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// RR Mandate of leadership bible?!

https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php/cw/guest-words/24209-the-money-trail-ginni-thomas-emails-to-overturn-biden-s-election-leads-to-charles-koch

2020 ELECTION CONSPIRACY - The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward and Bob Costa of CBS News have unleashed a fury of renewed interest in the work of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

Last Thursday, Woodward and Costa set off a political firestorm when they released the contents of emails that Ginni Thomas, wife of the sitting Supreme Court Justice, Clarence Thomas, had sent to President Donald Trump’s Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, in 2020, urging him to overturn the Biden election win and attempting to steer his efforts in that regard.

A total of 29 emails were obtained by Woodward and Costa, with the bulk of the emails occurring in just the month of November 2020, raising questions as to how many more emails are still out there from Thomas to the White House from December 1, 2020 through January 20, 2021 when Biden was sworn in.

Much of the current news debate around the emails is focusing on whether Clarence Thomas should recuse himself from cases involving groups with which his wife is involved and whether the Select Committee should subpoena Ginni Thomas to testify. While those are certainly important issues, what has thus far been ignored is the smoking gun trail that leads directly to the doorstep of billionaire and right-wing Republican political mastermind, Charles Koch, the Chairman, CEO (and majority owner with the heirs of his deceased brother David) of the fossil fuels conglomerate Koch Industries.

Wall Street On Parade has previously documented that at least three of the front groups that fomented the Big Lie that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from Trump and that actively solicited thousands of people to turn out for the January 6 event at the Capitol, were funded by Koch Industries or its front groups.

The smoking gun in the Ginni Thomas email thread occurs in an email dated November 10, 2020 when she tells Meadows to “Listen to Rush. Mark Steyn, Bongino, Cleta.” Thomas is clearly referring to conservative commentators Rush Limbaugh, Mark Steyn and Dan Bongino, and lawyer, Cleta Mitchell.

Cleta Mitchell is best known in the Trump election saga as the lawyer who was on the January 2, 2021 call with Donald Trump when he phoned the Secretary of State of Georgia, Brad Raffensperger, and told him this: “I only need 11,000 votes. Fellas, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break.” That call took place two months after the presidential election. (Mitchell stepped down from her long-term employment at law firm Foley & Lardner after her presence on that call made the news cycle.)

But Cleta Mitchell’s relationship with Ginni Thomas dates back at least a decade earlier – and not in a good way.

Cleta Mitchell had filed an amicus brief in the Citizens United case before the Supreme Court that was decided on January 21, 2010. That case would be the tipping point to allow unlimited sums from corporations – like Koch Industries — in U.S. elections.

Just eight days after Justice Thomas voted in favor of that decision to open the floodgates to corporate money in campaigns, Cleta Mitchell made a move that looked very much like a quid pro quo to Ginni Thomas. Mitchell, then still a partner at Foley & Lardner, filed an application with the Internal Revenue Service to set up a nonprofit called Liberty Central, Inc. on behalf of Ginni Thomas. According to IRS tax filings, Liberty Central received a combined $1.478 million from dark money donors in 2009 and 2010.

On the IRS tax filings for Liberty Central for 2009 and 2010, Ginni (Virginia) Thomas is listed as President and CEO. The 2010 tax filing shows that Ginni Thomas received $120,511 in compensation from Liberty Central that year. She eventually stepped down from an official post at the nonprofit, stating she would serve as a consultant.

Liberty Central had the fingerprints of Charles Koch all over it. Acting as General Counsel in 2010 for Liberty Central was a former lawyer for the Charles G. Koch Foundation, Sarah Field. A former Koch lobbyist, Matt Schlapp, served on the Board of Liberty Central at inception.

Mitchell’s law firm, Foley & Lardner, employed three attorneys working as lobbyists for a Koch Industries affiliate, Koch Companies Public Sector, LLC in Madison, Wisconsin in 2011. The Koch-related lobbyists were Ray Carey, Jason Childress and Kathleen Walby.

Mitchell, herself, was a former lobbyist at the federal level in years 2005 through 2008 for the Alliance for Charitable Reform, a project of The Philanthropy Roundtable, another tax-exempt organization. Donors Trustand Donors Capital Fund, two dark money groups which also have Charles Koch’s fingerprints all over them, were spun off from the Philanthropy Roundtable in 1999. (See our report: Koch Footprints Lead to Secret Slush Fund to Keep Fear Alive.)

