparently based on the fact that burning methane gas or heating wet gas releases water vapor, and water is a heavier molecule than methane, but his claim ignores the fact that millions of gallons of fresh water are being pumped from aquifers and rivers to be spoiled with each fracking well, and the industry is banking on drilling thousands and thousands of such wells in the region.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"There is no evidence the development of this resource will damage the environment . . . but plenty of evidence the farm and the woods can be saved with it" – This Shepstone claim is predicated on the notion that rural land can require money for property taxes to maintain, which he says gas leasing revenue will aid, but his claim ignores the effect of industrialization on farms, parks, and rivers, which has been documented by Oscar-nominee Josh Fox and others. Shepstone's claim also ignores other documented environmental hazards from fracking, including the venting of unprocessed methane gas and other carcinogens associated with fracking (as documented in the video at the link).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Hydraulic Fracturing Is An Open Book" – Shepstone pushed the idea that fracking fluid "is an open book" because some of the chemicals in it have been revealed, even as he sought to minimize concerns about what secret chemicals are in dozens of pounds of ingredients used in each well that companies keep secret under the claim that they are "proprietary," chemicals he says are basically harmless jellies. Because the blend of secret chemicals is proprietary and varies by manufacturer he cannot actually prove his assertion, but that's no deterrent. He also fails to mention that IPAA has lobbied to keep such chemicals secret by opposing the closing of the "Halliburton loophole," -- legislation that was mentioned in the IPAA's leaked memo discussing the need for its EID campaign. (Similarly, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has also pushed for so-called state "disclosure" rules sought by Exxon to keep certain chemicals used in fracking secret from the public, as reported by the New York Times.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These are just some of Shepstone's many claims on behalf of IPAA/EID. Curiously, but on a much more minor note, he has also written online comments pushing pro-fracking claims sometimes citing as his location towns other than where he actually resides in Pennsylvania.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shepstone is not the only writer/speaker for IPAA/EID in Pennsylvania; he's just its most visible one. And, his trade group's pro-fracking campaign has many components in its efforts to persuade the public and discredit critics of fracking. For example, IPAA/EID has disseminated attacks on Fox's Oscar-nominated documentary, "Gasland," and his latest film, "The Sky Is Pink." IPAA/EID is also currently promoting its "Truthland" video, complete with a stand-alone website that lists both the EID and IPAA logos as if they were separate entities.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The IPAA/EID Glass House</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Still, there is no doubt that Shepstone and IPAA/EID seem obsessed with both Fox and the Park Foundation. Well before Shepstone's most recent spinning of the foundation's grant numbers in a way that inflates the amount of grants for projects on fracking by combining it with the amounts in support of environmental organizations and other groups, Shepstone was attacking Park and its directors in others ways.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At one point, he even made the baseless claim that the foundation was wrongly engaged in "significant political activity," which he defined as "funding opponents of hydro-fracking." Although both his math and his analysis of federal tax law are way out of whack, one of the flaws is his contention that supporting research and public education about the risks of fracking is somehow impermissibly "political," while he ignores the manifold activities by pro-fracking non-profit entities on his side attempting to prevent new laws -- which is one of the very objectives mentioned in the leaked IPAA memo. In his attacks on Park and its grantees (which operate under 501(c)(3) rules allowing for a small percentage of lobbying or which may have separate 501(c)(4) arms to allow for more lobbying and different rules for prospective donors), Shepstone is simply not a credible source for reporters or others on U.S. tax and lobbying laws.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Example of an academic close ties to industry</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Moreover, in a feat of astounding hypocrisy, Shepstone attempts to discredit research he claims is supported by an organization that has no financial stake in the outcome of such research, while regularly echoing industry-friendly research and claims shaped by the very interests that have the most to gain from distorting information, the industry he really serves. Meanwhile, investigators have uncovered yet more instances of purportedly independent studies by academics connected to the for-profit fracking industry, as with reports that a University of Texas professor, Robert Chase -- whose studies claimed that "fracking was safe for groundwater" -- had allegedly "pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Texas natural gas developer."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shepstone has even attempted to defend his own bias by asserting that he held the same views about fracking before he started working on behalf of the industry. Such views are not created in a vacuum, however, and were likely shaped by the natural gas industry's PR machine for which he now works.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In his effort to smear Park and those concerned with fracking, Shepstone sidesteps the proliferation of non-profit groups that peddle pro-fracking claims, as exposed by Dory Hippauf. Beyond IPAA/EID, these include API (which has launched front groups called "Energy Citizens" and "EnergyNation"), the Marcellus Shale Coalition, the Ohio Shale Coalition, America's Natural Gas Alliance, the Center for Liquified Natural Gas, energy Tomorrow, EnergyfromShale.org, energyNow!, EnergyAnswered, LNGfacts.org, SecureOurFuels.org, Oilindependents.org, the Consumer Energy Alliance, Vote4Energy.org, the American Energy Alliance (AEA), the Institute for Energy Research (IER), and others.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Back of the AEA and AFP Bus</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Some of these groups work together on campaigns. AEA, for example, joined in a bus tour with David Koch's Americans for Prosperity (AFP) to influence voters about fracking under the jobs frame frequently spouted by Shepstone. Due to inadequate public disclosure requirements, however, it is difficult to know who helped fund that tour besides Koch through his financial support for AFP, which he helped found and helps lead. This is just one of many ways pro-fracking groups coordinate and amplify common messages. They have even had overlapping public relations staff, as with IPAA/EID's Chris Tucker, a former GOP congressional staffer who has been described as a Senior Vice President at Financial Dynamics, as the "managing director of FTI Consulting and as team lead for Energy In Depth." For a time, Tucker was publicly listed as handling communications for both IPAA/EID and IER, "using the same phone number for both," according to DeSmogBlog's research.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Of course, according to the leaked IPAA memo, one of the goals for EID was "coordinated messages."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But, Shepstone is relatively silent on such matters and on how his public messages help facilitate that goal.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Because entities like IPAA/EID, AEA, API, and AFP are not required to disclose their expenditures with the kind of detail that a grant-making foundation is, it is simply not possible to calculate the true amount of money these various non-profit groups are spending advancing the positions of the gas industry. Although their cumulative budgets amount to well over two hundred million dollars a year, the portion funded to support fracking or attack those concerned about fracking is unknown.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But it is clear that the Park Foundation is not a for-profit corporation that would benefit financially from the success of efforts to raise awareness about the risks of expanded fracking. Conversely, the multi-billion dollar corporations and/or some of the wealthy CEOs whose foundations fund organizations like IPAA/IED, CRC, and AFP do have a financial stake in advancing fracking with the least amount of regulation possible, regardless of what may be in the best interests of the public in protecting American families' health and their access to safe drinking water and clean air in the decades ahead.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After all, fracking is big business, as IPAA/EID's Shepstone regularly stresses.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2021/11/16/alec-academy-featured-a-whos-who-of-voter-suppression-leaders/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an “Academy” for state lawmakers on voter suppression strategies run by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in July featured a veritable who’s who of the right-wing leaders behind this year’s disinformation campaign about voter fraud and assaults on voting rights across the country, documents obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) show.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While the July 26-28 session was ostensibly led by the dark money group Honest Elections Project, it was organized, hosted, and bankrolled by ALEC, despite repeated claims by its CEO, Lisa Nelson, that the group does not work on voting issues.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Nelson provided the formal welcome at the conference’s opening session, ALEC staff organized turnout, and ALEC provided two nights of accommodations at the five-star Grand America Hotel, five meals, and a $450 travel reimbursement for attendees. ALEC’s annual meeting was held at the same hotel immediately after the Academy.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">An invite published by CMD in July stated that “13 legislators from across the country” would be in attendance, but the materials acquired by CMD do not include an attendance list.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rather than email materials to ALEC lawmakers that may be subject to open records laws, ALEC distributed hard copies of the agenda at registration along with a “zip drive containing a resources document and a one-pager on your state’s election policies,” according to an email from Sarah Wall, ALEC’s manager of legislative outreach and coalitions, obtained by CMD. Wall’s email also lists Michael Bowman, president of ALEC Action, as a key contact for the event.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Nelson tipped her hand about ALEC’s voter suppression subterfuge in May at a meeting of the far-right Council for National Policy. Video of the event obtained by CMD shows Nelson speaking frankly about ALEC’s work on voting and revealing its plans to outsource model policy on the controversial topic to avert the spotlight. “We don’t have model policy. We will be developing that at the Honest Elections Project [Academy], through them,” Nelson said.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Honest Elections Project, the group ALEC chose to carry the ball on its voting agenda, is a dark money operation formed in February 2020 to push for voting restrictions and spread baseless and dangerous claims about election fraud, laying the groundwork for Trump’s attempt to overturn the election. It is a project of The 85 Fund, the new legal name for the Judicial Education Project, a group linked to Leonard Leo that played a central role in Trump’s effort to pack the federal judiciary with right-wing judges.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Speakers at the Academy featured many of the key strategists and leaders on the Right spreading misinformation around voter fraud, promoting Trump’s lies around the 2020 election, and pushing sweeping new voting restrictions.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita gave the keynote address. A proponent of Trump’s Big Lie that the election was stolen, Rokita recently testified in front of the U.S. Senate against strengthening the federal Voting Rights Act.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rokita was one of only four state attorneys general to not sign a National Association of Attorneys General letter condemning the Jan. 6 violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, and is a member of the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA). RAGA was a member of the “March to Save America” coalition that organized the Jan. 6 rally, and its policy arm, Rule of Law Defense Fund, sent out robocalls urging supporters to “march to the Capitol building and call on Congress to stop the steal.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Agenda Focused on Election Legislation</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Most of the Academy sessions focused on legislation, giving legislators a chance to discuss bills to restrict voting that have already been introduced and passed in their states this year and hear from Republican-aligned leaders about what more they think needs to be done.