musser, phil aff
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><div class="entry-content" style="margin: 5px 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ast week, real estate mogul and current GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump tweeted to his 6.6 million Twitter followers about a “phony Rubio commercial” that was making hay out of Trump’s ongoing legal troubles with the now-defuct Trump University.</font></p><twitterwidget class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" id="twitter-widget-0" data-tweet-id="704440884029493248" style="position: static; visibility: visible; display: block; transform: rotate(0deg); max-width: 100%; width: 500px; min-width: 220px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><div data-twitter-event-id="0" class="SandboxRoot env-bp-350" style="direction: ltr; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.4; white-space: initial; position: relative;"><div class="EmbeddedTweet js-clickToOpenTarget" data-click-to-open-target="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/704440884029493248" data-iframe-title="Twitter Tweet" data-dt-full="%{hours12}:%{minutes} %{amPm} - %{day} %{month} %{year}" data-dt-months="Jan|Feb|Mar|Apr|May|Jun|Jul|Aug|Sep|Oct|Nov|Dec" data-dt-am="AM" data-dt-pm="PM" data-dt-now="now" data-dt-s="s" data-dt-m="m" data-dt-h="h" data-dt-second="second" data-dt-seconds="seconds" data-dt-minute="minute" data-dt-minutes="minutes" data-dt-hour="hour" data-dt-hours="hours" data-dt-abbr="%{number}%{symbol}" data-dt-short="%{day} %{month}" data-dt-long="%{day} %{month} %{year}" data-scribe="page:tweet" id="twitter-widget-0" lang="en" data-twitter-event-id="1" style="overflow: hidden; cursor: pointer; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 1px solid rgb(225, 232, 237); border-radius: 4px; max-width: 520px;"><div class="EmbeddedTweet-tweet" style="padding: 20px 20px 11.6px;"><blockquote class="Tweet h-entry js-tweetIdInfo subject expanded
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Trump (screen name: realDonaldTrump)" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: inherit; outline: 0px; line-height: 1.2; font-weight: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="TweetAuthor-avatar Identity-avatar" style="position: absolute; display: inline-block; top: 0px; left: 0px; width: 36px; height: 36px; overflow: hidden; background-color: transparent; border-radius: 4px;"><img class="Avatar" data-scribe="element:avatar" data-src-2x="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1980294624/DJT_Headshot_V2_bigger.jpg" alt="" data-src-1x="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1980294624/DJT_Headshot_V2_normal.jpg" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1980294624/DJT_Headshot_V2_normal.jpg" style="border: 0px; max-width: 100%; max-height: 100%;" /></span><span class="TweetAuthor-name Identity-name customisable-highlight" title="Donald J. Trump" data-scribe="element:name" style="font-weight: 700;">Donald J. 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I could have settled, but won't out of principle! See student surveys. <a href="https://t.co/KKHiBH554d" rel="nofollow noopener" dir="ltr" data-expanded-url="https://www.donaldjtrump.com/press-releases/donald-j.-trump-demands-retraction-of-misleading-ads-produced-by-marco-rubi" class="link customisable" target="_blank" title="https://www.donaldjtrump.com/press-releases/donald-j.-trump-demands-retraction-of-misleading-ads-produced-by-marco-rubi" data-scribe="element:url" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;"><span class="u-hiddenVisually" style="position: absolute !important; overflow: hidden !important; width: 1px !important; height: 1px !important; padding: 0px !important; border: 0px !important; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px) !important;">https://www.</span>donaldjtrump.com/press-releases<span class="u-hiddenVisually" style="position: absolute !important; overflow: hidden !important; width: 1px !important; height: 1px !important; padding: 0px !important; border: 0px !important; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px) !important;">/donald-j.-trump-demands-retraction-of-misleading-ads-produced-by-marco-rubi </span>…</a></font></p><div class="Tweet-metadata dateline" style="margin-top: 3.2px;"><a class="u-linkBlend u-url customisable-highlight long-permalink" data-datetime="2016-02-29T22:59:29+0000" data-scribe="element:full_timestamp" href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/704440884029493248" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: inherit; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">2:59 PM - 29 Feb 2016</font></a></div><ul class="Tweet-actions" data-scribe="component:actions" role="menu" aria-label="Tweet actions" style="margin: 8.4px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; border: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><li class="Tweet-action" style="display: inline-block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="TweetAction TweetAction--reply web-intent" href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?in_reply_to=704440884029493248" data-scribe="element:reply" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;" /></font><div class="Icon Icon--reply TweetAction-icon" aria-label="Reply" title="Reply" role="img" style="display: inline-block; height: 1.25em; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: contain; vertical-align: text-bottom; width: 1.07639em; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%2062%2072%22%3E%3Cpath%20class%3D%22icon%22%20fill%3D%22%23697882%22%20d%3D%22M41%2031h-9V19c0-1.14-.647-2.183-1.668-2.688-1.022-.507-2.243-.39-3.15.302l-21%2016C5.438%2033.18%205%2034.064%205%2035s.437%201.82%201.182%202.387l21%2016c.533.405%201.174.613%201.82.613.453%200%20.908-.103%201.33-.312C31.354%2053.183%2032%2052.14%2032%2051V39h9c5.514%200%2010%204.486%2010%2010%200%202.21%201.79%204%204%204s4-1.79%204-4c0-9.925-8.075-18-18-18z%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); 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margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The tweet links to a press release demanding “the immediate retraction of the ads.”