Mitchell is listed on the 2018 federal tax filing for Steve Bannon’s charity, Citizens of the American Republic, as an officer of the organization, holding the position of Secretary. Bannon and others were charged in August of 2021 by the Department of Justice with bilking donors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars through that charity.

Senator Ron Johnson, a Republican from Wisconsin, was one of those pushing the narrative on television that the election had been stolen from Donald Trump. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, lawyers and staff of Foley & Lardner were the third largest donor to Johnson’s campaign committees since 2015. Employees and officials of Koch Industries ranked fifth.

There were only eight Republican Senators who refused to certify the votes for the challenged states of Arizona and/or Pennsylvania. Those Republican Senators were: Ted Cruz of Texas; Josh Hawley of Missouri; Rick Scott of Florida; Tommy Tuberville of Alabama; Roger Marshall of Kansas; Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi; John Kennedy of Louisiana; and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming. Every Republican Senator who refused to certify the election results on January 6 received funding from Koch Industries PAC.

Trump’s Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, whom Ginni Thomas enlisted in the White House to help overturn Biden’s election win, was previously a member of the House of Representatives from North Carolina from 2013 to 2020. He also received campaign funding from the Koch Industries PAC throughout his time in Congress.

Charles Koch is usually very careful in keeping an arm’s length relationship between himself and his political operations. But on at least one occasion Koch conducted a dinner meeting directly with sitting Justice Clarence Thomas at a private club in California.

In January 2008, Justice Thomas attended an all-expenses-paid, four-day trip to the Koch brothers’ semi-annual political gathering in the Palm Springs area of California. (According to his 2008 disclosure form and the Supreme Court’s public information office, Thomas’ expenses for that trip were paid by the Federalist Society, a conservative nonprofit that Koch foundations have generously supported.)

Justice Thomas’ trip to the Koch event occurred in the same year that the Citizens Unitedcase was accepted by the Supreme Court.  The Court accepts less than two percent of all cases appealed to it.

Wall Street On Parade was previously able to confirm with Scott Markley, Public Information Specialist at the Supreme Court, that during that January 2008 visit to the Koch political gathering, Justice Thomas was hosted by Charles Koch and his wife, Elizabeth, at the private Vintage Club where Charles Koch is a member.

The Citizens United decision did not pass the smell test when it was approved in a 5-4 vote by the Supreme Court. Four of the nine justices wrote a scathing dissent that raised the issue of unprincipled behavior, writing that the majority had ruled on issues that were not even legally before the court.

The money that the Koch political machine pumped into putting Trump in the Oval Office quickly paid big dividends in his first term (and made it clear as to why Charles Koch would have wanted to see a second Trump term).

Koch Industries’ law firm, Jones Day, sent 12 of its law partners to staff up key positions in the Trump administration on the very day Trump was inaugurated. Jones Day has since sacked the press release it issued at the time but you can read the reporting on it at the American Bar Association Journal.

Once Trump was settled in the Oval Office, a Koch front group, then known as Freedom Partners, mapped out the agenda it expected Trump to march to.In a document titled “Roadmap to Repeal: Removing Regulatory Barriers to Opportunity,” the group listed the laws and regulations it expected to be repealed in the first 100 days of Trump’s administration. The Trump administration dutifully marched to the beat. Repeal the Paris Climate Accord – done. Tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy – done. Gutting federal regulations and the Environmental Protection Agency – done.

By the spring of 2018, 12 people who previously worked atFreedom Partners were working in the Trump administration. Freedom Partners has since disbanded but when we last took a look at the nonprofit in July 2018, we found that all but one of Freedom Partners’ 9-member Board of Directors was a current or former Koch company employee. The Board Chair of Freedom Partners at that time was the same Mark Holden that was the General Counsel of Koch Industries.

It’s time for the House Select Committee to subpoena not just Ginni Thomas and Cleta Mitchell. It’s time to hear from Charles Koch directly on how so much money bearing his fingerprints ended up fomenting the attack on the Capitol on January 6.

There will never be a better time than now for the American people to finally get at the truth.

(Pam Martens & Russ Martens are authors at CounterPunch.org.  This originally appeared on Wall Street on Parade

ref 1

a dozen lawyers from Jones Day are headed to new jobs in the Trump administration that range from White House counsel to special assistant to the secretary of agriculture.

Jones Day announced the moves in a press release, and several publications picked up the story, including Above the Law, the National Law Journal (sub. req.) and the Wall Street Journal Law Blog.