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By the time ALEC held its voter suppression Academy in July, 18 states had already passed 30 laws this year making it harder to vote, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Honest Elections Project’s Executive Director Jason Snead, who worked with ALEC to organize the event, laid out “priorities for election integrity across the states” and polling results in a breakfast session and appeared on another panel on how to “shore up” legislative control over election processes with Jason Torchinsky and Lee Goodman.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Honest Elections Project has aggressively promoted a radical legal theory called the “independent state legislatures doctrine,” which holds that state courts don’t have the authority to review state election laws and would empower heavily gerrymandered state legislatures to determine election outcomes.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Republican legislators have already introduced and passed bills in 2021 “interfering with nonpartisan local election administration and consolidating power to administer and determine elections results themselves,” the Voting Rights Lab reported.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Snead is a former senior policy analyst with the Heritage Foundation where he developed its Election Fraud Database, which the Brennan Center for Justice says “grossly exaggerated” the extent of voter fraud.&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Torchinsky is general counsel for the National Republican Redistricting Trust and has been defending ALEC against CMD’s state complaints alleging that ALEC illegally gave sophisticated voter management campaign software linked to the Republican National Committee to its legislative members.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Goodman is an elections attorney and a former Republican chairman and commissioner of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) between 2013 and 2018.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jessica Anderson, the executive director of Heritage Action, and Ken Blackwell, executive director of the MAGA voter suppression center at America First Policy Institute led another legislative session on “securing absentee ballots.”&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Anderson bragged to Heritage donors in April that policies, “severely restricting mail ballot drop boxes” and “preventing election officials from sending absentee ballot request forms to voters” were among recommendations Heritage gave Georgia for its massive voter suppression bill.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Blackwell’s Center for Election Integrity recently published a “Top 25 Common-Sense State Election Integrity Reforms” fact sheet that includes these Heritage recommendations alongside other extreme voter suppression wish-list items, such as eliminating no-excuse absentee ballots and requiring an affidavit for absentee applications.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Blackwell also moderated a panel at the Academy with state legislators “discussing election challenges they’ve faced in their own states.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another panel over breakfast covered “things to consider with implementation of laws” related to election day voter registration, “election observer protections,” and organizing seniors to work the polls. Chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission Donald Palmer, a Trump appointee, and Cleta Mitchell, chair of the Conservative Partnership Institute’s Election Integrity Network, led the session.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mitchell is a Big Lie fueler and Trump legal advisor who lost her job at Foley & Lardner following news that she participated in a January call in which Trump asked Georgia election officials to “find” enough votes to make him the winner of the state’s electoral votes.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“On Dec. 30, Cleta Mitchell wrote to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and offered to send some 1,800 pages of documents purporting to support claims of election fraud,” The Washington Post Magazine reported. Meadows is now a colleague of Mitchell’s at the Conservative Partnership Institute.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Three Republican secretaries of state, Tennessee’s Tre Hargett, Kentucky’s Michael Adams, and West Virginia’s Mac Warner, spoke on a panel about “what policies the states need to employ to make it easier to vote and harder to cheat.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Easier to vote and harder to cheat” has been a favored talking point of Republicans in recent years.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">All three are active in the Republican Secretaries of State Committee (RSSC), with Hargett serving as chair and Adams as vice chair. Republican secretaries of state produced a report on “Best Practices for Making It Easier to Vote and Harder to Cheat” for the Republican State Leadership Committee, obtained by CMD.&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The RSSC holds monthly calls that Commissioner Palmer often attends. Secretary Warner and Palmer also participated in an “off-the-record” Election University session on June 21 as part of the U.S. House GOP’s “Faith in Elections Project,” as first reported by CMD.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ALEC Lawmakers Consider Litigation</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ALEC’s Academy featured two panels on litigation. The first dealt with “anticipating challenges to the Voting Rights Act in Arizona,” legal challenges mounted by Democratic voting rights attorney Marc Elias, and redistricting fights, and was led by with Republican lawyers Torchinsky, Michael Thielen, and Brian Barnes.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Thielen is the executive director of the Republican National Lawyers Association and served on the national board of Lawyers for Trump in 2020. Barnes was involved in legal challenges to changes in voting procedures in North Carolina and Pennsylvania last fall.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Goodman and Utah’s former Solicitor General Tyler Green led the second panel on “operationalizing litigation challenges.” Noted in the description of the panel are “ways to challenge the scope of litigation attacks on new election integrity legislation (defense) as well as advance the ball on election integrity (offense).”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As of Oct. 3, “at least 43 voting cases have been filed in 12 states, and Georgia and Texas lead the way with ten new lawsuits each in 2021,” the Brennan Center reports.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Training Sessions on “the Left”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Two trainings focused on “the Left” filled out the remaining agenda at the ALEC Academy. Hans von Spakovsky, senior legal fellow and manager of the Heritage Foundation’s “Election Reform Initiative,” and Ken Cuccinelli, former Trump staffer and chairman of the Election Transparency Initiative, led a session focused on “the Left’s attack on our election system” through “state-level attacks on election integrity legislation” and HR 1, the sweeping voting rights and campaign reform bill pending in Congress....Spakovsky, who was appointed by Trump to his voter fraud myth from the Right for well over a decade.president of the&nbsp; Scott Walter gave the keynote for a “Mapping the Left Lunch.” Walter and CRC received funding from the Bradley Foundation... ;inspired by CMD’s SourceWatch, called “Influence Watch.” The site was “constructed in partnership with Berman and Company,” run by PR spin doctor Richard Berman, and in collaboration with ALEC.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.influencewatch.org/about-us/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">// discover the networks</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/capital-research-center-employee-favorite-source-for-white-nationalist-smear-campaign-against-ahmaud-arbery/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">hite nationalists are championing a Capital Research Center employee who is at the forefront of an attempt to justify the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed black man killed by two white men while jogging earlier this year.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ashley Rae Goldenberg, an investigative reporter at CRC, has gained newfound attention from the far-right by taking part in an effort to smear Arbery and downplay his death after the Georgia Bureau of Investigation arrested father and son Gregory and Travis McMichael on charges of murder and aggravated assault ​last week. Goldenberg ​has advanced the idea that Arbery’s killers were justified in shooting him dead in the street, even going so far as to suggest that the government’s arrest of the two men was part of “race war” she claims has been playing out in the United States “for decades.” How Gold​enberg has reacted to Arbery’s death fits a pattern: far-right actors ​have ​long attempted to demonize ​black victims of ​violent crimes​ that have received national outrage.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">​The lethal actions of the McMichaels against Arbery have been described as vigilantism by the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia and other civil rights groups​. On the day that the GBI arrested the two white men—months after they admitted to Arbery’s killing—Goldenberg tweeted, “Vigilantism is good, actually.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Capital Research Center, Goldenberg’s employer, is a decades-old Beltway operation research outfit that targets nonprofit organizations it perceives to be liberal or anti-conservative, actively discouraging contributions to those groups. (Full​ disclosure: People for the American Way, Right Wing Watch’s parent organization, has been among CRC’s targets.​) The right-wing operation​, which has dubbed itself “America’s investigative think tank,” is funded largely by conservative megadonors and dark-money groups, including the behemoth Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. Its work, which includes a digital encyclopedia of liberal groups called Influence Watch and a handful of publications that ​take aim at liberal causes, is often cited in conservative media and ​the group is frequently present at major right-wing events such as ​the Conservative Political Action Conference. One CRC project, Dangerous Documentaries, contributed $500,000 to the production of “No Safe Spaces,” a film starring comedian Adam Carolla and right-wing commentator Dennis Prager about the supposed erosion of free speech on college campuses.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">White nationalist activists and media personalities​, including Unite the Right rally organizer Jason Kessler, anti-Semitic podcaster Nicholas Fuentes, far-right YouTuber Vincent James Foxx, and disgraced former Daily Caller editor Scott Greer, have shared Goldenberg’s online remarks alongside their own similar commentary on Arbery’s death. While Goldenberg’s Twitter account is publicly listed, meaning its content can be viewed and shared by anyone, Goldenberg has voiced explicit approval ​of, or sympathy for​, many of the figures now sharing her commentary about Arbery. On her publicly viewable “Communism Kills” Telegram channel, Goldenberg has shared and engaged with content from many of the same movement sources, including Fuentes, white nationalist organizer Patrick Casey, white nationalist organization VDARE, and far-right media personality Faith Goldy....