</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The spots weren’t sponsored by Sen. Marco Rubio’s campaign, however, but by a group called the American Future Fund, a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization with a long history that runs from its days as a core beneficiary of the <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2013/12/american-future-fund-draws-nearly-all-revenues-from-two-koch-linked-groups/" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Koch donor network</a> to its newer ties with GOP establishment groups.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2736459-2014-990-AMERICAN-FUTURE-FUND.html" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">New tax filings</a> obtained by <em>OpenSecrets Blog</em> suggest that, of all the still-existing groups that have been exiled from the Koch network, American Future Fund has been the most successful at surviving — mostly, it appears, as a (c)(4)-for-hire, functioning as a conduit for establishment-leaning groups like Crossroads GPS, the granddaddy of politically active nonprofit groups that don’t disclose their donors.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Make American Future Fund Great Again</font></strong></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Trump campaign’s statement alleges that American Future Fund “unlawfully coordinated with lightweight Senator Marco Rubio on these misleading commercials.” The release doesn’t offer evidence to back up the charge, and the Trump campaign didn’t respond to requests from <em>OpenSecrets Blog</em> to elaborate. If true, the coordination of strategy between the Florida senator’s campaign operation and AFF would be a violation of federal election laws, which require groups like AFF to act independently of candidates.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Coordinated or not, AFF’s pattern of ad buys does lend some credence to the idea that the group is at least acting as ground support for the Rubio campaign. AFF has spent <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/summ.php?cycle=2016&chrt=V&disp=O&type=U" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">more than any other nondisclosing “dark money” group</a> in the election so far, $4.9 million, and often on targets other than Trump. Days before the Iowa caucuses, AFF put $1.5 million into ads <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhm8uE_MJHM" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">attacking Gov John Kasich</a> of Ohio, another GOP White House hopeful, as a supporter of Common Core and a “cheerleader for Medicaid expansion” under the Affordable Care Act.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">About two weeks later, in the run-up to the New Hampshire primaries, AFF spent <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTL9wAoJBWQ" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">another $1.5 million accusing Texas Sen. Ted Cruz</a> for being weak on national security.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And with outlays of $1.9 million on a series of ads hitting Trump, Rubio is the only one of the remaining GOP presidential contenders who hasn’t been attacked by AFF. He also happens to be the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/on-a-fateful-super-tuesday-polls-have-opened-across-the-south-and-new-england/2016/03/01/995c7ec4-df64-11e5-846c-10191d1fc4ec_story.html" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">establishment’s favored candidate</a> to lead the party into the November election.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Moving Closer to the Establishment</font></strong></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">American Future Fund was one of the first politically active nonprofits on the scene after the Supreme Court’s 2007 decision in <em>FEC v.</em> <em>Wisconsin Right to Life,</em> which freed up 501(c) organizations to make electioneering communications — so-called “issue ads” run shortly before an election that often look like outright political ads. In the four elections from 2008 to 2014, AFF — and groups to which it funneled money via grants — spent more than $40 million bolstering Republican candidates.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Until late 2012, the vast majority of the group’s receipts — more than $77 million — flowed from donor hubs in the Koch network.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That changed after AFF was called out, with two other Koch network groups, in a cash shuffle that California regulators labeled “<a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2013/10/california-investigation-reveals-so/" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">campaign money laundering</a>.” Higher-ups in the Koch network — even more hush-hush then than it is now — weren’t pleased with all the attention the legal proceedings in California brought to their operations, and AFF and the two other groups involved were in effect thrown out in the cold.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Of the three organizations, though, AFF appears to have been the most successful in finding new sources of funds to keep its doors open. Revenues are less than they were in the days when Koch money was plentiful — about $6.9 million in 2014 — but the group managed to bring in about twice as much in 2013 and 2014 as American Encore, previously known as the Center to Protect Patient Rights; that organization, once the hub of Planet Koch, boasted receipts of more than $247 million over four years.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">American Encore has found a second life as <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/politics/2015/02/24/robocalls-signal-new-era-political-advocacy/23921981/" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">a sort of public relations outfit supporting Arizona Governor Doug Ducey</a>.