Secure America Now SAN

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</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-18/facebook-and-google-helped-anti-refugee-campaign-in-swing-states">https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-18/facebook-and-google-helped-anti-refugee-campaign-in-swing-states</a></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">ref below bloomberg no lnx doc vid</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Facebook and Google Helped Anti-Refugee Campaign in Swing States</b></font></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>
</b></font></font></font></div><div>The big tech companies worked closely with Secure America Now to target an audience the group felt could be swayed by the message.</div><div>By Ben Elgin  and Vernon Silver</div><div>October 18, 2017, 1:00 AM PDT</div><div>Play Video</div><div>
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</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In the final weeks of the 2016 election campaign, voters in swing states including Nevada and North Carolina saw ads appear in their Facebook feeds and on Google websites touting a pair of controversial faux-tourism videos, showing France and Germany overrun by Sharia law. French schoolchildren were being trained to fight for the caliphate, jihadi fighters were celebrated at the Arc de Triomphe, and the “Mona Lisa” was covered in a burka.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Under Sharia law, you can enjoy everything the Islamic State of France has to offer, as long as you follow the rules,” intoned the narrator of one ad.</span></div><div>
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</div><div><b>Unlike Russian efforts to secretly influence the 2016 election via social media, this American-led campaign was aided by direct collaboration with employees of Facebook and Google.</b> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">They helped target the ads to more efficiently reach the intended audiences, according to internal reports from the ad agency that ran the campaign, as well as five people involved with the efforts.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Facebook advertising salespeople, creative advisers and technical experts competed with sales staff from Alphabet Inc.’s Google for millions in ad dollars from Secure America Now, the conservative, nonprofit advocacy group whose campaign included a mix of anti-Hillary Clinton and anti-Islam messages, the people said.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>The content of some ads left some employees of Harris Media—the Austin-based digital advertising firm that runs campaigns for Secure America Now—feeling uneasy.</b> “It was designed to strike fear in people’s hearts,” said one former Harris employee who requested anonymity.</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The extent to which Facebook and Google work with political campaigns and groups hasn’t been widely understood. On Oct. 8, 60 Minutes aired an interview with the Trump campaign’s digital director saying he had Facebook employees work as “embeds” in the campaign who were selected for being Republicans. Facebook said its services for Trump were standard for any advertiser during an important event.</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>Google also works with political groups on their advertising strategies,</b> helping them hone their copy and figure out how to best target their desired audiences, says Wendy Moe, professor of marketing at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. “It’s a tricky issue,” she says, because once the companies decide they’ll do hands-on work for political groups, “it’s hard for them to say we’ll help these groups, but not others.”</div><div>
</div><div>The issue gets thornier when it comes to working with groups on the fringes of the political spectrum. Earlier this year, for instance, Facebook worked closely with Germany’s far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which was also represented by Harris Media. In meetings at Facebook’s Berlin office, executives encouraged the AfD and Harris Media to use Facebook Live in addition to its ad spending to better target German voters, Bloomberg Businessweek reported last month.</div><div>
</div><div><b>Google and Facebook, similarly, worked closely with Secure America Now as it spent several million dollars on election-season ads, according to the people who worked on the campaign. </b>On June 16 of last year, for instance, sales managers from Google’s elections team hunkered down in its New York offices with officials from Secure America Now and Harris Media to talk about how to improve their digital ad campaigns.</div><div>
</div><div>In the months that followed, Secure America Now targeted swing-state voters not only with its faux-tourism videos, but also ads that linked Democratic Senate candidates with Syrian refugees and terrorists. “STOP SUPPORT OF TERRORISM. VOTE AGAINST CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO,” stated one ad targeting the Nevada Democratic Senate candidate who eventually won the race. “YOU SAW THE THREAT. NOW VOTE TO PROTECT NEVADA,” declared another ad.</div><div>
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</div><div>A screenshot from a Secure America Now video.Source: Secure America Now</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In some cases, the ads were highly targeted on social media and aimed at groups of people, such as <b>Hispanic voters in Nevada, that they felt could be swayed by the anti-refugee message</b>,[huh?] according to two people who worked on the campaign. The ads were viewed millions of times on Facebook and Google, according to the internal reports about the campaign.</span></div><div>
</div><div>Facebook’s collaboration with Secure America Now went beyond optimizing its ad reach, and included efforts to test new technology. In one instance, Facebook used the Secure America Now campaign to try out a vertical video format, which the Facebook reps were eager to see used on a large scale.</div><div>
</div><div>Working with Harris Media, Facebook devised a case study last year to compare the popularity of the new format to others. The video they used was “Are We Safe?”, which contrasts colorful scenes of Main Street America with black-and-white pictures of Muslims who have carried out attacks in the U.S. Facebook tested 12 different versions of the video. It then followed up with a survey of users who had viewed the video to see which format was most popular. (Square videos, it turned out.)</div><div>
</div><div>Officials for Facebook and Harris Media declined to comment. Secure America Now didn’t respond to several requests for an interview.</div><div>