</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">819 ggl recs soros</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">George Soros</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DECEPTION & MISDIRECTION</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Soros in Romania: Part 7</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Soros in Romania (Full Series) Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by JACOB GRANDSTAFF on FEBRUARY 21, 2018</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FOUNDATION WATCH</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">George Soros and His Incredible Growing Disinformation Foundation</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When leftist billionaire George Soros moves money, it’s bound to make waves. His latest move—depositing a gargantuan $18 billion to his Open Society Foundations (OSF)—has left many wondering…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by HAYDEN LUDWIG on OCTOBER 17, 2017</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DECEPTION & MISDIRECTION</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Price of Fleeing Middle America</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">New studies show that the gaps dividing Republicans and Democrats grew substantially under Barack Obama, and have only continued to expand under Donald Trump. But which side is fomenting…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by HAYDEN LUDWIG on OCTOBER 16, 2017</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LABOR WATCH</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The NFL Players Association Funds the Far-Left</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The National Football League Players Association (NFLPA), an AFL-CIO affiliate, has joined George Soros and a number of other ultra-wealthy, left-wing donors—including Planned Parenthood and the Kellogg…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by JACOB GRANDSTAFF on OCTOBER 9, 2017</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FOUNDATION WATCH</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Soros Dynasty: Like Father, Like Son</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alexander Soros, son of billionaire donor George Soros, has so far maintained a low profile in the nonprofit world. But now he appears to be following in his father’s…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by JACOB GRANDSTAFF on SEPTEMBER 28, 2017</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ORGANIZATION TRENDS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">George Soros Names New President of Open Society Foundations</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Billionaire investor and prominent left-wing funder George Soros named Patrick Gaspard, a former U.S. ambassador to South Africa and White House aide, as acting president of the Open Society…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by CHACE PAULSON on SEPTEMBER 18, 2017</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">UNCATEGORIZED</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Matthew Vadum Featured in The Daily Caller</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CRC Senior Vice President Matthew Vadum was cited in a piece by Richard Pollack in the Daily Caller. Left-wing billionaire George Soros claims to be a liberal fighting for…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by CRC STAFF on AUGUST 29, 2017</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FOUNDATION WATCH</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">George Soros Undermines Ukrainian Sovereignty</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The latest assault on the independence of Ukraine, a state long held in servitude to its Russian neighbor, comes from a pair of nonprofit organizations funded by George Soros.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by HAYDEN LUDWIG on AUGUST 25, 2017</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FOUNDATION WATCH</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hungary Launches PR Campaign Against Soros</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Hungarian government has launched a massive public relations campaign against billionaire George Soros’ stance on immigration. The campaign is the latest attempt by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by JACOB GRANDSTAFF on JULY 13, 2017</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FOUNDATION WATCH</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">George Soros, John McCain, and Immigration</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Senator John McCain’s Institute for International Leadership, formed from the remains of his failed 2008 presidential campaign, has accepted large donations from individuals and institutions infamously known for: Supporting the Clinton…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by JACOB GRANDSTAFF on JULY 10, 2017</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1 2 3 4 … 15 Next&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">p2</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FEATURED ITEMS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">U.S. State Department Goes to Bat for George Soros and the EU</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The recent rebuke issued by President Trump’s State Department shows that the influence of George Soros extends even into the highest ranks of the Republican Party. Despite Trump’s…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by JACOB GRANDSTAFF on JUNE 21, 2017</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FOUNDATION WATCH</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">True Believers: George Soros and the Religious Left’s War on President Trump</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Summary: “Resist!” is the battle cry of many Hillary Clinton supporters stung by their candidate’s unanticipated loss to Donald Trump. Elements of the religious left that draw funding from George…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by NEIL MAGHAMI on JUNE 7, 2017</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GREEN WATCH</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The People’s Masquerade Parade</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Over the weekend, the Left returned to Washington, D.C. to protest—on a temperate April day–the crisis of global warming. How little these doomsayers have changed since the last People’s Climate…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by HAYDEN LUDWIG on MAY 4, 2017</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DANGEROUS DOCUMENTARIES</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">An Interview with Trevor Loudon</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On January 19, exactly one day before the U.S. Presidential Inauguration, the Capital Research Center under our new film brand, Dangerous Documentaries, released our film America Under Siege: Civil…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by JOSEPH (JAKE) KLEIN on FEBRUARY 24, 2017</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FOUNDATION WATCH</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Soros and MasterCard join forces to profit from immigration</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Left-wing financier George Soros is planning to profit from the illegal immigration crises in the United States and the European Union that he was instrumental in creating. Soros traffics in…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by MATTHEW VADUM on JANUARY 25, 2017</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DECEPTION & MISDIRECTION</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">OUR SCOOP ON FOX NEWS: Trump Inauguration disrupters admit to planning ‘dance party’ on Mike Pence’s lawn</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The radical political operatives aspiring to disrupt Donald Trump’s inauguration next week are planning to throw a “dance party” on the lawn of Vice President-elect Mike Pence’s temporary home in…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by MATTHEW VADUM on JANUARY 13, 2017</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2016 CONVENTIONS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">David Brock group demands IRS hit Trump Foundation</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Brocktopus strikes again. A high-profile watchdog group controlled by Hillary Clinton ally David Brock is demanding the IRS investigate Donald Trump’s personal foundation for allegedly aiding his presidential campaign.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by MATTHEW VADUM on AUGUST 8, 2016</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FOUNDATION WATCH</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Seizing the Supreme Court</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Read the PDF version here Summary: The Ford Foundation, which long ago abandoned the conservatism of its benefactor, is trying to help the Left seize control of the U.S. Supreme…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by FRED LUCAS on JULY 1, 2016</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FOUNDATION WATCH</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Rise and Rise of America’s Suicide Lobby</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Rise and Rise of America’s Suicide Lobby George Soros and other funders use money, media, laws, and language to encourage fewer humans By Neil Maghami, Foundation Watch, March 2016…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by NEIL MAGHAMI on MARCH 29, 2016</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FOUNDATION WATCH</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lifting the Veil on the ‘Islamophobia’ Hoax</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lifting the Veil on the ‘Islamophobia’ Hoax By Matthew Vadum, Foundation Watch, December 2015 (PDF here) Summary:&nbsp; The purpose of this paper is not to indict Islam.&nbsp; It is…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by MATTHEW VADUM on NOVEMBER 30, 2015</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.desmogblog.com/capital-research-center</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Capital Research Center (CRC) was founded in 1984 by Willa Johnson to “study non-profit organizations, with a special focus on reviving the American traditions of charity, philanthropy, and voluntarism.” Prior to founding CRC, Willa Johnson had been Senior Vice President of the Heritage Foundation, then worked as Deputy Director of the Office of Presidential Personnel in the first Reagan administration, and as a legislative aide in both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives. [1], [2]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Capital Research Center believes that “Many charities and foundations now urge lawmakers to expand the powers of the welfare state, regulate the economy and limit individual freedoms.” [3]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As part of the conservative campaign to 'Defund the left' the Capital Research Center produces a range of publications targeting foundations, unions and activist groups that it views as supporting liberal causes. [4]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Capital Research Center's monthly publications include the following:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Organization Trends that reports on and analyzes the activities of advocacy organizations;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Labor Watch that scrutinizes union contributions and activism;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Foundation Watch that “examines the grantmaking of private foundations”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Compassion & Culture (discontinued in 2009), which highlighted the “work of small, locally based charities that help the needy.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Green Watch, which it describes as a project dedicated to “monitoring the leadership, activities and funding of the liberal environmentalist movement” [5]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Capital Research Center has also published Patterns in Corporate Philanthropy, which documents corporate donations to non-profit groups.&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Stance on Climate Change</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Years from now, when Global Warming theory is on the ashheap of history with supposed science like white supremacy, Piltdown Man, canals on Mars, Keynesianism, and N-rays, taxpayers will probably still be stuck paying for insane subsidies and mandates for ancient technologies repackaged as waves of the future—wind, solar, biofuels, dippy birds, whatever—and the I-Love-Science-When-It-Supports-My-Prejudices 'Progressives' will probably still be pushing policies like the Obama War on Coal, although, by then, they may have moved on to, say, a War on Fire conducted by the administration of President Chelsea Clinton or perhaps President Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky-Kennedy, who will get elected on an 'anti-dynasty' platform.” [6]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“As regular visitors to this space know well, there is no basis for the claim, put forth by President Obama and other radical environmentalists, that “97 percent” of scientists believe in Global Warming theory. They repeat this imaginary statistic over and over because, when it comes to real science, they got nuthin’.” [7]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Despite environmentalist claims of a 'consensus' on global warming, climate science is contentious.” [8]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Funding</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The following is based on data the Conservative Transparency project collected from publicly-available 990 tax returns. Note that not all funding values have been verified by DeSmog. See the attached spreadsheet for additional information on Capital Research Center funding by year (.xlsx). [11]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donor and Year<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Total</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sarah Scaife Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$6,150,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$2,653,320</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$650,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">William H. Donner Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$635,833</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">John M. Olin Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$617,500</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Philip M. McKenna Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$526,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Searle Freedom Trust<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$445,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lillian S. Wells Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$390,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donors Capital Fund<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$332,500</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hickory Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$301,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Stuart Family Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$257,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Scaife