documented nick surgey

see CMD

ref by heated

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our Tweet Ended Kathleen Sgamma’s Bid to Lead Trump Public Lands Agency

https://substack.com/app-link/post?publication

Memo Revealed Sgamma Was 'Disgusted' by Trump's Role in Inciting Jan. 6 Violence

Sgamma, President, Western Energy Alliance, speaks during a House Committee on Natural Resources hearing on America's Energy and Mineral potential, Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

On Tuesday morning, I posted on social media a private memo from Kathleen Sgamma that revealed criticism of Donald Trump from within his own circle. Trump is well known to demand absolute loyalty from his nominees. By Thursday afternoon, just hours before her confirmation hearing, Kathleen Sgamma withdrew her nomination to lead the Bureau of Land Management. It has been widely reported that it was the memo that forced her out.

In February Donald Trump nominated Sgamma to oversee the BLM. Few were surprised by his choice. Sgamma has been a longtime advocate for the oil and gas industry and president of the Western Energy Alliance, a prominent trade group representing the industry.

Trump's position on climate change has been well reported since before his first term. Since his 2020 victory, he has openly pushed for expanded drilling, vowed to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, and said(once again), "We will drill, baby, drill," during his inauguration address.

During that speech, Trump also stated that the U.S. has the “largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth—and we are going to use it.”

Sgamma seemed like a natural fit, albeit one that was horrifying for many environmental groups. Taylor McKinnon of the Center for Biological Diversity called her nomination an "unmitigated disaster," citing her "breathtaking disdain" for protecting public lands.

But behind the scenes, we uncovered a revealing internal memo buried among internal Western Energy Alliance documents from 2021, written by Sgamma to the group's member companies. In it, she strongly criticized Trump’s actions around January 6th.

Crucially, the Sgamma memo was sent to WEA members on January 7th, amid intense political backlash following the January 6th attack on the Capitol, and when Trump's leadership faced widespread condemnation and calls for impeachment. Some dissent (or honesty) was possible in that brief window.

In the memo, Sgamma expressed being “disgusted” by the violence on January 6th, placing blame squarely on Trump’s "role in spreading misinformation that incited it.” She went further, offering supportive words to incoming President Joe Biden, hoping he could restore “normalcy and moderation” to a nation shaken by unrest—even as she openly acknowledged their obvious policy differences.

Here is what Sgamma wrote in 2021:

I don’t usually bother you with reactions to major events shaping the country and world, because there is plenty of coverage on those. We take positions on issues in our portfolio, and I usually do not like to stray into larger issues that are outside the lanes directed by our committees and boards. We stick to our issues in social media, and I personally limit engagement on most other issues because of my professional position and general intolerance for a medium that quickly devolves into people yelling past each other.

However, the events yesterday at the Capitol were so shocking that our policy engagement with and PAC support for the Trump Administration compels me to speak up. I am disgusted by the violence witnessed yesterday and President Trump’s role in spreading misinformation that incited it. I’m disgusted he discredited all the good work he did reorienting the judiciary back toward respect for the rule of law and constitution by dishonoring the vote of the People and the rulings of those very same judges on his numerous challenges. I’m disheartened he besmirched his smart, well-intentioned people in the agencies who did such good work on important policies that advance the crucial mission of making life-sustaining, affordable energy accessible to all Americans, no matter their race, gender, and political orientation.

Senator Mike Lee, Chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources announced Ms. Sgamma's withdrawal as the committee gathered on Thursday. “We accept her withdrawal and look forward to putting forth another nominee,” said a White House spokesperson.

Former Trump Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, now in private practice at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, tweeted after the withdrawal: "Individuals who know their views don’t align with the president, yet seek political appointments hoping such divergence won't be noticed, cause needless harm. Sad. Self-inflicted."

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an pro p 924

ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, privately heaped praise on a major religious-rights group for fighting efforts to reform the nation’s highest court — efforts sparked, in large part, by her husband’s ethical lapses.

Thomas expressed her appreciation in an email sent to Kelly Shackelford, an influential litigator whose clients have won cases at the Supreme Court. Shackelford runs the First Liberty Institute, a $25 million-a-year organization that describes itself as “the largest legal organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to defending religious liberty for all Americans.”

Shackelford read Thomas’ email aloud on a July 31 private call with his group’s top donors.

