FACT fnd acct & civic trust

=<div>---</div><div><a href="https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2020/04/22/fec-complaint-alleges/">https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2020/04/22/fec-complaint-alleges/</a></div><div>
</div><div><div>no lnx</div><div>
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</div><div>FEC complaint alleges a Utah candidate illegally coordinated with outside group to attack Rep. Chris Stewart</div><div>
</div><div>(J. Scott Applewhite | AP file photo) In this Sept. 19, 2019, file photo, Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, leaves a meeting with national intelligence inspector general Michael Atkinson about a whistleblower complaint, at the Capitol in Washington.</div><div>
</div><div>By Thomas Burr</div><div> · </div><div>Published: April 22</div><div>Updated: April 23, 2020</div><div>
</div><div>Washington • Just days before the Utah Republican Convention, a watchdog group is filing a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging a congressional candidate in Utah illegally accepted an in-kind contribution by coordinating with an outside group to attack Rep. Chris Stewart.</div><div>
</div><div>Foundation for Accountability & Civic Trust (FACT) says in a letter to the FEC that a person once identified as a campaign manager and spokesman for Republican challenger Mary Burkett’s campaign was behind a mass anti-Stewart text message from a group called Stronger America Fund Inc. Stewart is a fellow Republican.</div><div>
</div><div>Stronger America Fund Inc., based in the District of Columbia, lists Patrick Krason as its founder and “governor.” Krason is also listed as the treasurer of Burkett’s campaign and had been identified as a campaign manager and spokesman in news releases.</div><div>
</div><div>Federal law prohibits coordination between campaigns and political advocacy groups registered as nonprofits — which can take in unlimited funds from contributors and corporations without identifying their donors.</div><div>
</div><div>“There is reason to believe Stronger America Fund made, and Burkett and Burkett for Utah accepted, an illegal in-kind contribution in the form of a coordinated communication,” the complaint to the FEC says.</div><div>
</div><div>“The two entities both appear to be affiliated with the same individual during the time Stronger America Fund disseminated and paid for a communication beneficial to Burkett,” the complaint continues. “If so, it would constitute an illegal in-kind contribution to Burkett’s campaign. We request the Commission immediately investigate and if a violation is found, act immediately and impose appropriate penalties.”</div><div>
</div><div>The complaint stems from a text message apparently sent earlier this month urging GOP delegates to oust Stewart from office for voting to raise the nation's debt limit while in office.</div><div>
</div><div>“Anybody else would be a better choice at convention,” the text reads, adding that it was paid for by Stronger America Fund, Inc. and not authorized or paid for by any campaign.</div><div>
</div><div>Burkett, of St. George, is running a second time for the 2nd Congressional District seat held by Stewart.</div><div>
</div><div>She said the accusations against her “are false. Neither I, nor my campaign, have ever coordinated with any outside group.”</div><div>
</div><div>She said Wednesday that Krason had worked on her campaign but left its payroll in November and now is a volunteer. Burkett adds that she had no knowledge of the text message that went out from the group tied to Krason.</div><div>
</div><div>Burkett, who had previously posted on Facebook that she had nothing to do with the text message and reiterated that Wednesday, said the irony is that she’s being attacked for something she didn’t do.</div><div>
</div><div>“He's doing the very thing he accused me of doing, by the way,” Burkett said of Stewart. “He accused me of hiding behind a third group. He's doing exactly what he accused me of. And I had nothing to do with it.”</div><div>
</div><div>Burkett says she had “absolutely” no involvement in the text message that was sent and went online as soon as she heard about it to ask the group to stop attacking Stewart.</div><div>
</div><div>She says the FEC complaint shows “Chris is vulnerable and he knows it.”</div><div>
</div><div>“A Washington, D.C., group questioning a little grassroots campaign in southern Utah?” she said. “Come on. You know, this had to come from Chris’ people somehow, someway.”</div><div>
</div><div>FACT says it was filing the complaint on its own and not in concert with Stewart's campaign.</div><div>
</div><div>Stewart’s campaign said it was unaware of the complaint and was not involved.</div><div>
</div><div>Stewart won the GOP nomination in 2010 under what his competitors complained were questionable circumstances surrounding allegations of collusion against other candidates.</div><div>
</div><div>Then-Eureka Mayor Milt Hanks, who was vying for the open seat, alleged right before delegates began casting ballots that four contenders had conspired to drop negative information about Stewart — charges that those candidates denied and claimed was foul play by Stewart’s camp.</div><div>
</div><div>Other candidates running for the GOP nod alleged Hanks was a Stewart plant who had never spent any money in the race and then made unsubstantiated, 11th-hour allegations. A Utah Republican Party investigation overseen by then-Chairman Thomas Wright found no criminal wrongdoing, but did chastise Hanks.</div><div>
</div><div>FACT, which touts itself as a group “dedicated to promoting accountability, ethics, and transparency in government and civic arenas," says it is nonpartisan and has filed complaints against Democrats and Republicans.</div><div>
</div><div>The group came into the national spotlight when its former president, Matt Whitaker, was named acting attorney general after the resignation of Jeff Sessions. Whitaker, a former U.S. attorney, had led FACT, which The Washington Post said “is part of a national network of nonprofits that often work in concert to amplify conservative messages.”</div><div>
</div><div>Whitaker received more than $1.2 million during his three years as the head of the nonprofit.</div><div>
</div><div>The Post reported that FACT's address in D.C.'s K Street is a virtual office and mailing address shared by 200 other organizations.</div><div>
</div><div>The FEC now has only three of the six commission seats filled, meaning it can still investigate complaints filed with the agency but lacks a quorum to issue fines or make rulings.</div></div><div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div></div><div></div><div><a href="https://truthout.org/articles/one-six-figure-donor-funds-whitaker-nonprofit-with-dark-money/">https://truthout.org/articles/one-six-figure-donor-funds-whitaker-nonprofit-with-dark-money/</a></div><div>
</div><div>A single six-figure donor accounted for 100 percent of funding raised by a nonprofit run by acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker before he became Jeff Sessions’ chief of staff last year, new tax documents obtained by the Center for Responsive Politics reveal.</div>President Trump tapped Whitaker to become acting Attorney General earlier in November after Jeff Sessions was asked to resign.The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) is a self-proclaimed 501(c)(3) “watchdog” nonprofit.This is not the first year a single big donor has accounted for the entirety of FACT’s funding, according to an exclusive new analysis by CRP. Nearly 100 percent of FACT’s funding — all but a few dollars in interest accrued on money left-over from prior years — came from a single anonymous donor again in 2015, 2016 and again last year.CRP <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2016/04/new-nonprofit-tied-to-stealthy-circle-of-dark-money-groups/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; cursor: pointer; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">discovered FACT’s first tax return back in 2016</a>, revealing its funding — $600,000 for <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5205295-FACT-2014-990.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; cursor: pointer; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">2014</a>, its first year of operation — came entirely from a donor-advised fund called <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2783557-Donors-Trust-2014-990.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; cursor: pointer; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">DonorsTrust</a>, which acts as a pass-through vessel managing the money flow from wealthy individuals and foundations to nonprofit organizations while allowing the donors to remain anonymous. Beneficiaries of DonorsTrust include a breadth of conservative and libertarian initiatives. Due to DonorsTrust’s design, although CRP is able to reveal the direct funder of FACT by piecing together grants from different tax returns, the ultimate donor remains hidden.New tax returns obtained by CRP show that wasn’t the only time DonorsTrust was FACT’s main funder. In fact, DonorsTrust accounted for 100 percent of FACT’s income from donations again in <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5205291-FACT-2015-990.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; cursor: pointer; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">2015</a>, in <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5205292-FACT-2016-990.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; cursor: pointer; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">2016</a> and its <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5205281-FACT-2017-990.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; cursor: pointer; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">most recent tax return</a> — meaning Whitaker’s organization that claimed to be “dedicated to promoting accountability, ethics, and transparency” has gotten all of its funds from a group that exists mainly as a vehicle for donors to elude transparency every year since its inception.