Family Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$255,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$245,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Exxon Mobil<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$225,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Carthage Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$225,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Earhart Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$222,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jaquelin Hume Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$175,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Randolph Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$173,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Rodney Fund<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$150,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Huizenga Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$115,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Roe Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$110,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">F.M. Kirby Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$110,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$95,888</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dodge Jones Foundatoin<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$90,500</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DonorsTrust<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$88,650</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bradley Impact Fund<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$73,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chase Foundation of Virginia<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$61,100</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Charlotte and Walter Kohler Charitable Trust<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$60,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Weiler Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$50,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Shelby Cullom Davis Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$42,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dorothy D. and Joseph A. Moller Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$35,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Armstrong Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$34,500</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Aequus Institute<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$32,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">JM Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$30,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Diana Davis Spencer Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$29,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Barbara and Barre Seid Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$25,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Arthur N. Rupe Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$25,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">National Christian Charitable Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$20,950</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Neal and Jane Freeman Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$20,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Brady Education Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$20,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">John William Pope Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$20,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pierre F. and Enid Goodrich Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$20,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Charles and Ann Johnson Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$15,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">True Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$11,200</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Windway Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$10,500</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Walton Family Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$10,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Vernon K. Krieble Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$9,500</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Richard Seth Staley Educational Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$7,500</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Joyce and Donald Rumsfeld Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$7,500</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Gordon and Mary Cain Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$6,500</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tepper Family Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$5,200</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DeVos Urban Leadership Initiative<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$5,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Vernon K. Krieble Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$4,500</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Floyd Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$2,750</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kickapoo Springs Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$2,500</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Legett Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$2,500</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Schwab Charitable Fund<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$2,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Challenge Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$1,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">William E. Simon Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$1,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Wodecroft Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$1,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lynn & Foster Friess Family Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$1,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">John Templeton Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$250</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">John P and Kathryn G Evans Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$150</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Grand Total<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$15,942,291</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tobacco Industry Funding</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">SourceWatch found that while the Capital Research Centre was critical of non-profit groups opposing smoking, it was also received funding from the tobacco industry including $50,000 from Philip Morris in 1995.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A 1997 internal briefing sheet on possible questions about PM funding of CRC stated “we have supported this organization for about ten years. Our level of support has averaged about $30,000 a year.” [12], [13]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ExxonMobil Funding</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to Greenpeace's ExxonSecrets, CRC received $265,000 from ExxonMobil since 1998. [9]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ExxonMobil announced that the Capital Research Center would be one of nine groups it would stop funding in 2008 that had been associated with global warming skepticism. Exxon had made a similar promise in 2007, but most of the organizations continued to receive funding. [10]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Koch Funding</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to the most recent data available from Greenpeace, the Capital Research Center has received at least $699,200 from Koch-related foundations between 1987 and 2015. [24]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Original tax forms prior to 1997 are no longer available for verification. If you include these values, the grand total jumps to $724,200 in Koch funding from 1987 to 2015. [24]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Year<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Charles Koch Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Grand Total</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1987<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$5,000<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$5,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1988<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$10,000<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$10,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1993<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$5,000<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$5,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1996<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$5,000<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$5,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1997<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$5,000<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$5,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1998<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$50,000<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$50,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2000<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$75,000<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$75,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2001<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$100,000<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$100,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2002<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$100,000<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$100,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2003<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$100,000<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$100,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2004<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$100,000<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$100,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2005<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$50,000<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$50,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2006<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$25,000<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$25,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2007<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$25,000<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$25,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2008<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$10,000<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$10,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2010<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$20,000<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$20,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2011<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$10,000<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$10,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2014<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$14,800<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$14,800</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2015<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$14,400<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$14,400</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Grand Total<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$74,200<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$650,000<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$724,200</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">990 Forms</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[15 doc 990's]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Key People</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The following people were listed on the Capital Research Center's website as of October, 2015. (Sourcewatch maintains records of past Board Members and notable previous staff): [14], [12]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Board of Trustees</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Terrence Scanlon, Chairman — Washington, DC, President, Capital Research Center</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gil Collins, Greenbrae, CA — Trustee, Intercollegiate Studies Institute</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Constance Larcher, Washington, DC — President and CEO, Washington Legal Foundation</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hon. Edwin Meese III, Washington, DC — Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow, The Heritage Foundation</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">William Meyersohn, Miami, FL — Real Estate Consultant</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Marion G. Wells, Ft. Lauderdale, FL — Trustee, The Heritage Foundation and The Intercollegiate Studies Institute</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Thomas S. Winter, Washington, DC — Editor-in-Chief, Human Events</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">National Advisory Board</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dr. Larry P. Arnn — President, Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, MI</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dr. John A. Baden — Chairman, Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment (FREE), Bozeman, MT</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Linda Chavez — Chairman, Center for Equal Opportunity, Falls Church, VA</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Midge Decter — Author, New York, NY</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Christopher Long — President, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Wilmington, DE</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Adam Meyerson — President, The Philanthropy Roundtable, Washington, DC</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kate O’Beirne — Former President, National Review Institute, Washington, DC</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">P.J. O’Rourke — Author and Columnist, Peterborough, NH</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dr. Marvin Olasky — Editor-in-Chief, World, Asheville, NC</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sally Pipes — President & CEO, Pacific Research Institute, San Francisco, CA</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Menlo Smith — CEO, Sunmark Capital Corporation, St. Louis, MO</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dr. Kenneth R. Weinstein — President & CEO, Hudson Institute, Washington, DC</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dr. Walter Williams — Professor of Economics, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Robert L. Woodson, Sr. — Founder & President, National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, Washington, DC</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Staff</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Terrence Scanlon — President</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Scott Walter — Executive Vice President</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dan Thompson — Director of Development</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Matthew Vadum — Senior Editor, Organization Trends and Foundation Watch</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Steven J. Allen — Senior Editor, Labor Watch and Green Watch</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jana Marie Erwin — Development Associate</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Christopher Krukewitt — Accountant</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tyler Stone — Office Manager</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tom Holt, appears to have been a past CRC “visiting fellow.” Holt has advocated legal reforms that would make it more difficult to sue corporations on the premise that “the consumer movement has imposed significant costs on industry–costs ultimately passed on to consumers–and has violated individual freedoms in a futile effort to protect us from our own actions and judgment.” [15]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Actions</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">May 8, 2017</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CRC, represented by Steven J. Allen, is listed on an open letter to President Donald J. Trump urging him “to withdraw fully from the Paris Climate Treaty and to stop all taxpayer funding of UN global warming programs.” [27]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DeSmog reported that the 40 groups represented in the letter, including the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), The Heartland Institute, and the Heritage Foundation, have received a combined total of millions of dollars from the Koch Brothers, ExxonMobil, and other industry groups. [28]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Analysis also showed that the groups accepted about $80 million through Donors Capital Fund and Donors Trust, two groups that have been confirmed is a key financial source for key U.S-based climate change denial groups. [29]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">February 22 - 25, 2017</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Capital Research Center was a Contributing Sponsor of the 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), among a range of other conservative and pro-industry groups. [25]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to CRC, their panels included “21st Century Labor Reform: A Better Way for Workers,” on February 23, “Revolt of the Deplorables: Inside Election 2016” on the 24, and “Is Political Correctness Killing U.S. Institutions?” on the 25. [26]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">April 1, 2015</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Capital Research Centre staff wrote an article defending Willie Soon, claiming that “Leftist politicians and the media try to blacklist scientists who are skeptical about Global Warming,” and that the outing of Soon's significant fossil fuel funding by groups like Greenpeace has been a “Witch-Hunt.” [16]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Willie Soon was criticized when Greenpeace obtained documents regarding his funding thorugh the Freedom of Information Act, revealing that there were at least 11 times that Soon failed to disclose fossil fuel funding in papers he had published between 2008 and 2015. [17]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">August, 2002</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Terrence Scanlon of CRC was a signatory to a letter to President Bush, applauding his decision not to attend the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Environmentally and socially irresponsible corporations and their operatives are lobbying the Administration to snub the Summit and halt any progress toward addressing environmental accountability and global climate change,” said Friends of the Earth President, Dr. Brent Blackwelder. [18]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">September, 2001</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the press release launching the Greenwatch site in the fall of 2001, Rep. Butch Otter (R-ID), called the groups included in the Greenwatch database “extremists,” and declared the purpose of the database was to “monitor and keep the extremists in check.” [19]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1990s</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Capital Research Center published studies criticizing charities such as the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association and the American Cancer Society for their anti-tobacco lobbying efforts. [20]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CRC was later criticized, and it was revealed that Phillip Morris had provided $50,000 in funding to the Capital Research Center. [21]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CRC has also published reports on the “Anti-Smoking Movement,” to which select PM staff were given advance copies. [22]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Capital Research Center Contact & Location</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As of June 2016, the Capital Research Center listed the following contact information on its website: [23]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Capital Research Center</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1513 16th Street, NW</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Washington, DC 20036</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(202) 483-6900</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(202) 483-6990 (fax)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Related Organizations</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to Greenpeace's ExxonSecrets, CRC is a former member of Alliance for America and is a past member of the Cooler Heads Coalition (CHC). [9]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Resources</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">7/18 txt screen grab:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Capital Research Center</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ABOUT</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;Capital Research Center was established in 1984 to examine how foundations, charities, and other nonprofits spend money and get involved in politics and advocacy, often in ways that donors never intended and would find abhorrent.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">From the start, CRC has exposed how those organizations are “captured” by interest groups and used to undermine Americans’ freedoms.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Today, we study unions, environmentalist groups, and a wide variety of nonprofit and activist organizations. We also keep an eye on crony capitalists who seek to profit by taking advantage of government regulations and by getting their hands on taxpayers’ money.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We’re not afraid to take on the Washington Establishment—Republican, Democrat, or anyone else.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CRC reports take the form of articles on this website, newspaper and magazine articles, and books. We’re also a source of information for commentators and people in the news media.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We do have a specific point of view. We believe in free markets, Constitutional government, and individual liberty. But facts are facts, and our journalists and researchers go where the facts lead them.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CRC is tax-exempt and fiercely independent. We perform no contract work and we accept no government funds—not one cent. We depend on voluntary contributions to fund our important work.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We are the Capital Research Center, “America’s investigative think tank.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Thanks for visiting!</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Media Contact</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To arrange a media interview please call:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Christine Ravold, Communications Officer, cravold@capitalresearch.org or directly at (202) 464-8871</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Capital Research Center’s main number at (202) 483-6900</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kristen Eastlick, Vice President of Programs and Communications, directly at (202) 464-2052</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[video scott w]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ARCHIVE</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PODCAST</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DONATE</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FEATURED ITEMS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Featured Video: Russia Meddled and Almost Nobody Cared, Until . . .</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Russia has been meddling in our elections for 70 years, so why re we talking about it differently this time? When heavily exaggerated claims of meddling are being used to discredit the results of a free and fair election, it only plays into Russia’s desires to diminish the credibility of our democracy and standing on the world stage. Learn about the Russian’s history of attempting to undermine American democracy in…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by CRC STAFF on JULY 17, 2018</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FEATURED ITEMS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Featured Video: How Google Could Fix an Election</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Research shows that search engines can manipulate people’s thoughts, feelings, and actions simply by changing the information that shows up. This includes the ability to change voting preferences and shift an election. How is this possible? It’s called the Search Engine Manipulation Effect. Learn how seemingly innocuous changes to Google search results can influence even informed voters in our video.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by CRC STAFF on JULY 17, 2018</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GREEN WATCH</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Woes of the Western Sage Grouse: Environmental Canary in the Coal Mine</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ask environmental activists who have filed litigation under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) what they find so lacking in local conservation efforts and you will get some creative answers that…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by KEVIN MOONEY on JULY 17, 2018</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GREEN WATCH</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Woes of the Western Sage Grouse: Party Divisions</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Western Watersheds Project, which is headquartered in Idaho, has joined with other well-endowed environmental advocacy groups to file suit against the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management and U.S.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by KEVIN MOONEY on JULY 17, 2018</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GREEN WATCH</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Woes of the Western Sage Grouse: Weaponizing the Endangered Species Act</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While there’s an argument to be made that the Gunnison sage grouse is a genetically distinct species from the greater sage grouse and has a different feather pattern and mating…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by KEVIN MOONEY on JULY 17, 2018</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Support Capital Research Center's award-winning journalism</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donate today to assist in promoting the principles of individual liberty in America.