[JUDGE SHOPPING?] NOPE SCOTUS

Thomas wrote that First Liberty’s opposition to court-reform proposals gave a boost to certain judges. According to Shackelford, Thomas wrote in all caps: “YOU GUYS HAVE FILLED THE SAILS OF MANY JUDGES. CAN I JUST TELL YOU, THANK YOU SO, SO, SO MUCH.”

Shackelford said he saw Thomas’ support as evidence that judges, who “can’t go out into the political sphere and fight,” were thankful for First Liberty’s work to block Supreme Court reform. “It’s neat that, you know, those of you on the call are a part of protecting the future of our court, and they really appreciate it,” he said.

On the same call, Shackelford attacked Justice Elena Kagan as “treasonous” and “disloyal” after she endorsed an enforcement mechanism for the court’s newly adopted ethics code in a recent public appearance. He said that such an ethics code would “destroy the independence of the judiciary.” (This past weekend, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said she too was open to an enforceable ethics code for the Supreme Court.)

After the call, First Liberty sent a recording of the 45-minute conversation to some of its supporters. ProPublica and Documented obtained that recording.

Ginni Thomas did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

First Liberty Institute did not directly respond to ProPublica and Documented’s questions about the recording. Hiram Sasser, executive general counsel at First Liberty Institute, said in a statement: “First Liberty is extremely alarmed at the Leftist attacks on our democracy and judicial independence and is fighting to bring attention to this dangerous threat. It’s shameful that the political Left seems perfectly fine destroying democracy to achieve the court decisions they favor instead of working through democratic and constitutional means.”

The July 31 call led by Shackelford came shortly after President Joe Biden had announced support for a slate of far-reaching Supreme Court changes. Biden endorsed term limits for justices, a constitutional amendment reversing the court’s recent presidential immunity decision and a binding ethics code for the court’s nine members. Kagan’s comments came before Biden’s. She did not mention any of the structural proposals Biden endorsed.

On the donor call, Shackelford voiced strong opposition to various court reform proposals, including the ones floated by Biden, as well as expanding the size of the court. All of these proposals, Shackelford said, were part of “a dangerous attempt to really destroy the court, the Supreme Court.” This effort was led by “people in the progressive, extreme left” who were “upset by just a few cases,” he said.

This is not the first time that a spouse of a Supreme Court justice injected themselves into controversial political matters. Ginni Thomas sent dozens of messages after the 2020 election that echoed then-President Donald Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud. In messages to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, Thomas said “Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History” and urged Trump to not concede the election. In emails to Arizona and Wisconsin lawmakers, she pleaded with them to fight back against supposed fraud and send a “clean slate of Electors.” She later wrote, “The nation’s eyes are on you now. … Please consider what will happen to the nation we all love if you do not stand up and lead.” (Thomas said in 2022 she regretted sending the inflammatory messages to Meadows.)

Martha-Ann Alito, the wife of Justice Samuel Alito, faced scrutiny for flying an upside-down American flag at the family’s Virginia home — a symbol used by the Stop the Steal movement that claimed the 2020 election had been stolen from Trump. The flag flew outside the Alito home as the Supreme Court was deciding whether to hear a case related to the 2020 election. (Samuel Alito told The New York Times he had no role in flying the flag. He said his wife did it in response to “a neighbor’s use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs.”)

The push to change how the court functions grew after a series of ProPublica stories showed that wealthy Republican donors have showered Thomas and Alito with free gifts and travel that they failed to disclose. Following ProPublica’s reporting, Thomas amended past disclosure reports, and the Supreme Court adopted the ethics code, its first ever.

Thomas and Alito have said they weren’t required to disclose free flights or hospitality from friends.

First Liberty has been at the forefront of a decades-long and successful effort to expand the First Amendment rights of religious groups, even as those interests can collide with other constitutional principles like maintaining the separation of church and state or providing equal protection for protected classes.

In the last several years, First Liberty has notched big victories. In June 2022, the Supreme Court’s six conservatives ruled in favor of several Maine families represented by First Liberty and the Institute for Justice, a libertarian-leaning legal advocacy group, when it struck down the state’s ban on using public funding to pay for religious schooling.

Days later, the six conservatives ruled again in favor of a First Liberty plaintiff — in this case, a former football coach at a Washington state public high school who had been fired for praying on the field after games. The conservative majority said the coach had been wrongly removed from his job, a decision hailed by religious groups and criticized by some experts who said it would now be more difficult for public schools to keep education separate from religion.