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</div><div>Google also declined an interview request. But a spokesperson for the company says Google eventually blocked several ads from Secure America Now for violating its policies, including ads for the faux-tourism videos. The company wouldn’t say when it blocked the ads, but in a written statement it said that if ads violate its vigorously enforced policies, “we immediately disapprove them and stop showing them.”</div><div>
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</div><div>A screenshot from a Secure America Now video.Source: Secure America Now</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Secure America Now was launched in 2011 to oppose the construction of a community center and mosque in Manhattan near the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The group’s president is <b>Allen Roth, a longtime political adviser to Ronald Lauder</b>, the heir to the Estee Lauder fortune and a supporter of conservative and pro-Israel causes. As a nonprofit, the Washington, D.C.-based group keeps its donors secret.</span></div><div>
</div><div>In the ensuing six years, the group has been sharply critical of the Obama administration’s handling of Benghazi, where U.S. personnel were killed in a 2012 attack on a diplomatic compound in Libya, as well as its nuclear deal with Iran.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">During the 2016 campaign, in addition to its ads about Muslims and refugees, the group made a parody site, “Hillary’s Inbox,” with fake email chains between the candidate, her advisers and public figures. Secure America Now ran ads for the site on the Fox News politics page last October, according to internal reports, generating more than 206,000 visitors to the parody site.</span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><div class="tag-row" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; margin: 0px 0px 4px; font-weight: bold; text-transform: uppercase; line-height: 1;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">OPENSECRETS NEWS</font></div><h1 style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 10px 0px; line-height: 1;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">EXCLUSIVE: Robert Mercer backed a secretive group that worked with Facebook, Google to target anti-Muslim ads at swing voters</font></h1><ul class="list" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; line-height: 18px;"><li style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; margin: 5px 0px; padding: 0px; list-style-position: inside;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> <a class="author" rel="author" href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/author/rmaguire/" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Robert Maguire</a></span></font></li><li style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; margin: 5px 0px 5px 8px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 8px; list-style-position: inside; border-left: 2px solid rgb(219, 219, 219);"><span class="entry-date" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2018/04/" rel="bookmark" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">April 5, 2018</a></font></span></li></ul><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div></div><div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As the final weeks of the 2016 elections ticked down, voters in swing states like Nevada and North Carolina began seeing eerie promotional travel ads as they scrolled through their Facebook feeds or clicked through Google sites.</font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In one, a woman with a French accent cheerfully welcomes visitors to the “Islamic State of France,” where “under Sharia law,  you can enjoy everything the Islamic State of France has to offer, as long as you follow the rules.”</font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;">The video has a Man in the High Tower feel. Iconic French tourist sites are both familiar and transformed — the Eiffel Tower is capped with a star and crescent and the spires of the Notre Dame are replaced with the domed </span><i style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;">qubba</i><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"> of a mosque.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Mona Lisa is shown looking, the ad says, “as a woman should,” covered in a burka.</font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If it wasn’t already clear that the ad was meant to stoke viewers’ fears of imminent Muslim conquest, the video is interspersed with violent imagery. Three missiles are seen flying through the sky as the video opens. Blindfolded men are shown kneeling with guns pointed at their heads, and children are shown training with weapons “to defend the caliphate.”</font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This is one of three mock travel ads.</font></span></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another, for the “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDMZRiYrcuE" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Islamic State of Germany</a>,” invited visitors to “celebrate the arranged marriages of future jihadi soldiers” at a pork- and alcohol-free Oktoberfest.</font></span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“You can even sell your daughter or sister to be married</span>,” the ad notes enthusiastically while showing the covered face of a woman wearing a black burka.</font></span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;">And just to bring it all home, days before the election, the group made an “</span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1q_IInlmbI" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Islamic States of America</a>“<span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;">travel promo, where Syrian refugees have overtaken America. In the ad, the iconic Hollywood sign reads “Allahu Akbar,” and the Statue of Liberty wears a burka and holds a star and crescent. In the video, Ground Zero in New York City is shown as place where citizens can “celebrate our Islamic victories.”</span></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><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"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Most Americans have never heard of the far-right neoconservative nonprofit that ran the ads. It has no employees and no volunteers, and it’s run out of the offices of a Washington, D.C. law firm. More importantly, most voters never saw the ads.</font></span></font></font></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And that was by design.</font></span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The group, a social welfare organization called Secure America Now, worked hand in hand with Facebook and Google to target their message at voters in swing states who were most likely to be receptive to them</b>.</font></span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/public.opensecrets.org/secure-america-now-2019-990-unredacted.pdf" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">new tax documents obtained by OpenSecrets</a> show that the money fueling the group came mostly from just three donors, including the secretive multimillionaire donor Robert Mercer.</font></span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization, Secure America Now (SAN) is not required to disclose its donors to the public, but they are required to report them to the IRS. This information is usually redacted when provided for public inspection. However, when OpenSecrets called to request a 2016 return, an unredacted return was provided by the group’s accounting firm.</font></span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[doc]<a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/mercer-contrib-1.png" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">