&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GREEN WATCH</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Woes of the Western Sage Grouse: Is Reform on the Way?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by KEVIN MOONEY on JULY 17, 2018</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ORGANIZATION TRENDS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Washington Post Mocks Female Litigator, Smears ADF with SPLC Reference</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by DANIEL LAUER on JULY 17, 2018</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ANTIFA</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Unmasking Antifa Using the Rule of Law</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by MATTHEW VADUM on JULY 13, 2018</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PHILANTHROPY</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Voluntary Sector Played Lead Role in Disaster Recovery Last Year</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by MARTIN MORSE WOOSTER on JULY 12, 2018</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PODCAST</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">InfluenceWatch Podcast Episode #32: Democratic Socialists of America</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by CRC STAFF on JULY 12, 2018</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GREEN WATCH, ORGANIZATION TRENDS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Required Donor Disclosure: A Threat to the First Amendment</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by CAROLINE DOWNEY on JULY 11, 2018</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ORGANIZATION TRENDS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Slaughterhouse Rules: Rights for Animals</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by HAYDEN LUDWIG on JULY 10, 2018</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ORGANIZATION TRENDS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Slaughterhouse Rules: Disregard for Human Life</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by HAYDEN LUDWIG on JULY 10, 2018</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ORGANIZATION TRENDS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Slaughterhouse Rules: Mercy Killings</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by HAYDEN LUDWIG on JULY 10, 2018</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp; FEATURED PUBLICATION</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CAPITAL RESEARCH MAGAZINE, ISSUE 5 2018</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DOWNLOAD PDF (2.8MB)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp; FEATURED TOPIC: ORGANIZATION TRENDS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Washington Post Mocks Female Litigator, Smears ADF with SPLC Reference</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Required Donor Disclosure: A Threat to the First Amendment</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Slaughterhouse Rules: Rights for Animals</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Slaughterhouse Rules: Disregard for Human Life</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Slaughterhouse Rules: Mercy Killings</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Slaughterhouse Rules: The Next Generation</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">VIEW ALL ORGANIZATION TRENDS ARTICLES</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NEWSLETTER SIGNUP</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FIRST NAME</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">First Name</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;LAST NAME</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Last Name</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;EMAIL</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Email Address</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CRC respects confidentiality and will not share your e-mail address. We look forward to keeping you informed.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;Capital Research Center</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Follow Us on Twitter&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Follow Us on Facebook&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Follow Us on YouTube</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">About Us</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Capital Research Center (CRC) was established in 1984 to promote a better understanding of charity and philanthropy. We support the principles of individual liberty, a free market economy and limited constitutional government: These are the cornerstones of American society.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LEARN MORE ABOUT US&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Contact Us</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Capital Research Center</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1513 16th Street, NW</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Washington, DC 20036</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(202) 483-6900</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(202) 483-6990 (fax)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">contact@capitalresearch.org</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Resources</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">About</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Archive</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Magazine</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tags</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Podcast</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donate</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">---</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">fellow</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Michael E. Hartmann</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Strategic Giving</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hartmann is senior fellow and director of the Center for Strategic Giving at the Capital Research Center. For more than 18 years, he served on the program staff of The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation in Milwaukee, including as its director of research. He assisted Bradley’s vice president for program in administering the foundation’s grantmaking in K-12 education, employee rights, economic growth and prosperity, energy and the environment, law and legal reform, equal opportunity and individual liberty, and family and society. He is a past visiting fellow of the Philanthropy Roundtable in Washington, D.C., where he researched and wrote Helping People to Help Themselves:&nbsp; A Guide for Donors. Before joining Bradley in 1998, he was director of research at the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School, Hartmann has published law-review articles on the constitutionality of school vouchers and aspects of welfare reform, as well as on the First Amendment and intellectual-property rights. He has also been a consultant to other foundations and education-reform organizations.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AUTHORED CONTENT</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">BOOK PROFILE</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Magazine Funding Skews Left. What Can Conservatives Do About It?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Article on July 9, 2018 by Michael E. Hartmann</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">BOOK PROFILE</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Philanthropy Against Democracy</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Article on June 11, 2018 by Michael E. Hartmann</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">COMMENTARY</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Featured Commentary: Lessons in Conservative Philanthropy</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Article on June 8, 2018 by Daniel P. Schmidt, Michael E. Hartmann</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PHILANTHROPY</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Humbling the Bumbling, Encumbering Numbering</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Article on May 4, 2018 by Michael E. Hartmann</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PHILANTHROPY</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ideas Cost More Than They Used To. How Will Policy Donors React?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Article on April 23, 2018 by Michael E. Hartmann</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">+ SEE ALL CONTENT BY MICHAEL E. HARTMANN</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Martin Morse Wooster</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Senior Fellow</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Wooster is a senior fellow at the Capital Research Center. He is the author of three books: Angry Classrooms, Vacant Minds (Pacific Research Institute, 1994), The Great Philanthropists and the Problem of ‘Donor Intent’ (Capital Research Center, 1994; revised 1998 and 2007), andGreat Philanthropic Mistakes (Hudson Institute, 2006; revised 2010). His monographs about philanthropy include Should Foundations Live Forever? (Capital Research Center, 1998), The Foundation Builders (Philanthropy Roundtable, 2000), Return to Charity? (Capital Research Center, 2000), By Their Bootstraps (Manhattan Institute, 2002), and Games Universities Play (Pope Center, 2011). His articles and reviews have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Washington Times, American Spectator, Chronicle of Philanthropy, Commentary, Elle, Air and Space, Esquire, Philanthropy, Policy Review, Reader’s Digest, Reason, and Washingtonian.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Wooster frequently comments on philanthropic issues for newspapers, magazines, and television in the U.S. and Great Britain. He has contributed to the Encyclopedia of Philanthropy, the Encyclopedia of Civil Rights, and Notable American Philanthropists.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Wooster was formerly an editor at The American Enterprise, Reason, the Wilson Quarterly, and Harper’s Magazine. He was graduated from Beloit College with degrees in history and philosophy.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Read all Philanthropy Daily posts published by Martin Morse Wooster.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AUTHORED CONTENT</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PHILANTHROPY</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Voluntary Sector Played Lead Role in Disaster Recovery Last Year</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Article on July 12, 2018 by Martin Morse Wooster</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PHILANTHROPY</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Charter School Funders: Look Out for “Turnaround Consultants”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Article on July 3, 2018 by Martin Morse Wooster</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PHILANTHROPY</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Funders Who Understand Regional Differences are Better Suited to Help</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Article on June 21, 2018 by Martin Morse Wooster</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FOUNDATION WATCH</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A Sweeter Future: Philanthropies Adrift in Philadelphia</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Article on June 12, 2018 by Martin Morse Wooster</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FOUNDATION WATCH</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A Sweeter Future: Deviating from Intent</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Article on June 12, 2018 by Martin Morse Wooster</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">+ SEE ALL CONTENT BY MARTIN MORSE WOOSTER</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">bd:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Board of Trustees</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MICHAEL FRANC</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Hoover Institution</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HON. EDWIN MEESE III</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fellow, The Heritage Foundation</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WILLIAM MEYERSOHN</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Real Estate Consultant</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ERIC O’KEEFE</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chairman, Citizens for Self-Governance</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">THOMAS S. WINTER</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Editor-in-Chief, Human Events</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GIL COLLINS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trustee emeritus. Trustee, Intercollegiate Studies Institute</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MARION G. WELLS†</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1926-2016</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">adv bd</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">National Advisory Board</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DR. LARRY P. ARNN</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President, Hillsdale College</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DR. JOHN A. BADEN</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chairman, Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment (FREE)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LINDA CHAVEZ</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chairman, Center for Equal Opportunity</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MIDGE DECTER</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Author</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CHRISTOPHER LONG</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trustee, Intercollegiate Studies Institute</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ADAM MEYERSON</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President, The Philanthropy Roundtable</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">KATE O’BEIRNE†</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1949-2017</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">P.J. O’ROURKE</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Author and Columnist</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DR. KENNETH R. WEINSTEIN</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President & CEO, Hudson Institute</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DR. WALTER WILLIAMS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Professor of Economics, George Mason University AA</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ROBERT L. WOODSON, SR.