One appointment—that of Donald McGahnto serve as White House counsel—was previously announced. Also working in the White House are Bill McGinley (deputy assistant to the president and cabinet secretary),Greg Katsas (deputy counsel to the president), David Morrell (associate counsel to the president), James Burnham (senior associate counsel to the president), Annie Donaldson (special counsel to the president and chief of staff to the White House counsel).

Jones Day lawyers working in the Justice Department include Noel Francisco (principal deputy solicitor general), John Gore (deputy assistant attorney general, civil rights division), Chad Readler (principal deputy assistant attorney general, civil division), and Michael Murray (counsel to the deputy attorney general).

Rounding out the list are James Uthmeier (special adviser to the Secretary of Commerce) and Stephen Vaden (special assistant to the Secretary of Agriculture).

A 13th lawyer, Kaytlin Roholt, will serve as special counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

ref 2 martens

https://kochdocs.org/2019/06/06/freedom-partners-roadmap-repeal/

2017 Koch Freedom Partners: A “Roadmap” for the Trump Administration to Repeal Environmental Rules

This 2017 document titled “A Roadmap to Repeal: Removing Regulatory Barriers to Opportunity” was created by Freedom Partners, a donor group Politico has called the “secret bank” of the Koch Brothers.

This memo from Charles Koch’s network to its funders details changes in the law sought by what was then called the Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, which was controlled by Koch and his operatives.

That group is now operating under the name “Stand Together.” Whatever the name, the concept is the same: this is the political agenda of the Koch empire in coordination with the CEOs and corporations that help fund Charles Koch’s agenda through a non-profit trade group–organized under 501(c)(5) of the IRS Code–which has operated under different brand names.

This kind of memo is one of the organizing tools deployed by Koch to get his billionaire and millionaire funder allies, who are part of what is also sometimes called the “Koch Network,” on the same page about the agenda for the year ahead. Koch’s political hq circulates these kinds of memos to attendees of the semi-annual retreats Charles Koch has been hosting for years to advance his personal and corporate agenda.

This particular memo is focused on Koch’s agenda to have the Trump Administration changes the laws to suit his goals. This “Roadmap” includes a list of “what can be repealed in the first 100 days” of the Trump administration such as:

It also lists “longer-term opportunities” such as the:

A ROADMAP TO REPEAL:

REMOVING REGULATORY

BARRIERS TO OPPORTUNITY

President Obama has imposed an unprecedented onslaught of regulatory costs on the U.S. economy. Since 2009, federal

agencies have issued more than 600 major regulations with a total cost exceeding $700 billion. These regulations have erected

barriers to opportunity for millions of American families, resulting in the weakest workforce in nearly 40 years.

Freedom Partners strongly supports efforts by President-elect Trump and the new Congress to repeal as many of President

Obama’s executive actions and regulations as possible. Removing these barriers to opportunity is among the surest ways to

jumpstart the U.S. economy and create more opportunity for all.

Unfortunately, repealing federal regulations is not as simple as it sounds. A successful strategy must be considered in three steps

and will require action from the administration, Congress, and the courts. Additionally, Freedom Partners urges Congress

to put lawmakers on record on as many of these regulations as possible so that voters can see where they stand and hold them

accountable in 2018.

STEP 1. WHAT CAN BE REPEALED IN THE FIRST 100 DAYS

Executive actions, proposed regulations, and recently finalized regulations.

Executive Actions and Proposed Regulations: President-elect Trump can unilaterally rescind any executive

action signed by President Obama or proposed regulations that have yet to be finalized, including, but not limited to:

Executive order establishing a task force on commercial advocacy

Executive order putting a moratorium on new federal coal leases

Presidential memorandum requiring new federal overtime rule promulgation

Paris Climate Agreement requiring greenhouse gas emissions reductions

Proposed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) programs incidental to the Clean Power Plan

Proposed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) payday and vehicle title loan rules

Proposed CFPB arbitration rules

Regulations Finalized On or After June 13, 2016: Under the Congressional Review Act (CRA), Congress can

avoid a Senate filibuster to repeal all regulations finalized during the last 60 legislative days, with June 13, 2016, being the

cutoff date. Congress should prioritize the following:

Final Stream Protection Rule regarding coal mine permitting

Bureau of Land Management (BLM) federal lands Methane Rule

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS): 2017 and 2018 obligations

EPA Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards: Medium- and Heavy-Duty Engines and Vehicles

STEP 2. LONGER-TERM OPPORTUNITIES

All other regulations passed before June 13, 2016 can be repealed in at least one of three ways.