First Liberty has also represented a bakery in Oregon whose owners refused to make a cake for a same-sex wedding, citing their religious beliefs; religious groups that opposed the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate; and nearly three dozen Navy SEALs and military members who refused to be vaccinated for the virus on the basis of their faith. In all the cases, First Liberty’s plaintiffs won partial or full victories in lower courts or at the Supreme Court.

Shackelford, who is First Liberty’s president and CEO, has led the group for nearly three decades. His influence extends into the broader conservative movement. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a former First Liberty attorney, once called Shackelford a mentor. Shackelford has served as vice president of the Council for National Policy, an umbrella group that brings together conservative leaders and deep-pocketed donors.

He also works closely with Ziklag, the secretive network of ultrawealthy conservative Christians that aims to “take dominion” over every major sphere of influence in American culture. According to internal Ziklag newsletters obtained by ProPublica and Documented, Shackelford has participated in Supreme Court prep sessions and appeared on strategy conference calls organized by the group.

On the July 31 donor call, Shackelford kept the focus squarely on the mounting calls to reform the Supreme Court. In addition to Biden’s proposals, several groups, including prominent liberal legal outfits, have proposed other changes including term limits and stronger ethics guidelines. And earlier in July, the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law said it had received a $30 million gift from the private-equity investor Jim Kohlberg to create a new project that will “seek reform of the Supreme Court.”

Shackelford described all of this — Kagan’s speech, Biden’s announcement, the $30 million donation — as if it was a coordinated effort. “They’re doing everything in their power,” he told the donors. “They’re hitting from every direction.” The “extreme left,” he explained, was “upset by just a few cases, but that’s all they need to say, ‘We’re ready to totally’ — they would call ‘reform’ or ‘restructure’ the court — but almost everything they propose would actually destroy the court.”

He aimed his fiercest criticism on the donor call at Kagan. “That is incredible, somewhat treasonous, what Kagan did,” Shackelford said. “The chief justice rules the court. They’re trying to keep the other branches’ hands off of them. And then you’ve got Kagan from the inside really being somewhat disloyal and somewhat treasonous in what she’s doing.”

Shackelford accused ProPublica of being part of a campaign to “delegitimize or get rid of the court.” He said that the ethics lapses unearthed by ProPublica’s reporting were “false” and “baseless,” even though they helped spark the creation of a new ethics code and led to Thomas filing new financial disclosure forms, in effect admitting that he had failed to disclose certain gifts.

ProPublica stands behind all of the stories in its “Friends of the Court” series. Donors do not have access to stories ahead of their publication, and they have no say over coverage decisions.

Turning to what his donors could do to help, Shackelford said that prayer was at the top of the list. “This is a spiritual battle,” he said. “Because the evil that will occur if we lose the rule of law is beyond, I think, what any of us can even think through.”

But First Liberty needed more than prayer — it also needed money. “We need resources to be able to do a bunch of the things that will make a difference between now and the next six months. And that turned out to be key last time,” he said, referring to a similar instance in 2021 and 2022.

Near the start of the Biden presidency, he said, First Liberty raised $3 million to run a campaign that sought to block efforts to add more justices to the high court and to reform or eliminate the filibuster in the U.S. Senate. Getting rid of the filibuster then would’ve removed the 60-vote procedural hurdle that currently exists for most types of legislation.

According to Shackelford, First Liberty conducted polling, ran advertisements, worked with social media influencers and urged Congress to oppose these changes. In particular, Shackelford said, his group focused its activities on convincing Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema to oppose filibuster reform.

In the end, both senators did just that. “We stopped this from happening,” Shackelford said. (Spokespeople for Manchin and Sinema did not respond to requests for comment.)

But now, he went on, First Liberty needed more money if it wanted to mount a similar campaign to stop Supreme Court reform. He mentioned the Brennan Center’s recent $30 million gift and then asked, “Where’s our, you know, $10 million guy or gal?”

And to anyone who wondered about the odds that Supreme Court reform would actually happen, Shackelford responded: “I don't know. I mean, 25%? 30%? Whatever it is, it’s amazing how big that is when you consider that our country will be over and the rule of law will be over.”

Before the call ended, Shackelford wanted his “very top supporters” to know that they had the support in this fight from key figures in high places. He said that a First Liberty staffer based in Washington, D.C., had recently been in a meeting with Ginni Thomas. Afterward, Thomas sent the email that praised First Liberty for joining the fight against Supreme Court reform.