</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The filing shows the largest individual contribution, $2 million, came from Robert Mercer, the reclusive hedge fund investor who <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/summ.php?cycle=2016&disp=D&type=V&superonly=N" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">spent millions in 2016</a> helping Donald Trump capture the White House.</span></font></span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mercer has become a household name not only for his political spending in recent years or his peculiar interests — such as <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-03-28/robert-mercer-s-secret-adventure-as-a-new-mexico-cop" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">part-timing as a New Mexico police officer</a> or funding <a href="https://theintercept.com/2016/08/23/trumps-new-billionaire-backer-also-funds-huge-stockpile-of-human-urine/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">stockpiles of urine</a> in the Oregon mountains — but also for <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/08/donald-trump-mercers-stephen-bannon" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">bankrolling the alt-right</a> and <a href="https://www.wired.com/2016/08/trump-cambridge-analytica/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">the data firm Cambridge Analytica</a>, both of which helped Trump clutch victory in 2016.</font></span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;">As </span><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2018/03/big-revenues-for-group-providing-cover-for-gop-donors-too-embarrassed-to-publicly-support-trump-in-2016/" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">OpenSecrets reported last month</a><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;">, SAN received another $2 million from the 45Committee, another pro-Trump dark money group, which is itself partly funded </span><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2018/03/big-revenues-for-group-providing-cover-for-gop-donors-too-embarrassed-to-publicly-support-trump-in-2016/" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">by other dark money groups</a><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;">.</span></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;">The </span><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2016/05/the-multiplication-magic-behind-the-dark-money-churn/" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">dark money churn</a><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"> is real.</span></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ronald S. Lauder, the heir to the Estee Lauder fortune, gave $1.1 million. Lauder has long been a supporter of conservative and pro-Israel causes, and his longtime political adviser Allen Roth serves as president of Secure America Now.</font></span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;">The remaining $60,000 in reported contributions came from three donors: Brad Anderson, the former CEO of Best Buy; Foster Friess, the investor and longtime Republican donor; and Olympus Ventures LLC, which is </span><a href="https://www.schulzefamilyfoundation.org/about_us/our_board/kevin_bergman/" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">tied to a foundation created by Dick Schulze</a><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;">, the founder of Best Buy.</span></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Social welfare organizations like Secure America Now are not supposed to have politics as their primary purpose, but a combination of vague rules and ineffective oversight make it easy for such groups to spend heavily in elections, without being required to disclose their donors.</font></span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">SAN reported more than $1 million in political spending to the Federal Election Commission in 2016 — in the form of “independent expenditures,” which means they appealed directly to voters, asking them to support or oppose specific candidates for office.</font></span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While there are some differences between what the FEC and the IRS consider political spending, such direct calls for voters to support or oppose candidates are generally considered to be unambiguously political. Yet, in filing their tax returns, SAN told the IRS it only spent $124,192 on politics.  </font></span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s hard to discern where this discrepancy stems from. Marc Owens, a tax lawyer who used to head the IRS Exempt Organizations Division, pointed out in an email to OpenSecrets that the “IRS ‘facts and circumstances’ standard has always been considered to sweep in more activity/expenditures than the FEC ‘independent expenditure’ standard.”</font></span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Yet, the IRS isn’t likely to catch the discrepancy on its own</b>. The agency does not systematically analyze FEC reported political spending to catch discrepancies in what groups report on their tax returns. And only seven out of every 1,000 tax returns are audited by the agency, and even then the IRS is not always scrutinizing a group’s political activity.</font></span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Even with $1 million in political spending, SAN would find itself well below the threshold for excessive political activity — which, absent specific bright lines from the IRS, is generally assumed to be less than half of a group’s overall spending.</font></span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But the only way for the IRS to truly conclude that a group like SAN engaged in too much campaign intervention is to conduct a “facts and circumstances” analysis of the group’s finances. And that’s why those parody travel promotions are so important.