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But AFF — which has no employees and just two board members who each, according to the group’s filing, spend three hours per week on AFF business — appears to have become something of a dark money mercenary, a vehicle for political ads on behalf of donors who don’t want their involvement to be public.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">North Carolina’s highs…</font></strong></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the final days of the 2014 midterms, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/posttv/politics/campaign-2014-american-future-fund-haugh/2014/10/23/df597f0e-5ada-11e4-9d6c-756a229d8b18_video.html" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">a series of web ads</a> came out supporting longshot Libertarian Senate candidate Sean Haugh. The ads played on the sound of Haugh’s last name — which sounds remotely like the word “high” if you are, indeed, high. The ad showed young people holding signs saying, “Get High, Get Haugh,” with slogans like “More weed, Less War.” FEC documents show that the campaign cost $420,000 — get it? — and AFF was footing the bill.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Haugh himself wasn’t too happy, <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2014/10/23/358118060/outside-group-sends-blunt-message-in-n-c-senate-race" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">tweeting</a> “While I appreciate the support, I now have a whole new reason to despise Koch brothers & their dark money.” Haugh could be excused for associating AFF with the Kochs, given that the only available information at the time — past tax filings from AFF and other Koch groups — showed overwhelming linkage.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It turns out that none of the core Koch organizations funded AFF in 2014. But another group with a big stake in the outcome of the Senate election in North Carolina did. Crossroads GPS, a politically active nonprofit linked to the GOP establishment, gave $2 million to American Future Fund, <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2015/11/pro-tillis-dark-money-group-funded-entirely-by-crossroads-gps/" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">tax documents filed last year show</a>.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Crossroads GPS was heavily invested in the Carolina race to unseat incumbent Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan. The group ultimately spent $4.9 million supporting her opponent Thom Tillis, and the <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2015/11/pro-tillis-dark-money-group-funded-entirely-by-crossroads-gps/" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;"><em>OpenSecrets Blog</em> found last fall</a> that GPS had provided nearly the entire budget of another nonprofit, Carolina Rising — which <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2015/10/political-nonprofit-spent-nearly-100-percent-of-funds-to-elect-tillis-in-14/" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">effectively spent close to 100 percent of that money supporting Tillis</a>.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While Haugh wasn’t right about AFF being a Koch group anymore, he was right about one thing. GPS and AFF were probably using him to draw younger, more liberal voters away from Hagan.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“It’s all kind of surreal, frankly,” <a href="http://obviously%20they%20want%20to%20try%20to%20use%20me%20to%20siphon%20votes%20away%20from%20kay%20hagan%20and%20maybe%20swing%20the%20election%20to%20thom%20tillis./" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Haugh told NPR</a>. “Obviously they want to try to use me to siphon votes away from Kay Hagan and maybe swing the election to Thom Tillis.”</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GPS, then, funded two groups, including AFF, that mounted campaigns benefiting Tillis. GPS’ multifarious show of force ushered Tillis into the winners circle in 2014, helping swing the Senate into GOP control.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While GPS was its largest single supporter in 2014, AFF received more than $1 million apiece from two other donors; those three contributions made up 64 percent of AFFs revenue in 2014, according to the group’s latest tax filing.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One of those other donors, providing $1.35 million, was the Judicial Crisis Network (JCN), as <em>OpenSecrets Blog</em> has reported — <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2015/11/wellspring-gives-big-boost-to-judicial-crisis-network-with-6-6-million-grant/" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">which itself is entirely funded</a> by <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2013/11/wellsprings-flow/" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">another shadowy group called the Wellspring Committee</a>. JCN and AFF, along with an AFF subsidiary called The Progress Project, <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2015/11/wellspring-gives-big-boost-to-judicial-crisis-network-with-6-6-million-grant/" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">then put $1.8 million</a> into the Republican Attorneys General Association.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But, while electing conservative attorneys general around the country has been a focus of JCN’s efforts, it hasn’t been the only one. The group has spent heavily in judicial races over the last two cycles — including more than $600,000 in the lead-up to Arkansas’ court elections last week, in which JCN’s favored candidate was the victor. After the voting was done, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) said that, “<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/citizens-united-anthony-kennedy_us_5637c481e4b0631799134b92" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">regrettably, a winner in yesterday’s campaign was dark money</a>.” The group has also launched a “<a href="http://judicialnetwork.com/let-the-people-decide-statement/" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">seven figure television, radio and digital advertising campaign</a>” praising several Republican senators in tight re-election battles for promising to block consideration of any Supreme Court nominee submitted by the Obama administration to fill the late Associate Justice Antonin Scalia’s seat.