“‘Great to meet through the meetings today,’” Thomas wrote, according to Shackelford, who read the email aloud to the donors. “‘I cannot adequately express enough appreciation for you guys pulling into reacting to the Biden effort on the Supreme Court,” she said, adding, “Many were so depressed at the lack of response by R’s and conservatives” to recent court-reform proposals. The rest of Thomas’ email, Shackelford said, was the all-caps gratitude.

Do you have any information about the Supreme Court and efforts to block court reform that we should know? Andy Kroll can be reached by email at andy.kroll@propublica.org and by Signal or WhatsApp at 202-215-6203.

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nICK@DOCUMENTED.NET @NICKSURGEY

Nick is the Documented Executive Director and an investigative reporter. His work examines the relationship between right-wing groups, corporate money in politics, and our increasingly poisonous and dysfunctional political system.

He is an occasional contributor to the Intercept and other publications. His research has been featured in The Guardian, theNew York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post, plus a whole bunch of other places, including (since it was pretty hilarious) on the Colbert Report. Nick was previously Director of Research for the Center for Media and Democracy, and before that was Staff Counsel for Common Cause in Washington DC.

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new 10 23 email

no lnx

‘Get the Right Cases to the Supreme Court’: Inside Charles Koch’s Network

Billionaire’s web of rightwing groups works to bring cases to court that could undermine core functionings of the US government

ED PILKINGTON AND NICK SURGEY

OCT 26

This article was produced in partnership with The Guardian

The Koch network, a web of rightwing groups cultivated by billionaire businessman Charles Koch and his late brother David Koch, is spearheading the attack on federal agencies and government regulations that dominates the US supreme court agenda this term.

The network has been working behind the scenes to bring cases before the court that, if successful, could undermine many of the core functionings of the US government. At least two of the biggest cases to be considered by the justices this term have been spurred by groups bankrolled and coordinated within the Koch universe.

Footage of an internal panel discussion between senior operatives from Koch entities held in the summer of 2022 reveals that the network has been quietly planning the current assault on the “administrative state”. The groups are seeking to exploit the supreme court’s new six-to-three rightwing majority secured by Donald Trump to dismantle vital executive powers.

Regulatory controls in their sights include environmental standards to combat pollution and the climate crisis, consumer protections against predatory lenders, and safeguards for workers’ rights. At stake is what the Strict Scrutiny podcast has called “the future of government as we know it”.

The footage, which is made public here for the first time, was obtained by the investigative watchdog Documented and shared with the Guardian. During the 37-minute panel discussion, legal strategists with several Koch-related groups expressed excitement that the new hard-right supreme court supermajority has created the potential for a concerted attack on the functions of federal agencies.

Jorge Lima, an economic policy strategist at the Koch network’s central coordinating group, Stand Together, said that the new composition of the court amounted to a huge “landscape opportunity, particularly on the administrative state. We’re doubling down on this strategy.”

Lima added: “Every dog has its day, and it’s a big day for the administrative state.”

Casey Mattox, a legal strategist at the main Koch advocacy group, Americans for Prosperity, argued that the supreme court was now “primed for a real change in the law” on federal regulations which he said amounted to a “paradigm shift”. Mattox said: “That’s why we are partnering with organizations that can get the right cases to the supreme court.”

The effort appears to have born fruit. Two of the most significant cases before the court in the 2023-24 term, brought with the backing of Koch-linked organizations, attempt to rein back the government’s power to impose regulations on corporations.

The prominence of the cases underlines how the libertarian empire created by the Kochs is still a force to be reckoned with within US politics. Since David Koch’s death in 2019, and the Koch network’s decision to come out in opposition to Trump ahead of next year’s presidential election, the network has receded from public attention.

But the scope of Charles Koch’s reach remains formidable, as was demonstrated earlier this month when the 87-year-old told Forbes that he had given $4.3bn of his Koch Industries stock to Believe in People, a newly-created group named after his book of the same title. He has transferred a further $975m to another new entity, CCKc4, which carries the initials of his son Chase Koch.

The massive combined $5.3bn in donations, one of the largest acts of giving to non-profits in US history, will ensure that the Koch influence will continue to push the US to the right for years to come. Undermining government regulations is central to those ambitions.