deep Ties to Dark Money NetworksIn their application for tax-exempt status, FACT — then called the Free Market America Educational Foundation — told the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that its purpose was to “conduct research and provide informational studies on free market concepts in relation to environmental regulations and policy.” The IRS approved the group’s application for tax-exempt charity status on July 21, 2014, according to its <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5218962-FACT-Determination-Letter.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; cursor: pointer; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">determination letter</a>.Tax-exempt status in hand, the nonprofit changed its address to a UPS store and its name just weeks later, according to Virginia incorporation records. The nonprofit changed its name again that October, first to the Working for Rights to Express & Communication before finally landing on its current name — ultimately changing its name three times in the months following IRS approval for tax-exempt status, twice in just one day. That month, Whitaker, took control of the organization after losing his bid for a U.S. Senate seat in Iowa.  As the Free Market America Educational Foundation, the group was started by Ray Wotring, an operative who had long ago been tied to another <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2012/06/rich-rewards-one-mans-shadow-money-network/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; cursor: pointer; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">shadowy network of politically active nonprofits</a>. Wotring also served on another conservative nonprofit, Americans for Limited Government, which has close financial ties to the network and shared the same UPS story mailing address as FACT’s first iteration as the Free Market America Educational Foundation as well as Free Market America’s 501(c)(4) nonprofit arm.Free Market America’s nonprofit arm has remained active and began to spend on <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?id=F226770%20%20%20&year=2018" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: pointer; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">lobbying</a> in 2018, reporting six-figure spending.FACT’s dark money ties don’t end there.The treasurer and a member of the board of directors at FACT is <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2016/04/new-nonprofit-tied-to-stealthy-circle-of-dark-money-groups/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; cursor: pointer; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">Neil Corkery</a>. Corkery, along with his wife Ann, sit at the helm of a network of conservative “dark money” groups organized to influence public policy and has become a <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2017/03/wellsprings-dark-money-crucial-to-trump-orbit/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; cursor: pointer; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">key player</a> promoting Trump’s agenda.The network has become well-known for the <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2017/03/wellsprings-dark-money-crucial-to-trump-orbit/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; cursor: pointer; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">Judicial Crisis Network</a>(JCN), a nondisclosing group that emerged as the predominant dark money spender in Supreme Court confirmation fights since its <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2016/04/new-nonprofit-tied-to-stealthy-circle-of-dark-money-groups/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; cursor: pointer; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">launch</a> in 2005, allowing deep-pocketed donors to funnel <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2017/03/wellsprings-dark-money-crucial-to-trump-orbit/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; cursor: pointer; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">millions</a> of dollars opposing or supporting judicial nominees, including a <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2018/06/kennedys-resignation-sparks-seven-figure-ad-campaigns-from-conservative-liberal-groups/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; cursor: pointer; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">pledge</a> to spent $10 million on the <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2018/10/facebook-ads-kavanaugh-confirmation-swing-states/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; cursor: pointer; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">confirmation</a> of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. JCN’s primary benefactor over the years has been the Wellspring Committee, an even more opaque nonprofit run by the Corkerys that accounted for over 80 percent of its total revenue in 2016.Many of the groups tied to the network list the same address as their office, with different “suite” numbers. In reality, the address is also a UPS store and the suite numbers are PO boxes.<h2 style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 3rem 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; line-height: 1.2; background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248);">Links to Trump’s Mysterious Inaugural Donor</h2>In addition to its ostensible political spending fueled by secret donors, disclosures by groups in the Corkery’s network have also raised question about other vehicles of influence behind the scenes, most notably in ties to a <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2018/05/mystery-gift-to-trump-inauguration-from-conservative-activists/" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); box-sizing: inherit; cursor: pointer; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">$1 million gift</a> to President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee from a mysterious Northern Virginia company called BH Group, LLC.Little is known about the LLC other than the seven-figure check on Dec. 22, 2016, almost a month before President Trump was sworn in, and a trail of clues pieced together from tax documents and other disclosures.These <a href="https://www.mcclatchydc.com/latest-news/article210176219.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: pointer; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">clues</a> have also led to Leonard Leo, the executive vice president at the Federalist Society, who listed “BH Group” as his employer in a <a href="http://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/forms/C00669069/1222738/sa/11AI" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: pointer; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">filing</a>with the Federal Election Commission.Tax documents previously obtained by CRP show that the Wellspring Committee made a <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2018/05/group-that-spent-millions-to-boost-gorsuch-also-paid-mysterious-inaugural-donor/" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: pointer; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">$750,000 payment</a> to BH Group for “public relations” and that JCN made an additional cash infusion of <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4463990-Judicial-Crisis-Network-990-2016-2017.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: pointer; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">$947,000</a>to the BH Group around when the LLC made its inaugural donation.New <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5188744-Judicial-Education-Project-2017-990.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; cursor: pointer; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">tax documents</a> first obtained by Maplight and reviewed by CRP reveal that Judicial Education Project, JCN’s sister 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, paid an additional $1.3 million to BH Group LLC last year.As a 501(c)(3) organization, Judicial Education Fund is not required to reveal its donors and chooses to keep them secret. However, CRP has been able to trace the source of the bulk of the group’s 2017 funding. Like FACT, Judicial Education Fund received millions of dollars coming from DonorsTrust accounting for more than 99 percent of the group’s funding.That newly revealed payment from Judicial Education Fund brings the total known income for the BH Group to more than $3 million, according to CRP’s analysis — over three times the $1 million it gave to President Trump’s inaugural committee and raising more questions about its other activities that have yet to be reported.