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Founder & President, National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise AA</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">google ad #1 result</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Capital Research Center</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://capitalresearch.org/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“This is one film that Hollywood would never produce.” ~ Adam Carolla and Dennis Prager No Safe Spaces, a… Podcast ...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">‎</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">About · ‎Organization Trends · ‎The Battle for the Bench · ‎Demand Justice, How?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Capital Research Center - Wikipedia</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_Research_Center</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Capital Research Center (CRC) is an American conservative non-profit organization and watchdog group located in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1984 by ...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">‎</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">History · ‎Publications and policy ...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Capital Research Center - SourceWatch</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Capital_Research_Center</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Capital Research Center (CRC) is a right-wing "think tank" whose stated mission is to do "opposition research" exposing the funding sources behind ...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">‎</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mission · ‎Ties to the Bradley ... · ‎CRC Hosts State Labor ... · ‎Funding</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Top stories</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Woes of the Western Sage Grouse: Party Divisions</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Capital Research Center · 3 hours ago</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Woes of the Western Sage Grouse: Weaponizing the Endangered Species Act</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Capital Research Center · 3 hours ago</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">More for capital research center</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Capital Research Center - Home | Facebook</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.facebook.com › ... › Community Organization</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Capital Research Center, Washington, DC. 30K likes. We study unions, environmentalist groups, and a wide variety of nonprofit and activist organizations...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Capital Research Center - Media Bias/Fact Check</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/capital-research-center/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Aug 28, 2017 - Notes: Capital Research Center (CRC) is a non-profit, right wing “think tank” organization located in Washington, D.C. Capital Research Center ...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Capital_Research_Center</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Capital Research Center (CRC) is a right-wing "think tank" whose stated mission is to do "opposition research" exposing the funding sources behind consumer, health and environmental groups. CRC is an associate member of the State Policy Network, a web of right-wing “think tanks” and tax-exempt organizations in 49 states, Puerto Rico, Washington, D.C., and the United Kingdom.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Mission</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>News and Controversies</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2.1<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>CRC Launches Copy of CMD's Sourcewatch</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">3<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Ties to the Bradley Foundation</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">3.1<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>CRC and Richard Berman's Interstate Policy Alliance Consult for Bradley on Right-Wing "Infrastructure" Investments</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">3.2<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Opposition Research On CMD and the "Left"</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">3.3<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>CRC Hires Former Bradley VP</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">4<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>"Defund the Left" Campaign</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">5<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Dangerous Documentaries</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">6<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>CRC Hosts State Labor Reform Conference</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">7<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Ties to the Coal Industry</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">8<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Ties to the Tobacco Industry</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">9<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Ties to Berman and Company</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">10<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>History</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">11<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Funding</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">11.1<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Grants</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">11.2<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Corporate sponsors</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">11.2.1<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>ExxonMobil</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">12<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Core Finances</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">13<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Personnel</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">14<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Contact Information</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">15<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Resources</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">15.1<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>IRS Form 990 Filings</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">16<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Reference</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mission</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The CRC was founded in 1984 by Willa Johnson. Prior to founding CRC Johnson had been Senior Vice President of the Heritage Foundation, then worked as Deputy Director of the Office of Presidential Personnel in the first Reagan administration, and as a legislative aide in both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives. [1]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In his book American Foundations, Mark Dowie cites Johnson writing in the CRC's 1991 annual report that "a unified, sophisticated and well-funded philanthropic elite is dedicated to imposing on us the doctrine of 'progressive' philanthropy, doctrines that would reorder our political, economic and cultural priorities".</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"This movement, driven by a bankrupt ideology, long since disproved by history, would impose its own standards of 'social justice' based on more involvement of government in philanthropy and more involvement of charities in politics. It has lost faith in the traditional American values of individual responsibility and free choice, to say nothing of the diversity in the marketplace of ideas," she wrote.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CRC Hires Former Bradley VP</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Former Vice President for Programs at the Bradley Foundation, Michael Hartmann, now works for Capital Research Center (CRC) as a Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Strategic Giving. According to Hartmann’s twitter profile, he is working remotely out of Milwaukee. While Hartmann was at Bradley, it paid CRC to work with the PR spin doctor Richard Berman’s Interstate Policy Alliance (IPA) to assess states for consideration as “potential targets of opportunity” to strengthen its infrastructure investments.[4]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">An internal email from Hartmann to Bradley CEO Michael Grebe states that CRC President Scott Walter recruited Hartmann,</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"As discussed, new Capital Research Center (CRC) president Scott Walter has been in discussions with me ways about in which I could perhaps contribute to CRC's work...It would include compensation from CRC."[5]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dangerous Documentaries</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CRC creates what the organizations calls "Dangerous Documentaries". A separate "dangerousdocumentaries.com" website says that Dangerous Documentaries "serves as the media arm of the Washington, D.C. based Capital Research Center," "with the mission of spreading the ideas of liberty, including free speech, free markets, individual rights, and open and fair-minded political discourse.[6]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Documentaries include the "America Under Siege" which "investigates the growing influence of revolutionary Marxists and their allies in different sectors of American society."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“America Under Siege: Civil War 2017”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While 700,000 protesters are converging on Washington D.C. for Inauguration Day—in addition to anti-Trump rallies planned in dozens of cities across the country—the political groups behind the protests remain shrouded in mystery.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"As Fox News Channel first reported, “Civil War 2017” uncovers an extensive network of neo-Marxist operatives coordinating highly disruptive and potentially violent protests from coast to coast.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“America Under Siege: Soviet Islam”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Beginning in the Cold War and continuing through to today, the Kremlin has armed, trained, and supported these Islamists and dictators to advance a frightening goal: subverting their shared American enemy.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CRC Hosts State Labor Reform Conference</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mary Bottari reports in "Bradley Foundation Bankrolls Attacks on Unions" as part of the Bradley Files investigation,</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The “State Labor Reform Conference” on October 4, 2013, was hosted by the Capital Research Center (CRC), bringing together “75 state policymakers, policy researchers and analysts, and activists from 15 states” (Meeting of the Bradley IRA Committee, 11/12/13). The president of CRC is Scott Walter, a former employee of Berman and Company.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The list of participants is a “who’s who” of anti-union activists and organizations funded by Bradley (Meeting of the Bradley IRA Committee, 11/12/13).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Grover] Norquist was there again and so was Kersey. On a panel called “Coalition and Communication,” PR spin doctor Richard Berman of Berman and Co. was there “representing” his front group Center for Union Facts, discussed further below. Jonathan Williams was there representing the the corporate bill mill, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jennifer Butler, VP of External Relations of the State Policy Network (SPN), was there. SPN groups operate as the policy, communications, and litigation arm of ALEC, giving its cookie-cutter bills a sheen of academic legitimacy and state-based support.