Lisa Graves, the executive director of the progressive watchdog True North Research who is a long-time Koch watcher, said that Charles Koch has shown a “fundamental hostility to government regulation” since his early political writings in the 1960s. “This is the through-line of his career. His business operations have a substantial self-interest in assailing regulations that impede his profits.”

Koch Industries is a conglomerate of energy and chemicals companies that stand to benefit if controls on pollution, workers’ rights and other aspects of public governance are rolled back. The firm is the second largest privately-owned company in the US.

Among the big administrative state cases that the justices will be considering this term is Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo, which seeks to overturn a 40-year precedent set by the supreme court itself. Known as Chevron, the ruling allows federal agencies the flexibility to reasonably interpret laws without interference from the courts as they regulate critical parts of public life, such as the environment and public safety.

Experts have warned that if Chevron is struck down, it could be a recipe for legal and administrative chaos. “We are talking about rules that protect us in so many ways – truckers who are too tired to drive on the highway, unsafe workplaces, and pollution of our water and the air we breathe,” Graves said.

The case was nominally brought by a New Jersey herring fishing company that objected to being charged by a federal agency that monitors its catch to prevent over-fishing. Behind the challenge is a conservative group called Cause of Action, which is intricately tied to the Koch network.

The chair of Cause of Action’s board, Brian Menckes, is general counsel of the Charles Koch Foundation. Cause of Action’s executive director, James Valvo, who is acting as one of the fishing company’s lawyers in the case, is the former head of policy of Americans for Prosperity.

A second lawyer representing the company, Eric Bolinder, holds dual roles as a counsel for Cause of Action and Americans for Prosperity.

In 2021 Cause of Action’s entire income of $375,000 came from Stand Together, the Koch network’s coordinating group, Bloomberg reported. The groups are also physically close: Cause of Action and Americans for Prosperity not only share the same address in Arlington, Virginia, they occupy the same office – suite 700.

Bolinder was one of the panel speakers at the 2022 Koch discussion on the administrative state. He framed the plan to use the supreme court to launch a legal attack on regulatory government as a states’ rights issue.

“As the federal government grabs more and more power, particularly to the regulatory state, the states become less and less important,” he said.

The Guardian contacted Stand Together and Cause of Action for comment. Cause of Action did not immediately reply.

Gretchen Reiter, Stand Together spokesman, said that the Loper Bright case was seeking “to restore one of the core tenets of our democracy: that Congress, not the administrative agency, makes the laws. Cause of Action Institute – which filed the lawsuit in 2020 – is representing family-run fishing companies that the federal government is forcing to pay a tax that Congress never authorized, and that violates our constitution’s separation of powers.”

Last week, the supreme court accepted a second case also challenging the Chevron precedent, which has now been consolidated with the fishermen’s petition. Relentless v Department of Commerce was also filed by a group with intimate connections to the Koch network, the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA).

The organization, which claims to “protect constitutional freedoms from violations by the administrative state”, was founded in 2017 with seed money from the Charles Koch Foundation. Over five years, it has received more than $5m from the Koch network.

NCLA’s president, Mark Chenoweth, previously served as in-house counsel for Koch Industries.

NCLA submitted an amicus brief last week supporting another major challenge to regulatory agencies that will be heard by the supreme court this term. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) v Jarkesy threatens to gut the enforcement power of the SEC by curtailing its ability to fast-track cases of securities fraud through its own in-house administrative law judges.

A ruling against the SEC could drastically reduce the ability of numerous government agencies to enforce environmental and other standards.

The footage of the Koch panel discussion obtained by Documented reveals that the NCLA has been secretly lobbying for the Jarkesy case to reach the supreme court. Mattox said that “NCLA brought a lot of value to that case”.

He went on: “You won’t see them actually directly litigating on that case, but they’ve done a lot of work behind the scenes, and that speaks to the way that our community adds value here, because when we partner with people we look for results, not necessarily for headlines and attention-grabbing.”

There is a further twist to the issue of Koch influence on the supreme court’s docket this term. Last month, ProPublica revealed as part of its expose of ethical breaches by some justices, that the right-leaning Clarence Thomas had attended at least two Koch donor events where funds were raised to forward the Koch network’s mission – which includes bringing cases before the court.