<h2 style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 3rem 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; line-height: 1.2; background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248);">Whitaker’s Watchdog</h2>FACT’s own activities since 2014 have largely revolved around legal and ethics complaints, mostly targeting Democrats and with a particularly aggressive focus on Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election.FACT has paid more than half-a-million dollars to Republican opposition research firm America Rising LLC, according to its most recent three tax returns.FACT raised just over $3.4 million since it was conceived in 2014, according to tax filings obtained by CRP. Whitaker’s salary accounts for more than a third of FACT’s entire revenue since its exception, making him its single largest expense.Whitaker received more than $1.2 million from FACT over the three years he led the organization, according to CRP’s analysis of the group’s tax returns, with the salary he drew from FACT rising precipitously — in some cases increasing by more than six-figures with each passing year.Whitaker made $502,000 in 2017 — around half of FACT’s spending — despite having left the organization to take a position at the Justice Department as then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ chief of staff in September of that year.[graph]FACT provided the vast majority of Whitaker’s income for the entire span of time covered by his financial disclosures on file with the Office of Government Ethics and released by the Justice Department the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, following weeks of scrutiny and multiple requests.Whitaker’s selection as acting Attorney General has been contested on multiple fronts, and the release of his financial disclosures has only fueled the dumpster fire.Disclosures revealed that Whitaker’s unsuccessful 2014 campaign received four donations totaling $8,800 this year — years after he lost the election and just months after he joined the Justice Department. The donations were the only money the campaign has received in over two years, raising questions about the potential implications of the donations under the Hatch Act, a federal law that generally prohibits federal officials from knowingly soliciting or accepting campaign donations and a separate Justice Department memo further restricting political activity by its personnel in the hopes of keeping the agency as apolitical as possible.A provision of the Hatch Act allows officials to raise money to retire campaign debt, but the campaign’s only reported spending was 2018 were $228 to reimburse “data services” and $500 to Whitaker’s old law firm for renting office space, according to the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/20/us/politics/matthew-whitaker-finances.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; cursor: pointer; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">New York Times</a>.Whitaker’s law partner of eight years, William Gustoff, who was treasurer for Whitaker’s unsuccessful 2014 Senate campaign and also serves on the board of FACT, signed off on the FEC filings.“The checks came in. I, as the treasurer, deposited the checks, and I retired the debt that I knew I could without talking to Matt,” Gustoff told the New York Times, “I don’t talk to Matt about the campaign.”Gustoff did say that FACT had been “well received” by Republican donors.2017 Form 990 tax returns for DonorsTrust and Judicial Education Project were first obtained by Maplight’s Andrew Perez and reviewed by the Center for Responsive Politics.<div>=</div>https://www.democracynow.org/2018/11/21/headlines/wapo_dark_money_charity_paid_acting_ag_matthew_whitaker_12_million<span style="color: rgb(25, 31, 36); font-family: Roboto, " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Washington Post reports that acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker was paid more than $1.2 million to lead a charity funded by dark money that bills itself as a nonpartisan watchdog, even as it worked exclusively to advance conservative causes. The charity, known as FACT—or the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust—is a nonprofit that refuses to reveal its funding sources, but one of the funders is known to be conservative billionaire Charles Koch. Whitaker worked as the charity’s sole employee for three years, beginning in 2014, until he moved to Washington to work as chief of staff to former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/conservative-nonprofit-with-obscure-roots-and-undisclosed-funders-paid-matthew-whitaker-12-million/2018/11/20/25ff987e-e9db-11e8-bd89-eecf3b178206_story.html">https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/conservative-nonprofit-with-obscure-roots-and-undisclosed-funders-paid-matthew-whitaker-12-million/2018/11/20/25ff987e-e9db-11e8-bd89-eecf3b178206_story.html</a>?utm_term=.0f71ff898f7ano lnxThe Washington Post
InvestigationsConservative nonprofit with obscure roots and undisclosed funders paid Matthew Whitaker $1.2 million By Robert O'Harrow Jr. ,Shawn Boburg andAaron C. Davis November 20 at 4:20 PMIn the three years after he arrived in Washington in 2014, Matthew G. Whitaker received more than $1.2 million as the leader of a charity that reported having no other employees, some of the best pay of his career.
The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust described itself as a new watchdog nonprofit dedicated to exposing unethical conduct by public officials. For Whitaker, it became a lucrative steppingstone in a swift rise from a modest law practice in Iowa to the nation’s top law enforcement job. As FACT’s president, he regularly appeared on radio and television, often to skewer liberals.
But FACT’s origins and the source of funding used to pay Whitaker — now the acting attorney general — remain obscured. An examination of state and federal records, and interviews with those involved, show that the group is part of a national network of nonprofits that often work in concert to amplify conservative messages.
Contrary to its claims in news releases and a tax filing, the group was created under a different name two years before Whitaker’s arrival, according to incorporation and IRS records. At least two of the organizers were involved in another conservative charity using the same address.
In its application to the IRS for status as a tax-exempt organization, the organizers reported that the group would study the impact of environmental regulations on businesses, records show. In that incarnation, the group took no action and “only existed on paper,” one man named in IRS filings as a board member told The Washington Post. Another named in a state filing as a board member said he never agreed to be on the board.
Whitaker’s 2017 pay from the charity — more than $500,000 for the first nine months, or half the charity’s receipts for the year, according to tax filings — and the group’s earlier, dormant incarnation have not been previously reported by media. 
Whitaker did not respond to requests for interviews. Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec declined to answer detailed questions about his involvement in FACT, referring a reporter to the charity.
A FACT spokesman who provided a statement on the condition that his name not be used declined to disclose the source of its funding.
“Like nearly all non-profit organizations — including those with similarly stated missions — FACT does not and is not required to release its donor information,” the statement said. “This protects free speech rights of all of these groups’ supporters as outlined in the First Amendment.”
The statement said that FACT “properly notified the IRS of its name change.”
“It is not unusual for a corporation, not for profit or profit, to refine its name and purpose, and since its inception FACT’s purpose has always been consistent with non-profit law and all appropriate notifications were made,” the statement said.
The spokesman did not respond to questions about whether the group told the IRS about its change in mission, as is required by IRS rules.
When the nonprofit was launched in 2012, Whitaker was a former U.S. attorney with a modest legal practice in Iowa that paid him $79,000 that year, according to a later disclosure he filed for a failed Senate bid. He also had several local side businesses, including a day-care center and a trailer manufacturer. 
A Virginia resident named Raymond Wotring and two others filed papers to create the Free Market American Educational Foundation, state and federal records show. Its stated mission was to “conduct research and provide informational studies on free market concepts in relation to government regulations and policy.”
Wotring and one of the other founding members had also served on another conservative nonprofit, Americans for Limited Government, which shared the same mailing address, records show.   
Wotring did not respond to multiple phone calls or to a note left at his home.
James Crumley, who provides marketing services to conservative nonprofits and campaigns, was listed in an IRS filing as one of the directors. In a phone call, he initially said he did not remember anything about the group, including why it was formed.
“I can only speculate since I didn’t even remember this group existed,” he wrote in an email later.