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a panel called “Lessons from Wisconsin,” “Wisconsin Secretary of Administration Mike Huebsch, delivered lessons that Wisconsin has learned on labor-policy and public-pension reform and talked about how Wisconsin can be a good model for other states and localities” (Meeting of the Bradley IRA Committee, 11/12/13). Also presenting, Brett Healy of the Bradley-funded MacIver Institute and Jennifer Toftness from Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos’ office.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a panel called “Lessons from Michigan,” F. Vincent Vernuccio, Director of Labor Policy for the Mackinac Center, was featured along with Terry Bowman, from a group called Union Conservatives, and Patrick Colbeck, Republican State Senator from Michigan.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There was also a panel on “Preventing and Responding to Legal Challenges” with Raymond LaJeunesse, VP and Legal Director for the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The final panel, “Beyond Right to Work,” featured newcomer James Sherk from the Heritage Foundation. Sherk has worked on a new strategy to defund unions at the local level, with ALEC-style “right to work” ordinances. He was in Wisconsin in 2015 testifying on behalf of ALEC’s private-sector verbatim “right to work bill” and candidly testified that it would “drive down labor costs,” also known as wages. Sherk recently got a job in the Trump White House as a labor advisor. Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, and Earl Taylor of the Goldwater Institute also presented."[7]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ties to the Coal Industry</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CRC has received large donations from pro-fossil fuel groups like Exxon and the Koch Family Foundations through its Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation.[8] In November 2010, CRC published a report criticizing the Sierra Club for its work in transitioning the US away from coal plants, portraying it as an attack on "American prosperity."[9]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Funding</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CRC claims that exposing the funding of these groups is important because "sunshine--the glare of public scrutiny--is 'the best of all disinfectants.'" But CRC doesn't seem to think its own hidden agenda should receive public scrutiny. The CRC website does not give any indicator of where it gets its own funding, and it has not responded to queries from PR Watch staff. However, some of CRC's funders are publicly disclosed through IRS filings or other means.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Grants</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bradley Impact Fund: $63,000 (2013-2015)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Charles Koch Foundation: $39,200 (2011 -2015)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation: $660,000 (1998-2008)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donors Capital Fund: $213,000 (2010-2015)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DonorsTrust: $27,500 (2010-2014)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation: $2.5 million (1998-2015)[3]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Corporate sponsors</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ExxonMobil</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While CRC publications identify corporate funding of what they perceive as liberal non-profit groups, they do not disclose their own corporate sponsors. However, voluntary disclosures and documents revealed as a result of court actions provide a small window into how CRC interacts with corporations. In 2002, ExxonMobil donated $25,000 to the CRC for the Green Watch project with another $25,000 in 2003, according to corporate giving reports no longer available on Exxon's website, but still available via ExxonSecrets.org. "Capital Research Center and Greenwatch has received $215,000 from ExxonMobil since 1998," and up to 2006, according to ExxonSecrets. [11] According to Exxon's website, the oil company gave another $50,000 in 2007, for "public information and policy research." [12]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Core Finances</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_Research_Center</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Capital Research Center</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1513 16th Street, NW.JPG</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Capital Research Center offices located in Washington, D.C.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Formation<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>1984</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Founder<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Willa Johnson</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Type<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Nonprofit organization</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Headquarters<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Washington, D.C., United States</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Services<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Study of charity, philanthropy, voluntarism</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Official language</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">English</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Revenue (2015)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$2,561,903[1]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Expenses (2015)<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$2,030,597[1]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Website<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>capitalresearch.org</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Capital Research Center (CRC) is an&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">American conservative non-profit organization and watchdog group located in Washington, D.C.[2][3] It was founded in 1984 by Willa Johnson "to study non-profit organizations, with a special focus on reviving the American traditions of charity, philanthropy, and voluntarism." According to the organization, the group supports "free markets, constitutional government, and individual liberty."[4] It discourages donations by corporations to non-profits supporting what it sees as anti-business or left-wing policies.[5] It monitors the giving of major left-wing donors in the U.S.[3]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>History</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Publications and policy stances</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">3<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Movie production</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">4<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>References</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">5<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>External links</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">History[edit]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CRC was founded in 1984 by Willa Johnson, former senior vice president of the Heritage Foundation, Deputy Director of the Office of Presidential Personnel in the first Reagan administration, and a legislative aide in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. CRC's current president is Scott Walter, a former Special Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy in the George W. Bush administration, and former vice president of the Philanthropy Roundtable.[6]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Journalist and author Marvin Olasky previously served as a senior fellow at CRC.[7]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2011, Politico reported that CRC had received millions of dollars from conservative philanthropists over the years, but that "its total 2009 budget of $1.4 million was dwarfed by those of Media Matters ($9.5 million) and CAP ($47 million)."[8] Donors have included foundations run by the Koch family, the Scaifes, and the Bradleys. As of 2005, CRC had received $115,000 from ExxonMobil.[9]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">David Clarke, the former sheriff of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, is the chair of CRC's American Law and Culture program.[10][11]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Publications and policy stances[edit]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CRC has been highly critical of animal rights activists and the environmental movement. In 2006, it published The Green Wave: Environmentalism and Its Consequences, a book by Dr. Bonner Cohen. In 2007, it published the third edition of The Great Philanthropists and the Problem of "Donor Intent" by Martin Morse Wooster, a senior fellow at the Center. In 2008, it published Guide to Nonprofit Advocacy, by James Dellinger. The CRC said Al Gore's campaign to control carbon emissions is motivated by the likelihood that he will make an "immense fortune" if laws are passed to control them;[12] argues that organized labor is bad for America;[13] and has criticized government efforts to weaken intellectual property protection of prescription medications.[14]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Movie production[edit]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CRC has a movie production arm called Dangerous Documentaries, which partially funded No Safe Spaces, a movie by Adam Carolla and radio host Dennis Prager about political correctness on college campuses.[15][16]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">References[edit]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">^ Jump up to:a b "Capital Research Center" (PDF). Foundation Center. 28 August 2016. Retrieved 25 April 2017.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jump up^ Vogel, Kenneth; Debenedetti, Gabriel (January 18, 2017). "Dems jockey for big money control". Politico. Retrieved 25 March 2018.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">^ Jump up to:a b Vogel, Kenneth; Vinik, Danny (November 1, 2016). "Podesta paid $7,000 a month by top donor". Politico. Retrieved 25 March 2018.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jump up^ CRC's "About" Page</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jump up^ Barr, Stephen (July 2, 1997). "12 Foundations Push Conservative Agenda; $210 Million Given Over 3 Years". The Washington Post. p. A.21.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jump up^ "CRC Staff Biographies". Capital Research Center.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jump up^ Eig, Jonathan (3 July 1994). "Strains of compassion; Frustration over rising homelessness leads some cities to limit panhandling, reduce aid". The Dallas Morning News.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jump up^ Vogel, Kenneth (3 April 2011). "Right seeks edge in 'oppo' wars". Politico. Archived from the original on 7 April 2011. Retrieved 31 May2011.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jump up^ "Put a Tiger In Your Think Tank". Mother Jones. May 2005.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jump up^ Bice, Daniel (February 23, 2018). "Bice: Former Sheriff David Clarke files for divorce in Milwaukee County". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved 25 March 2018.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jump up^ "Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr". Premiere Speakers Bureau. Retrieved 25 March 2018.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jump up^ Lucas, Fred (24 July 2008). "Al Gore's Carbon Empire: Cashing in on Climate Change" (PDF). Capital Research Center. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 February 2012.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jump up^ Reitz, Michael (June 2008). "When Unions Negotiate With Governments – What Should the Public Know, When Should They Know It?" (PDF). Labor Watch. Capital Research Center. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-11-28.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jump up^ Crow, Karl (January 2008). "The New War on Drugs – Activists and Politicians Attack Intellectual Property Rights" (PDF). Organization Trends. Capital Research Center. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-11-27.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jump up^ Bond, Paul (May 24, 2017). "Adam Carolla Launches Crowdfunding Campaign for 'No Safe Spaces' Movie". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 25 March 2018.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jump up^ Acevedo, Yoselin (May 25, 2017). "Adam Carolla Crowdfunding for Anti–Safe Spaces Documentary — Watch". Indie Wire. Retrieved 25 March 2018.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">External links[edit]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Official website</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Organizational Profile – National Center for Charitable Statistics (Urban Institute)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">show</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">vte</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">American think tanks</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Categories: Political and economic think tanks in the United StatesNon-profit organizations based in Washington, D.C.Think tanks established in 1984Conservatism in the United States</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div>