The attack on the administrative state is central to the work of Americans for Prosperity, which boasts of its years-long campaign to challenge what it calls the “out-of-control regulatory environment imposed by Washington”. It organizes bus tours around the country, directly relating “red tape” on energy infrastructure projects to the high cost of fuel at the pump.

This has taken place while oil and gas giants such as Exxon, BP and Shell have posted record profits, and the world has increasingly felt the impact of climate change. Americans for Prosperity calls itself “the nation’s premier grassroots organization”, but according to an independent audit report from 2021, 94% of the $112m in cash it received that year came from just two donors.

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https://yyy.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/13/heritage-foundation-voter-suppression-lobbying-election-action-plan

guk

tax filings reveal advocacy arm of Heritage Foundation spent $5m on lobbying in 2021 to block voting rights in battleground states

Brendan Fischer and Ed Pilkington

Fri 13 Jan 2023

The advocacy arm of the Heritage Foundation, the powerful conservative thinktank based in Washington, spent more than $5m on lobbying in 2021 as it worked to block federal voting rights legislation and advance an ambitious plan to spread its far-right agenda calling for aggressive voter suppression measures in battleground states.

Previously unreported 2021 tax filings from Heritage Action for America, which operates as the foundation’s activist wing, shows that it spent $5.1m on contracting outside lobbying services. The outlay comes on top of $560,000 the group invested in its own in-house federal lobbying efforts that year, as well as registered lobbying by Heritage Action staffers in at least 24 states.

The 990 tax filing was obtained by the watchdog group Documented and shared with the Guardian. It points to the pivotal role that Heritage Action is increasingly playing in shaping the rules that govern US democracy.

The efforts help explain the unprecedented tidal wave of restrictive voting laws that spread across Republican-controlled states in the wake of the 2020 presidential election.The Brennan Center reported that more voter suppression laws were passed in 2021 than in any year since it began monitoring voting legislation more than a decade ago.

The expenditures also signal a dramatic increase in Heritage Action’s advocacy activities. In 2020, Heritage Action had reported no spending at all on outside lobbying.

[An attendee at the Poor People's Campaign march on Washington on 18 June 2022.

Republicans filed record number of anti-voting lawsuits in 2022 – report

The Industry Plan to Sow Doubt over Climate Science

Evidence presented in the joint CMD/Common Cause IRS filing showed that Exxon had pumped more that $1.7 million into ALEC between 1998 and 2014 to finance lobbying activities that cast doubt on climate science and promoted public policies benefiting the corporation.

The Exxon/ALEC scheme arose from a 1998 “Global Climate Science Communications Action Plan,” authored by the American Petroleum Institute (API). The stated mission of the API plan was to “inform the American public that science does not support the precipitous actions Kyoto [International Climate Treaty] would dictate, thereby providing a climate for theright policy decisions to be made.” [emphasis added]

Exxon was listed as a source of funding for the plan, while ALEC was listed as a “potential fund allocator.” Public records show that Exxon’s funding of ALEC subsequently increased.

Exxon’s more recent efforts to rehabilitate its public image around climate change led the oil giant to split with ALEC in July 2018, reportedly over ALEC’s opposition to the EPA’s findings on greenhouse gases.

Collusion Between Republican AGs and Industry Lobbyists

In 2016, CMD exposed secret, closed-door meetings between state attorneys general and fossil fuel interests to coordinate push-back against New York’s investigation of Exxon. [LA JOLLA SUMMIT?]

CMD published an audio recording of a meeting where representatives of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) and the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) — organizations historically funded in part by Exxon — discussed strategies with Republican attorneys general.

The Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) facilitated the private sessions, a premium service that the pay-to-play organization provides to corporations that pay RAGA up to $125,000 per year.

“These documents reveal a serious conflict of interest: RAGA is facilitating secret meetings between the profit-motivated fossil fuel industry and attorneys general to engineer pushback on investigations of ExxonMobil — and then raising money from oil and gas companies to keep those same Republican attorneys general in office,” said Nick Surgey, CMD’s Research Director at the time.

History of Misinformation Campaigns

CNP, tpusa

INVESTIGATIONS

A selection of current Documented investigations along with key documents and recordings from those investigations.