Crumley said he’d learned that the group held no meetings and apparently had no bank account in its first two years. “The organization only existed on paper and didn’t do anything at all,” he wrote. 
Noah Wall, now a vice president of advocacy for a conservative nonprofit called FreedomWorks, was listed in Virginia state filings as a director of the group in 2014. Wall said he was surprised to learn of his role. He said he was approached by Wotring but never agreed to join.
“I never signed anything,” he said. “I’m not entirely sure what any of this is.” 
On July 21, 2014, the IRS approved the group’s application for tax-exempt charity status, which was also signed by Wotring, the group’s secretary. In its application, the group said it would be nonpartisan and aim “to develop unbiased research on how government regulations on environmental policy can impact business.” The group by then had changed its address to a UPS Store in Fairfax, which was also used by Americans for Limited Government.
But just six weeks later, the newly approved charity changed its name, according to corporate records in Virginia. It was briefly called Working for Rights to Express & Communication.
The name was changed again in October of that year, to the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, according to records in Virginia. That same month, Whitaker, who had lost a primary bid for a U.S. Senate seat, became the group’s leader, according to Kupec, the Justice spokeswoman.
The charity’s mailing address was moved from Virginia to an office suite at a prestigious spot on K Street in the nation’s capital — a virtual office and mailing address shared by 200 organizations.
Kupec did not respond to questions about how Whitaker connected with the nonprofit.
Marcus Owens, a lawyer and nonprofit specialist who oversaw the IRS’s exempt-organizations division for a decade, said that in its first years the nonprofit appears to have been a “shell charity” that “was not utilized and remained on the shelf” until Whitaker’s arrival.
Taking over an existing charity makes it easier for groups to quickly stand up the operation and accept tax-deductible donations, he said. But charities that change their names and missions are required to alert the IRS, he said, to ensure they are still operating within guidelines for charities.
“It’s very possible that this organization is misusing its status as a charity,” said David Nelson, a specialist on nonprofit organizations and a former tax partner at the Ernst & Young accounting firm, who reviewed the group’s tax filings at The Post’s request. “It appears the IRS never gave approval to FACT.”
In its federal tax filing for 2014, FACT declared that it had not changed its name or its mission that year, records show, and there was no mention of the prior names. The spokesman for FACT declined to provide documents that he said showed it had notified the IRS of the name change. 
In the 2014 filing, FACT reported that it had no employees and that it paid Whitaker $63,000 for three months of work, 30 hours a week, as president and director. It received $600,000 in donations, the document shows.
The Post determined from other tax filings that the money came from DonorsTrust, a large nonprofit organization that wealthy contributors have used to anonymously give millions to conservative nonprofits in recent years.
The president of DonorsTrust, Lawson Bader, declined to identify the source of the funding contributed to FACT through his organization.
FACT launched its advocacy efforts shortly after Whitaker took over, describing itself in a news release as a “new watchdog group.”
On its website and in tax filings in 2014, FACT said that its mission was “to educate the public about unethical conduct on the part of public officials by publicizing these actions through media outlets throughout the country” and through its own website.
The new three-member board now comprised Whitaker, Whitaker’s former law partner and a conservative activist, Neil Corkery, who is involved in operating or funding multiple conservative charities.
Whitaker’s former partner, William Gustoff, did not return calls for comment. Corkery did not respond to phone messages seeking comment. 
The IRS prohibits charities from directly or indirectly participating in political campaigns, for or against candidates. The prohibition is rarely enforced.
The FACT spokesman said the group is nonpartisan and focuses on Democrats and Republicans alike. 
A Post analysis of more than 200 television and radio appearances by Whitaker from 2014 to September 2017, when he was named chief of staff to then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, shows that Whitaker was overwhelmingly focused on Democrats.
Whitaker or the often-conservative television hosts interviewing him uttered the name of one of the five Republican lawmakers that the group has targeted in elections complaints a combined 37 times, compared with more than 750 mentions of Hillary Clinton.
Most of those Clinton references — more than 600 — came in the run-up to the 2016 election, and nearly all were comments critical of Clinton’s tenure, including her email scandal or possible ethical conflicts surrounding the Clinton Foundation.
After the election, Whitaker’s focus in those interviews turned to another target, special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Whitaker or hosts named Mueller 185 times.
Tax filings show that one of FACT’s biggest contractors was America Rising, a research and communications firm in Arlington, Va., “whose mission is to help its clients defeat Democrats,” according to its website. FACT paid America Rising at least $500,000 for research from 2015 to 2017, tax filings show.
FACT paid another half-million dollars to CRC Public Relations in Alexandria, Va. The FACT representative who declined to be named in this report is a CRC executive.
In December 2014, FACT began posting news items and commentary on its new website, including the prediction that a super PAC formed to promote Clinton’s presidential aspirations might someday illegally coordinate with her future campaign. 
“These moves will likely draw [Federal Election Commission] complaints due to possible federal election law violations,” the post says.
Whitaker, the face of the organization, was often in Iowa in those early months, according to a review of interviews he conducted at the time. But being the president of a nonprofit conferred legitimacy on him, helping to raise his profile in Washington even as it allowed the group’s backers to claim tax deductions.  
He was increasingly appearing as a commentator on conservative media outlets — including Newsmax TV and Fox TV — and last year became a paid legal analyst on CNN.
In addition to targeting Clinton, Whitaker took aim at Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) while filing election law complaints against Democrats and some Republicans. When asked by a radio host about the group’s pursuit of Democrats, Whitaker said, “It is a target-rich environment.”
In the three years he worked at the charity, Whitaker’s pay rose sharply each year, tax filings show. Last year, he was paid $55,000 a month. In all, he earned $1,219,000 — more than a third of the donations the group received from 2014 to 2017.
An IRS spokesman declined to comment, citing federal privacy law.nyt...<div><div>As he was advising World Patent Marketing, Whitaker ran a conservative watchdog group called the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust. The group lodged numerous ethics complaints and calls for investigations, targeting Hillary Clinton and Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland, as well as some Republicans.</div><div>
</div><div>On its website, FACT lists a downtown Washington address. But it is one of some 200 “virtual members” who use a K Street location to claim a presence in the nation’s capital, according to Brian Bullock, assistant general manager of Carr Workplaces, the firm that operates the site.</div><div>
</div><div>“They only come in every six months or so,” Bullock said. “We pretty much just accept their mail.”</div><div>
</div><div>FACT was formed in 2014 with a large donation from another tax-exempt charity that has served as a fountainhead of cash for organizations affiliated with the conservative movement — an arrangement that helps further mask the identity of donors.</div><div>
</div><div>The group received more than $1 million in recent years from a donor-advised fund called Donors Trust Inc., which is a source of funding for scores of other conservative groups, including Judicial Watch, Project Veritas, the Claremont Institute, the Federalist Society and the David Horowitz Freedom Center, tax filings show.</div><div>
</div><div>Whitaker received $402,000 in 2016 as FACT’s president and director — nearly a third of the donations the group received that year, according to its tax filings. He received $252,000 in 2015, more than half the charity’s receipts that year, tax filings show.</div><div>
</div><div>FACT officials declined to comment, but they described the group as a nonpartisan ethics watchdog that holds accountable government officials from both parties.</div><div>