</font></span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;">The Islamic State ads offer an interesting test of areas where the IRS definition of campaign intervention might be more expansive than what election law defines as political, even though they don’t mention a candidate. </span><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;">As a </span><a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42684.pdf" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Congressional Research Service report noted in 2012</a><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;">, “the standard for determining whether something is campaign activity under the IRC is whether it exhibits a preference for or against a candidate” — not, that is, whether the candidate is actually mentioned.</span></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Preference can be subtle,” the report notes, “and the IRS takes the position that it is not always necessary to expressly mention a candidate by name.”</font></span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So, the fact that SAN didn’t expressly mention candidates in its ads does not mean that they were not political. And facts that have been reported since the election suggest that there is plenty of evidence supporting the conclusion that SAN’s digital ads were aimed at influencing the election.</font></span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;">For one, as </span><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-18/facebook-and-google-helped-anti-refugee-campaign-in-swing-states" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Bloomberg reported last October</a><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;">, internal reports from the ad agency that ran SAN’s digital campaign, and individuals who were involved with the effort, showed that SAN worked with Google and Facebook to target the ads at swing-state voters.</span></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Facebook advertising salespeople, creative advisers and technical experts competed with sales staff from Alphabet Inc.’s Google for millions in ad dollars from Secure America Now,” the Bloomberg report writes.</font></span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The ads weren’t targeted broadly at the American public, but at Americans who would be mostly likely to decide the winners in critical senate races and the campaign for the White House.</font></span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Other ads in the campaign highlight this aim. For example, other digital ads run by SAN targeted specific candidates.</font></span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“STOP SUPPORT OF TERRORISM. VOTE AGAINST CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO,” read one ad, referencing the Democratic candidate for Nevada’s open senate seat.</font></span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The ads “were viewed millions of times on Facebook and Google,” Bloomberg wrote, citing internal documents. And Facebook went so far as to use Secure America Now as a test case for new technology, sending out 12 different versions of the video to see which was the most popular. </font></span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">One other reason why the IRS might rule that the ads entail campaign intervention, despite being absent any mention of a candidate, is that the subject of Muslim’s entering the country was what Owens refers to as “an issue distinguishing the candidates for a given office.”</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In December 2015, Donald Trump called for “<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2015/12/07/politics/donald-trump-muslim-ban-immigration/index.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States</a>.” The month before, he had referred to Syrian refugees as possibly “<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2015/11/16/politics/donald-trump-syrian-refugees/index.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">one of the great Trojan horses</a>.”</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One of the most defining differences between Trump and his opponent was his views on Muslims in general, and Muslim refugees in particular. SAN’s ads were likely trying to exploit that difference when they targeted swing voters, with Google and Facebook’s help.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SAN-expenditures.png" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;"><img class="alignright wp-image-25731" src="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SAN-expenditures.png" alt="" width="400" height="75" srcset="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SAN-expenditures.png 1006w, https://www.opensecrets.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SAN-expenditures-300x56.png 300w, https://www.opensecrets.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SAN-expenditures-768x144.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; border: none; vertical-align: top; max-width: 100%; height: auto; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 2px 7px; padding: 4px; display: inline;" /></a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The tax filing itself offers little insight into how much these campaigns actually cost, beyond the “millions” cited by Bloomberg. Large portions of the group’s spending are a black hole. More than $7.4 million in the SAN’s spending — 87 percent of their overall outlays — went towards “membership educational devlp” and “direct mail educational prgm,” which aren’t defined or detailed anywhere in the filing.</span></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Secure America Now representatives did not respond to any of the questions OpenSecrets sent,</b> other than to confirm receipt of the questions.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Neither the IRS nor the FEC are likely to look into SAN’s activities any time soon,</b> if at all, so the group will continue to play a role in public life.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A recent New York Times report detailing internal emails between top Trump fundraiser Elliott Broidy and a political adviser to leaders in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia noted that Broidy referenced SAN as “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/21/us/politics/george-nader-elliott-broidy-uae-saudi-arabia-white-house-influence.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">one of the groups I am working with</a>” to push the Trump administration to fill key positions with individuals favorable to those Persian Gulf leaders.</font></font></font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2016 tax docs</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1745 Broadway, 18th Floor