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">…and Puerto Rico’s lows</font></strong></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Back in 2014, AFF rounded out its year with an ad campaign that had nothing to do with attorneys general or the congressional midterms, paying for a series of ads in Politico and the <em>Wall Street Journal</em> accusing the Democratic governor of Puerto Rico, Alejandro Garcia Padilla, of being a part of a “Culture of Corruption.” The ads were conspicuously timed to run just before a lawsuit brought by Doral Financial Group was to go to court, <a href="http://judicialnetwork.com/let-the-people-decide-statement/" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;"><em>OpenSecrets Blog</em> reported last year</a>. Doral Financial Group won its suit, <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-10-10/doral-wins-order-for-229-million-puerto-rico-tax-refund" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">receiving a $230 million tax refund</a> from the struggling Puerto Rican government, which is teetering on the <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/12/31/puerto-rico-continues-to-sink-into-bankruptcy-with-no-lifeline-in-sight/" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">brink of bankruptcy</a>.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When AFF reported all of this spending to the IRS, it counted $3.4 million as “political expenditures” — just shy of the 49 percent limit the agency imposes on the political activity of social welfare groups. That’s assuming that AFF’s other expenditures on things like “production/writing” or “survey research” was for actual social welfare programs rather than supporting the group’s political agenda. And a larger question is whether the group provides an <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2015/10/political-nonprofit-spent-nearly-100-percent-of-funds-to-elect-tillis-in-14/" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">excessive private benefit</a> to a candidate or party, in this case the Republican party.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Its unlikely that the IRS will ever answer that question, though, as it only audits <a href="http://www.publicintegrity.org/2014/07/15/15035/hobbled-irs-cant-stem-dark-money-flow" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">seven out of each 1,000</a> returns filed every year.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The picture that has emerged of American Future Fund, post Koch, is one of a group that is something of a hired gun, where AFF — in the mold of other groups like Americans for Job Security — does the dirty work of others, particularly if it helps the GOP establishment.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“With the advent of the Internet…”</font></strong></p><div id="attachment_4778" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="margin: 0px 20px 10px 0px; border: none; float: left; padding: 4px; display: inline; width: 356px;"><a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/IRS-flowchart41.png" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><img class="wp-image-4778" src="http://www.opensecrets.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/IRS-flowchart41.png" alt="Though this flowchart focuses on annual 990 returns -- the most commonly requested documents -- the process for obtaining 1024 materials is similar." width="350" height="1111" style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); vertical-align: middle; padding: 5px; margin: 0px;" /></font></a><p class="wp-caption-text" style="padding: 5px; margin: 0px; max-width: 98%; width: 348.875px; background: rgb(239, 239, 239); border: 1px solid rgb(239, 239, 239);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In an previous report about the liberal group American Bridge 21st Century, <em>OpenSecrets Blog</em> gave an accurate, if slightly tongue-in-cheek, explanation of how to get routine documents from the IRS.</font></p></div><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There’s a reason why this post on AFF’s 2014 tax documents is coming in March 2016, well over a year after the activity being reported took place. The first is that social welfare organizations, including AFF, aren’t required to file their annual tax returns with the IRS until nearly a year after their fiscal year has concluded. That means groups that operate on a calendar year schedule like AFF — and many of the organizations that fund it — aren’t required to file their returns with the IRS until November of the following year.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And even once the documents are filed, they are not automatically made public. They have to be requested directly from the groups themselves. These requests can be made in person. But American Future Fund, like many of its nondisclosing brethren, is not only located in Des Moines, but has no physical address other than a mailbox there, <a href="https://twitter.com/RobertMaguire_/status/403174261474353152" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">making it very difficult to register an in-person request</a>.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AFF has ignored numerous requests from <em>OpenSecrets Blog</em> for the documents, even though IRS regulations require organizations without permanent offices to make them available in a timely manner upon request. No director, employee or legal representative of the group has responded to our requests for its 2014 documents.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The organization failed to respond to a written request mailed Nov. 16, 2015, multiple phone calls between November 2015 and January 2016, and three emails to the group’s president and director on Nov. 16 and Dec. 14, 2015, and Jan. 4, 2016. CRP filed a complaint against AFF with the IRS on Jan. 28 for refusing to disclose or provide a copy of its tax filing. The IRS Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division confirmed that the complaint would be considered in a letter dated Feb. 18.