</div><div>Alice Crites and Tom Hamburger contributed to this report.</div></div><div></div><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/donald-trump" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;">Donald Trump</a> announced on Twitter that Matthew G. Whitaker, who served as chief of staff for Attorney General Jeff Sessions, would replace his boss. Sessions was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/07/us/politics/sessions-resigns.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">forced from office</a> a day after the midterm elections, which were <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/11/07/rough-election-anti-fracking-climate-ballot-measures" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">rough for climate and anti-fracking measures</a> around the country.Whitaker was appointed as Session’s chief of staff on September 22, 2017. Before that, he served for three years as the executive director of the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/foundation-accountability-and-civic-trust-fact" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT)</a>, which <a href="https://www.factdc.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">describes itself</a> as “a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting accountability, ethics, and transparency in government and civic arenas.”FACT has come under fire for its own lack of transparency, with the Center for Responsive Politics <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2016/04/new-nonprofit-tied-to-stealthy-circle-of-dark-money-groups/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">calling attention</a> to FACT’s funding, which in some years came entirely from <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/who-donors-trust" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">DonorsTrust</a>, an organization <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/02/donors-trust-donor-capital-fund-dark-money-koch-bradley-devos/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">also known as</a> the “Dark Money ATM of the Conservative Movement” and whose own donors include the notorious <a href="http://www.polluterwatch.org/charles-koch" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">funders of climate denial</a>, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/charles-koch" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Charles</a> and <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/david-koch" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">David Koch</a>.“In other words, an organization ‘dedicated to promoting accountability, ethics, and transparency’ gets 100 percent of its funds from a group that exists mainly as a vehicle for donors to elude transparency,” the Center for Responsive Politics <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2016/04/new-nonprofit-tied-to-stealthy-circle-of-dark-money-groups/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">wrote</a> in 2016.In 2014, FACT received $600,000 from DonorsTrust — the only donation it reported that year, <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2016/04/new-nonprofit-tied-to-stealthy-circle-of-dark-money-groups/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">according to</a> OpenSecrets.org. An additional $500,000 <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/DonorsTrust_and_Donors_Capital_Fund_Grant_Recipients" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">flowed</a> from DonorsTrust to FACT in 2015. And in 2016, DonorsTrust gave $800,000 to FACT, <a href="http://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/522/522166327/522166327_201612_990.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">tax records</a> show, as well as two additional donations, one for $100,000 and another for $450,000. That $2.45 million represents virtually all of FACT's entire reported receipts for those years (except for a total of $456 from 2015 to 2016).In 2016, Whitaker earned $402,000 as FACT’s director and president, according to the organization’s <a href="http://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/464/464754874/464754874_201612_990.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">tax filings</a>. That followed reported compensation from FACT for Whitaker of $63,000 <a href="http://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/484/484754874/484754874_201412_990.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">in 2014</a>, and $252,000 <a href="http://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/464/464754874/464754874_201512_990.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">in 2015</a>.His work included advocacy for causes backed by the fossil fuel industry.As FACT’s executive director, Whitaker sought documents from the Attorneys General United for Clean Power Coalition, alleging in <a href="https://morningconsult.com/opinions/environmental-lefts-double-standard-game/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">a 2016 op-ed</a> that the Coalition “launched a campaign to silence many public policy organizations and even individuals for their work challenging liberal views on climate change, as well as private companies like ExxonMobil.”<a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/30032016/climate-change-fraud-investigation-exxon-eric-shneiderman-18-attorneys-general" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">That coalition</a>, representing attorneys general from 17 states, included Eric Schneiderman, then attorney general for New York state, Maura Healey of Massachusetts, and Claude Walker of the Virgin Islands, who were all reportedly investigating ExxonMobil for <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/exxon-knew-about-climate-change-almost-40-years-ago/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">failing to disclose</a> what it knew about climate change to its investors for decades.Whitaker labeled the probe of ExxonMobil, which has <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/exxonmobil-funding-climate-science-denial" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">funded climate denial efforts to the tune of at least $33 million</a>, “both unconstitutional and unethical” — but it recently led to charges against the company.<div class="getty embed image" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: inline-block; width: 594px; max-width: 594px;"><div style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Last month, following three years of investigation, Schneiderman’s successor Barbara Underwood filed a 91-page lawsuit alleging that ExxonMobil had engaged in four counts of fraud.</div></div>“Investors put their money and their trust in Exxon — which assured them of the long-term value of their shares, as the company claimed to be factoring the risk of increasing climate change regulation into its business decisions,” Underwood said in a statement, according to <a href="https://www.courthousenews.com/ny-ag-pulls-trigger-on-climate-suit-claiming-exxon-knew/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Courthouse News</a>. “Instead, Exxon built a facade to deceive investors into believing that the company was managing the risks of climate change regulation to its business when, in fact, it was intentionally and systematically underestimating or ignoring them, contrary to its public representations.”FACT has also come under fire for its right-wing partisan bent.“It’s perhaps worth noting that although FACT describes itself as a ‘non-partisan ethics watchdog,’ its ethics complaints are targeted overwhelmingly (though not exclusively) at Democrats, and it is <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2016/04/new-nonprofit-tied-to-stealthy-circle-of-dark-money-groups/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">funded entirely by an anonymous trust fund</a> (a so-called ‘pass-through) favored by ultra-wealthy conservative donors, including Charles Koch,” the Global Anti-Corruption Blog <a href="https://globalanticorruptionblog.com/tag/crowdfunding/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">wrote</a> in September of this year.As Acting Attorney General, Whitaker will replace Jeff Sessions, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/18/10-things-to-know-about-sen-jeff-sessions-donald-trumps-pick-for-attorney-general/?utm_term=.7f29fcb87164" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">described</a> as a “climate change skeptic” by the Washington Post for saying on the floor of Congress in 2015 that “Carbon pollution is CO2, and that’s really not a pollutant; that’s a plant food, and it doesn’t harm anybody except that it might include temperature increases.”The Department of Justice's Office of Public Affairs has not yet responded to questions about Whitaker and FACT sent by DeSmog.In a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/08/opinion/trump-attorney-general-sessions-unconstitutional.html" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">New York Times op-ed</a> pubished November 8, attorneys Neal K. Katyal and George T. Conway III, questioned whether the appointment of Whitaker as acting attorney general without the advice and consent of the Senate was constitutional.“Because Mr. Whitaker has not undergone the process of Senate confirmation,” they wrote, “there has been no mechanism for scrutinizing whether he has the character and ability to evenhandedly enforce the law in such a position of grave responsibility. “UPDATED 11/9/18: This report has been updated to reflect two additional 2016 contributions to FACT listed in =