CNP 87 copy

INVESTIGATION SERIES

The Council for National Policy Forty Year Project to Radically Transform the Country

INVESTIGATION

Recordings and Materials FromCouncil for National Policy Meetings

Dozens of recordings and documents obtained by Documented reveal what happens behind closed doors at CNP meetings

NOVEMBER 10 2021

STORY

Documented Research on the Council for National Policy Featured in Major Washington Post Investigation

The Post investigation is based on dozens of internal CNP videos, documents and other materials obtained by Documented

OCTOBER 25 2021|BY NICK SURGEY

DOCUMENT

Speech given by Ed Feulner at CNP 40th anniversary event

A copy of a speech given by Ed Fuelner on the origin and history of CNP, during CNP's 40th anniversary event CNP in Naples, FL, on May 21 2021. Fuelner was a CNP founder and is the former head of the Heritage Foundation.

PUBLISHED: OCTOBER 25 2021

DOCUMENT

CNP April 2020 Membership Directory

April 2020 membership directory from the secretive Council for National Policy--naming hundreds of CNP members, which the organization does not make public.

PUBLISHED: NOVEMBER 16 2021

Charlie Kirk speaking with attendees at the "Rally to Protect Our Elections" hosted by Turning Point Action at Arizona Federal Theatre in Phoenix, Arizona.

INVESTIGATION SERIES

Turning Point USA and the Culture War Fight in Education

PHOTO OF CHARLIE KIRK AT THE "RALLY TO PROTECT OUR ELECTIONS" HOSTED BY TURNING POINT ACTION IN JULY 2021. PHOTO BY GAGE SKIDMORE

Previous SlideNext Slide

STORY

TPUSA Launches Project Targeting School Board Members

The "School Board Watchlist" goes live as protests have turned increasingly violent and ugly. TPUSA CEO Charlie Kirk calls school board members "parasites."

AUGUST 20 2021|BY NICK SURGEY

STORY

TPUSA Is Launching An "America-First Education" Program to Indoctrinate 5 Year Olds

Turning Point Academy will launch later this year, training thousands of K-12 teachers to teach a TPUSA curriculum, bringing the culture war to the kindergarten

MARCH 25 2021|BY NICK SURGEY

AUDIO

Charlie Kirk of TPUSA Calls School Board Members "Parasites"

Kirk, speaking on his radio show in June 2021: “Similar to a virus that was in our country before we realized it, these school boards were infected by parasites who wish to teach your children a series of ideologies that are so harmful to who we are as Americans.”

PUBLISHED: NOVEMBER 18 2021

DOCUMENT

Turning Point USA 2019 Tax Filing

This 2019 filing was filed in May 2021 due to the group using a non-calendar-year tax period for its accounting. The group's revenue has ballooned from $2m in 2015 to almost $40m in 2020. During this period, TPUSA and its CEO Charlie Kirk developed a close and mutually beneficial relationship with the Trump family. Kirk published a book called The MAGA Doctrine, and Trump family members including Donald Trump were frequent guest speakers at TPUSA events.

PUBLISHED: OCTOBER 27 2021

STORY

Why Has the Non-Profit National Center for Housing Management Given $235k to the Trump-Supporting Youth Group, Turning Point USA?

AUGUST 27 2019|BY NICK SURGEY

INVESTIGATING CORPORATE INFLUENCE

https://documented.net/partnerships

https://documented.net/author/nick-surgey

Exxon Is Still Denying Climate Science—Including Its Own

PUBLISHED: DECEMBER 10, 2021

Photo of Google headquarters in Chicago.

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

Untitled 500 x 250 px 200 x 100 px 2

Google, Deloitte, and Citigroup quietly collaborate with GOP group pushing voter suppression

PUBLISHED: MAY 17, 2021

Photo of Whole Foods Market, W. Hartford, CT.

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

The Intercept logo

Anti-Union Operative Warns Business of Historic Rise in Labor Activism

PUBLISHED: MAY 4, 2020

Photo: Ginni Thomas speaking at the 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland.

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

The Intercept logo

Ginni Thomas Plans New Conservative Supergroup to “Protect President Trump”

PUBLISHED: JUNE 4, 2019

Photo: Hans von Spakovsky in Washington, D.C. on November 3, 2018.

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

The Intercept logo

Conservative Expert Privately Warned GOP Donors That a Voting Rights Bill Would Help Democrats

PUBLISHED: FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) speaking at the Women's March in New York City in 2019.

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

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Business Lobbyists, GOP Operatives Plot to Take Down Wave of Ocasio-Cortez-Style Democratic Socialists i

12 2016

UK’s biggest energy company, Centrica, has donated tens of thousands of dollars to a Texas-based climate denial think tank strongly linked to Donald Trump’s new energy secretary Rick Perry, Unearthedcan reveal.