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The IRS also provides tax documents upon request, but it has yet to get back to us on a formal request submitted by <em>OpenSecrets Blog</em> last October. Those requests are supposed to be fulfilled within 60 days.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The IRS also provides monthly sets of tax returns on DVDs that come in the mail, but it has yet to send out the DVDs covering November 2015, which is why sites like CitizenAudit.org and GuideStar.org do not yet have a 2014 filing for American Future Fund.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We ultimately located the AFF filing, thanks to a kind and helpful tipster, deep in a search database run by a state agriculture department. But we highlight the process here to make a point about the <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2014/07/this-2143-page-irs-document-could-be-yours-for-just-428-60-plus-shipping/" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">unnecessarily complicated obstacle course that members of the press and public must negotiate to obtain what are supposed to be routine public documents</a>.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the 2010 <em>Citizens United</em> decision, which made it easier for nonprofits like American Future Fund and Crossroads GPS to engage in political activity, eight of the Supreme Court’s nine justices were in agreement that “with the advent of the Internet, prompt disclosure of expenditures can provide shareholders and citizens with the information needed to hold corporations and elected officials accountable for their positions and supporters.”</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Yet, as this process shows, receiving basic documents containing public information about expenditures is anything but prompt. We’ll be forced to learn that lesson again in November 2017, when American Future Fund files its return covering the electioneering it is doing now.</font></p></div><footer class="entry-meta" style="line-height: 15px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /><strong>Categories</strong>: <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/category/outside-money/501c-groups/" rel="category tag" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">501(c) groups</a> <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/category/outside-money/" rel="category tag" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Outside Money</a><br /><br /><strong>Tags</strong>: <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/tag/501c4/" rel="tag" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">501(c)(4)</a>, <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/tag/501c4_/" rel="tag" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">501(c)4</a>, <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/tag/501c49737/" rel="tag" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">501c4</a>, <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/tag/american-future-fund/" rel="tag" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">American Future Fund</a>, <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/tag/citizens-united/" rel="tag" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Citizens United</a>, <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/tag/crossroads-gps/" rel="tag" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Crossroads GPS</a>, <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/tag/cruz/" rel="tag" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">cruz</a>, <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/tag/dark-money/" rel="tag" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">dark money</a>, <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/tag/disclosure/" rel="tag" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">disclosure</a>, <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/tag/donald-trump/" rel="tag" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Donald Trump</a>, <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/tag/fec-v-wisconsin-right-to-life/" rel="tag" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">FEC v. Wisconsin Right to LIfe</a>, <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/tag/gop/" rel="tag" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">gop</a>, <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/tag/irs/" rel="tag" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">irs</a>, <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/tag/john-kasich/" rel="tag" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">john kasich</a>, <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/tag/kasich/" rel="tag" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Kasich</a>, <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/tag/robert-maguire/" rel="tag" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Robert Maguire</a>, <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/tag/shadow-money-trail/" rel="tag" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Shadow Money Trail</a>, <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/tag/social-welfare/" rel="tag" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">social welfare</a>, <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/tag/ted-cruz/" rel="tag" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Ted Cruz</a>, <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/tag/trump/" rel="tag" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">trump</a>, <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/tag/trump-university/" rel="tag" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Trump University</a>, <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/tag/wisconsin-right-to-life/" rel="tag" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Wisconsin Right to Life</a></font></footer></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></div>