...

JCN also has sought to influence the slate of state attorneys general by working with other groups to run issue ads in attorney general elections, particularly Republican primaries. Between July 2013 and June 2014, for instance, JCN <a class="external" href="http://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/202/202303252/202303252_201406_990O.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">gave $250,000</a> to a nonprofit called the American Dream Initiative (ADI), which went on to spend at least <a class="external" href="http://www.statesman.com/news/news/out-of-state-ad-roils-texas-attorney-general-race/nf5s3/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">$532,000 to</a><a class="external" href="http://www.statesman.com/news/news/out-of-state-ad-roils-texas-attorney-general-race/nf5s3/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;"> run ads attacking</a> then-Texas attorney general candidate Ken Paxton’s ethics just days before <a class="external" href="https://ballotpedia.org/Texas_Attorney_General_election,_2014" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">a runoff election</a> in the 2014 Republican primary. JCN’s funding covered nearly half of <a class="external" href="http://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/462/462767395/462767395_201412_990O.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">ADI’s expenses</a> for the year. JCN also reported on its most recent tax form <a class="external" href="http://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/202/202303252/202303252_201406_990O.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">giving $1.35 million</a> to the American Future Fund, a <a href="http://www.citizensforethics.org/legal-filings/irs-investigate-american-future-fund" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">notorious</a> dark money nonprofit that <a class="external" href="http://ualrpublicradio.org/post/leslie-rutledge-defeats-david-sterling-republican-ag-nomination#stream/0" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">ran ads alongside JCN</a> in Arkansas’ 2014 Republican attorney general primary. Another group, the Rule of Law Project, <a class="external" href="http://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/202/202303252/202303252_201406_990O.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">got $100,000</a> from JCN in <a title="rule of law" href="http://www.citizensforethics.org/file/PDFs/Rule%20of%20Law%20Project%202014%20990.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">2014</a> and <a class="external" href="http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/281069552.html" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">ran nearly $190,000</a> worth of ads boosting the Republican nominee for attorney general in Wisconsin while attacking the Democratic nominee.