Centrica, which owns British Gas and is a major investor in UK fracking, has made a number of donations to theTexas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) over the last five years and says it has no plans to stop.

When contacted by Unearthed, Centrica refused to disclose the total sum that it had donated to the group. But a leaked 2010 donor listreveals that itsUS subsidiary, Direct Energy, was among the TPPF’s largest donors that year with a payment of $20,000.

Other donors in 2010 included ExxonMobil, Chevron, the Koch brothers, Devon Energy and a host of other energy companies and climate sceptic funding bodies.

The Austin-based think tank has played a central role in the US climate denial movement, which is now poised to take control of energy and environmental policy under Donald Trump.

Centrica has previously sought to position itself as corporate leader on climate action.

In its last annual report the firm boasted: “We are also making an important contribution to address big issues in society related to energy: from energy pricing and vulnerability to energy security and climate change.”

Responding to the news, Caroline Lucas MP told Unearthed: “For a company that has claimed to be at the forefront of action on climate change, it is simply astounding that Centrica is donating money to climate deniers.”

“Now that these links have come to light, we need a clear commitment from Centrica to end all further donations. It is shameful that one of our largest energy companies is linked to this reckless and irresponsible organisation, and I hope an apology will be issued shortly.”

Ties to Trump

The TPPF holds strong relationships with leading Republican politicians, including former presidential candidate Ted Cruz, who was a senior fellowat the organisation, and new energy secretary Rick Perry.

Leading Republicans Rick Perry and Ted Cruz have strong links to the Texas Public Policy Foundation, which aims to stop CO2 being regulated as a pollutant. Photo]

Perry published his 2010 book,}:Fed Up! Our Fight to Save America from Washington, with the TPPF, using his author’s note to praise the think tank for its role in fighting the “perils of environmental policy based on the hysteria of global warming.”

The think tank’s ties to the new Trump administration also includeDoug Domenech, who isleading Donald Trump’sdepartment of interior transition team.

Domenech, a former department of interior staffer under George W. Bush, leads the TPPF’s “Fueling Freedom” project, which aims to “end the regulation of CO2 as a pollutant” and collaborates with the Heritage Foundation to organise an annual climate sceptic energy summitin Washington D.C.

This year’s event was attended by prominent sceptics, includingSenator Jim Inhofe,**Willie Soon**and Professor Will Happer, who was caught in an *:{Unearthed :(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:*:{undercover sting :(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:last year agreeing to hide the fact a fossil fuel company would be funding his research on the benefits of CO2.

Centrica’s donations

Centrica has refused to disclose how much it has donated to the TPPF but admitted that it continues to do so and has no plans to stop the payments.

According to the Guardian guk,the company’s most recent donation was of a similar size to the $20,000 payment in 2010.

A Centrica spokesperson told Unearthed: “Centrica has a clear position on climate change and we believe in the need to take material action to reduce the effect of fossil fuels on climate change.”

“The TPPF is a non-profit research organization and cannot by law lobby the Texas government or any governmental institution. [guffaw] We share some of their views on the benefits of a well-structured retail electricity market to help consumers get the best possible price and product, fair tax policy for families and businesses, strong schools, quality health care and safe neighborhoods for our customers and employees.”

When asked if Centrica felt it had been a mistake to donate core funding to a think tank so at odds with its views on climate change, the spokesperson said: “We do not make contributions to any organization to advocate specifically for a position on the environment. We believe the science on climate change is absolutely clear.”

Nick Surgey, Director of Research at the Center for Media and Democracy in the US, told Unearthed:

“For decades, the U.S. climate change denial movement has been backed by millions of dollars in secret funding from the fossil fuel industry. Over the past eight years climate denial had been fading in the mainstream, increasingly pushed into the shadows of US politics. But fossil fuel funding for groups like TPPF had continued, mostly in secret, and they are now moving into a position of power and influence.”

“With the election of Trump, the deniers are finding themselves with greater access to the incoming administration than they have had for years, possibly more than they have ever had. TPPF presents itself as an independent quasi-academic think tank. It is actually one of the more extreme climate change denial groups in the United States, promoting disinformation about the threat of climate change to the benefit of its corporate funders.”

The Texas Public Policy Foundation failed to respond to a request for comment.