New York, NY 10019

Phone: 212 453 2500

Fax: 212 453 2550

www.skpny.com

XL116 6.000

Mr. Allen Roth

SECUREAMERICANOW.ORG

1800 M. Street NW, Suite 450N

Washington, DC 20036</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$1.3 mill</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ALLEN ROTH 20.00

PRESIDENT/DIRECTOR 0. X X 0. 0. 0.

DAVID GODER 16.00

V.P./SECRETARY/DIRECTOR 0. X X 55,000. 0. 0.

MICHAEL HAYES 1.00

TREASURER/DIRECTOR 0. X X 0. 0. 0.

BARBARA COMEAU 1.00

ASSISTANT SECRETARY 0. X 0. 0. 0.

JEFFREY ALTMAN 1.00

ASSISTANT SECRETARY 0.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">olympus ventures ...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">sCHEDULE C, PART I-A, LINE 1-DESCRIPTION OF THE POLITICAL ACTIVITIES

SECUREAMERICANOW.ORG ENGAGES IN POLITICAL ACTIVITIES BY ENGAGING IN

BROADCAST, INTERNET, AND ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS THAT ARE INTENDED, IN

PART, TO INFLUENCE ELECTIONS (IN ADDITION TO EDUCATIONAL EFFORTS TO

DEVELOP GENERAL AWARENESS OF THE ORGANIZATION'S MISSION AND ACTIVITIES,

INCREASING MEMBERSHIP, AND GENERATING FINANCIAL SUPPORT).

</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">3 List all states in which the organization is registered or licensed to solicit contributions or has been notified it is exempt from</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">registration or licensing.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">SECUREAMERICANOW.ORG 27-3711817</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AL,AK,AR,CA,CO,CT,DC,FL,GA,HI,IL,</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">KS,KY,LA,ME,MD,MA,MI,MN,MS,MO,NV,NH,NJ,NM,NY,NC,ND,OH,</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">OK,OR,PA,RI,SC,TN,TX,UT,VA,WA,WV,WI,</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></font></font></div></div></div>