A recent spate of activity in Missouri has all the hallmarks of JCN-style intervention in an attorney general primary, though the group itself has not directly weighed in.

On April 21, the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), a Washington, DC-based ethics watchdog, <a class="external" href="http://www.factdc.org/#!FACT-Files-Complaint-Against-Missouri-State-Senator/c24/571e6f2b0cf2d19e296edf2c" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">filed an ethics complaint</a> against Missouri State Senator Kurt Schaefer. The complaint <a class="external" href="http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/politics/elections/complaint-questions-schaefer-s-role-in-university-of-missouri-policy/article_95bb5dd2-b9ca-5586-affd-87114cc791db.html" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">alleged</a> that Sen. Schaefer may have used his position to influence the University of Missouri’s political leave policies in order to prevent a law professor from running against him in the <a class="external" href="https://ballotpedia.org/Missouri_Attorney_General_election,_2016" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Republican primary</a> for state attorney general.

Two days after FACT filed its complaint, another out-of-state nonprofit, the Public Integrity Alliance (PIA), <a class="external" href="http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/politics/elections/ad-campaign-targets-schaefer-as-battle-over-hawley-leave-issue/article_2b014db4-2009-5108-94e0-721e4354e33c.html" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">purchased airtime</a> for <a class="external" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNb3CbXdZzY" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">an ad campaign</a> targeting Sen. Schaefer that alludes to the ethics allegations. PIA has reportedly purchased <a class="external" href="http://themissouritimes.com/29325/schaefer-campaign-responds-to-ethics-complaint/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">$250,000 in airtime</a> to run the ads and is <a class="external" href="http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/politics/elections/ethics-commission-reverses-course-agrees-to-investigate-complaint-against-schaefer/article_bd0da0fa-be85-5c98-9ac6-e4f38e0c9ba1.html" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">sending direct mail pieces</a> regarding Sen. Schaefer as well.

Sen. Schaefer’s campaign <a class="external" href="http://themissouritimes.com/29325/schaefer-campaign-responds-to-ethics-complaint/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">responded</a> to the one-two punch by suggesting there was a “coordinated effort” between his opponent, University of Missouri law professor Josh Hawley, and “dark money forces from outside the state,” referring to FACT and PIA.

Tyler Montague, the president of PIA, told the Columbia Tribune that <a class="external" href="http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/politics/elections/ad-campaign-targets-schaefer-as-battle-over-hawley-leave-issue/article_2b014db4-2009-5108-94e0-721e4354e33c.html" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">he had no communications</a> with either Hawley or FACT’s executive director, former U.S. Attorney <a class="external" href="http://www.factdc.org/#!about/cjg9" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Matthew Whitaker</a>. That doesn’t mean there are no connections between the two groups though. They both have ties to JCN. As the Center for Responsive Politics recently <a class="external" href="http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2016/04/new-nonprofit-tied-to-stealthy-circle-of-dark-money-groups/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">reported</a>, Neil Corkery, JCN’s <a class="external" href="http://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/202/202303252/202303252_201406_990O.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">treasurer</a> and a member of its board of directors, is also FACT’s <a class="external" href="http://pdfs.citizenaudit.org/2015_12_EO/48-4754874_990_201412.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">treasurer</a>, as well as a member of its board of directors. Though they don’t appear to share any personnel, JCN and PIA have direct financial ties.

Between July 2013 and June 2014, JCN <a class="external" href="http://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/202/202303252/202303252_201406_990O.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">granted $410,000</a> to PIA, then known as the Arizona Public Integrity Alliance. In 2014, when JCN’s funding appears to have covered a significant portion of PIA’s <a title="PIA" href="http://www.citizensforethics.org/file/PDFs/Arizona%20Public%20Integrity%20Alliance%20Inc%202014%20990%20w%20Sched%20B.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">$680,000 budget</a>, PIA paid for <a class="external" href="https://www.publicintegrity.org/2014/09/22/15661/arizona-public-integrity-alliance" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">hundreds of thousands</a> of dollars’ worth of TV ads <a class="external" href="http://www.nationalreview.com/bench-memos/385331/arizona-ag-tom-horne-hit-two-new-ads-carrie-severino" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">targeting</a> Arizona’s incumbent attorney general, Tom Horne, who was facing a <a class="external" href="http://www.governing.com/topics/politics/gov-whats-ahead-attorney-general-races-2014.html" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">primary fight</a> under <a class="external" href="http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/politics/2014/05/12/horne-aide-drove-state-car-campaign-meeting/9003559/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">an ethical cloud</a>. Since JCN hasn’t filed any tax filings covering the period after June 2014, it’s unknown whether the group has continued to fund PIA. But PIA <a class="external" href="https://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/10/01/18074/outside-groups-playing-bigger-role-2015-state-elections" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">continued to run ads</a> in attorneys general races in 2015, targeting Mississippi’s Democratic incumbent and Louisiana’s Republican incumbent. Montague, PIA’s president, told the Center for Public Integrity that his group chose to engage in the races “after <a class="external" href="https://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/10/01/18074/outside-groups-playing-bigger-role-2015-state-elections" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">unnamed activists</a> asked for its help.”

It’s certainly possible that the timing of FACT and PIA’s Sen. Schaefer actions and their connections to JCN are a coincidence. But the targeting of Sen. Schaefer does fit into the pattern JCN has established of working with other groups to influence attorney general races.

The behind the scenes connections between Sen. Schaefer’s antagonists doesn’t mean the allegations against the state senator are baseless. FACT’s <a class="external" href="http://www.factdc.org/#!FACT-Files-Complaint-Against-Missouri-State-Senator/c24/571e6f2b0cf2d19e296edf2c" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">complaint</a> is <a class="external" href="http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/politics/elections/complaint-questions-schaefer-s-role-in-university-of-missouri-policy/article_95bb5dd2-b9ca-5586-affd-87114cc791db.html" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">partially based</a> on a claim by former University of Missouri President Tim Wolfe that <a class="external" href="http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/politics/elections/wolfe-accuses-schaefer-of-pressuring-him-to-block-hawley-from/article_d331eb71-48a8-5e38-a142-a9d4f6a33934.html" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Sen. Schaefer pressured him</a> to take away his opponent’s “right to run for Attorney General by taking away an employee’s right to ask for an unpaid leave of absence when running for public office.” The Missouri Ethics Commission initially <a class="external" href="http://www.abc17news.com/news/dc-group-blasts-state-ethics-commission-refiles-complaint-against-senator/39367286" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">informed</a> FACT that it <a class="external" href="http://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/local/ethics-commission-declines-to-investigate-kurt-schaefer/article_0e016506-0bf6-11e6-bd02-17504b8eae67.html" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">could not investigate</a> the complaint because the issues were outside of its jurisdiction, but after FACT <a class="external" href="http://www.abc17news.com/news/dc-group-blasts-state-ethics-commission-refiles-complaint-against-senator/39367286" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">refiled</a> the complaint, the commission said it would <a class="external" href="http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/politics/elections/ethics-commission-reverses-course-agrees-to-investigate-complaint-against-schaefer/article_bd0da0fa-be85-5c98-9ac6-e4f38e0c9ba1.html" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">open an investigation</a>.

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https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2016/04/new-nonprofit-tied-to-stealthy-circle-of-dark-money-groups/

Leading the pushback from the outside against President Obama’s attempt to bring the Supreme Court back up to its full complement of nine justices, the <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2015/03/the-jcn-story-building-a-secretive-gop-judicial-machine/" style="background: transparent; text-decoration: none;">Judicial Crisis Network</a> claims to have spent <a href="http://judicialnetwork.com/judicial-crisis-network-launches-digital-ad-campaign-exposing-merrick-garlands-record-as-a-liberal/" style="background: transparent; text-decoration: none;">$4 million</a> on a TV, radio and digital campaign attacking nominee Merrick Garland and arguing that the next president should fill the vacancy.

Additional politically active, nondisclosing nonprofits, such as the Independent Women’s Forum, the Susan B. Anthony List and the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, <a href="http://www.examiner.com/article/2a-groups-react-to-obama-scotus-nomination-thumbs-down" style="background: transparent; text-decoration: none;">have also made noise</a> to try to shore up Senate Republicans who want to forestall voting on Garland’s confirmation.

One right-leaning group has weighed in more quietly: The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) has <a href="http://www.factdc.org/#!FACT-Requests-Records-about-Nominee-Garland-from-Harvard-University/c24/56fac9ac0cf20a08ed0aa40b" style="background: transparent; text-decoration: none;">demanded</a> Harvard University release records having to do with Garland’s role in the debate in the early 1970s over whether to allow ROTC recruiters on that campus. In late March, FACT’s executive director, Matthew Whitaker, was <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/mar/29/merrick-garland-begins-meeting-with-republican-sen/?page=1&cb=1459306137815" style="background: transparent; text-decoration: none;">quoted</a> saying that “Americans have a right to know about Garland’s views of the military.”

Turns out JCN and FACT have something in common, beyond a penchant for keeping the names of their donors secret: Neil Corkery, who is treasurer of the judicial group and also the treasurer and a member of the board of directors at FACT, a 501(c)(3) organization.

Longtime readers of <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2015/03/the-jcn-story-building-a-secretive-gop-judicial-machine/" style="background: transparent; text-decoration: none;">OpenSecrets Blog</a> or <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/03/23/the-jcn-story-how-to-build-a-secretive-right-wing-judicial-machine.html?utm_content=buffer271c0&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer" style="background: transparent; text-decoration: none;">The Daily Beast</a> may remember that Corkery’s wife, Ann, had a big hand in getting JCN off the ground, back in early 2005 when the “C” in its initials stood for “confirmation,” not “crisis.” At the time, Justice Antonin Scalia himself — whose death two months ago precipitated the current battle over the vacancy — attended a small dinner that included JCN organizers and at least one funder.

JCN originally promoted President George W. Bush’s nominations to the high court; conversely, it has attacked Obama’s. But many observers were surprised last fall when the group mounted an <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2015/11/wellspring-gives-big-boost-to-judicial-crisis-network-with-6-6-million-grant/" style="background: transparent; text-decoration: none;">ad campaign</a> criticizing Justice Anthony Kennedy and Chief Justice John Roberts, both appointed by GOP presidents, in an apparent effort to pressure them to take a harder conservative line. In addition, JCN has been involved in several state supreme court elections as well as attorneys general races.

FACT is a much newer creation, organized in 2014 as a conservative counterweight to watchdog groups viewed as more left-of-center, such as Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. The newer outfit took its first public action about a year ago when it filed a <a href="http://www.factdc.org/#!New-Ethics-Watchdog-Files-Preliminary-FEC-Complaint-on-Catalist-Major-Democratic-Operations/c24/555cd5220cf298b2d3d0aa6d" style="background: transparent; text-decoration: none;">complaint</a> with the Federal Election Commission against Democratic voter data firm Catalist.

Since then, FACT has, on rare occasions (possibly just once), gone after a <a href="http://www.factdc.org/#!FACT-Requests-Rep-Robert-Pittenger-Release-Ethics-Letter/c24/55e4742d0cf2de902a79c4e1" style="background: transparent; text-decoration: none;">Republican</a>, but most frequently accuses Democrats — <a href="http://www.factdc.org/#!FACT-Releases-Top-10-Most-Ethically-Challenged-Hillary-Emails/c24/56e196be0cf2d5aa2194df34" style="background: transparent; text-decoration: none;">particularly frontrunner</a>and former Secretary of State <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/pres16/candidate.php?id=N00000019" style="background: transparent; text-decoration: none;">Hillary Clinton</a> — of ethical or legal violations.

Its funding — $600,000 in 2014, according to the only tax return it has filed to date — comes entirely from a conservative donor-advised fund called <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2783557-Donors-Trust-2014-990.html" style="background: transparent; text-decoration: none;">DonorsTrust</a>, which means it could come from anywhere. DonorsTrust is a pass-through vessel that manages the charitable contributions of wealthy individuals and foundations to organizations that are “dedicated to the ideals of limited government, personal responsibility, and free enterprise,” according to <a href="http://www.donorstrust.org/who-we-are/mission-principles/" style="background: transparent; text-decoration: none;">its website</a>, while allowing the donors to remain anonymous. Charles Koch is among the many conservatives who have filtered money through DonorsTrust.

In other words, an organization “dedicated to promoting accountability, ethics, and transparency” gets 100 percent of its funds from a group that exists mainly as a vehicle for donors to elude transparency.

Meanwhile, Corkery adds FACT to a long list of nondisclosing nonprofits at which he holds, or has held, a key position, often treasurer, and which often have overlapping slates of directors or officers. For instance, at two other groups where Corkery is treasurer, the Judicial Education Project and Catholic Voices, a close family ally by the name of Dan Casey is president and director, respectively. Casey is also the secretary of JCN. At the Sudan Relief Fund, Corkery is president, Casey is treasurer, and Ann Corkery, Neil’s wife, is a director.

Ann Corkery is also president of the Wellspring Committee, from which JCN receives substantial funding, including more than $6.6 million in 2014; Kathleen Corkery, the couple’s daughter, is on Wellspring’s board of directors, and its secretary-treasurer is Casey’s son. Neil Corkery draws salaries from several of the groups where he’s an office; Ann is paid by Wellspring. (Venn diagram in the works.)

Many of the groups list the same Georgetown address as their office, with different suite numbers. In reality, the address is that of a UPS store, and the suite numbers are post boxes. FACT’s listed address, in downtown Washington, D.C., has no markings; it appears to be an address that is cited by more than one organization without actually being physically used by any of them, with a receptionist who answers the phone with the names of various groups depending on which line is called.

Neither Corkery nor Whitaker, FACT’s executive director, returned calls seeking comment.

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