Executive Rulemaking, Legislation to Rescind or Defund, and Judicial Challenges. These are time-consuming

processes that should begin immediately. President-elect Trump and Congress should prioritize the following:

EPA Rule defining The Waters of the United States

EPA Clean Power Plan

HHS Electronic Health Record Incentive Program

HHS Establishment of Exchanges and Qualified Health

DOL Overtime Rule

DOL Fiduciary Rule

FCC “Net Neutrality” Rule

USDA Calorie Labeling for Vending Machines

STEP 3. POLITICAL ACCOUNTABILITY

Freedom Partners will hold lawmakers who oppose regulatory relief accountable for their positions.

Floor Time: Congressional leaders should devote sufficient floor time to voting on finalized regulations and putting

lawmakers on record on President Obama’s most harmful regulations.

Voter Education: Network organizations will educate voters about their elected representatives’ positions on regulations

that impose barriers to opportunity for hardworking families.

This document was created by Freedom Partners, an organization which Politico called the “secret bank” of the Koch Brothers. https://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/behind-the-curtain-exclusive-the-koch-brothers-secret-bank-096669#ixzz2hj4y5I8o

Original Document (PDF) »

Contributed by Casey (Climate Investigations Center)

Plain Text

6/17

ice President Mike Pence popped in for a visit this weekend with Charles Koch, the billionaire GOP donor hosting his semi-annual confab of like-minded business leaders assessing their priorities for the White House and Congress.

The meeting was not listed on Pence's official schedule for the day.

President Trump never much enjoyed backing from Koch ’s sprawling, secretive, political enterprise, which has emerged as a libertarian-leaning power center, sometimes overshadowing the traditional Republican Party apparatus with its high-dollar donors and vast operations. Koch’s group did not endorse the GOP presidential nominee.

But the network has always had close ties withPence. The vice president had previously attended the exclusive gathering of donors, held this weekend at the luxurious Broadmoor hotel. And his top staff was plucked from a key Koch organization, Freedom Partners.

Pence and Koch and their top aides spoke for nearly an hour late Friday, according to a Koch spokesman. They discussed tax reform, the GOP’s healthcare overhaul and other heavy legislative lifts that have run into resistance in the Republican-controlled Congress. The aide described the talks as casual.

Pence was in the area making other stops, including at the Air Force Academy and an evening fundraiser for GOP Sen. Cory Gardner.

Even without investing in Trump, the Koch network has made impressive strides in advancing its agenda this year. Congress swiftly rolled back more than a dozen regulations, including some intended to protect the environment, that Koch-backed groups complained were too rigorous and invasive in industry operations.  

The Koch network groups, including Freedom Partners, a free market-oriented, chamber of commerce-type organization, is pushing the Trump administration and Congress topass tax reform and overhaul healthcare.

Both those efforts have stalled in Congress amid Republican infighting, but the Koch groups is able to put their army of resources – money, staff and volunteers in the states – to pressure lawmakers to act.

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On the Republican side, outside spending against GOP Senate candidates is even higher.

In the 2018 cycle, about $4.7 million of the roughly $5.2 million – or around 90 percent – of outside spending against all Republican candidates for the Senatehas targetedAlabama’s Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore. All but about $295,000 of the $4.7 million targeted Moore before the Republican primary in September. Outside spending after the primary has come from two groups, The Advocacy Fund and Highway 31.

Among Republicans, the next highest total was the $28,000 targetingone of Baldwin’s Republican challengers, Kevin Nicholson, who has the supportof former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.

Nicholson is a former Democrat who once workedfor the Democratic National Committee and even spoke at its 2000 convention.

Uline Inc, a Wisconsin-based shipping supply company owned by Illinois-based conservative donor Richard Uihlein, gave $3.5 million to the pro-Nicholson super PAC Solutions for Wisconsin. Uihlein’s investmentsalso include several resorts, spas and restaurants in the state.

Solutions for Wisconsin, in turn, has contributed $1.5 million to Americas PAC and Restoration PAC,which representthe second and third largest outside spenders opposing Baldwin. Uihlein also gave$250,000 directly to Americas PAC. He is the chief donor to a super PAC that has funded ads benefiting Moore as well, The Daily Beast reported.

Two advisors Nicholson is replacing on his campaign are takingpositions at Solutions for Wisconsin.

So far in the 2018 cycle, Uihlein has fundedroughly $6.1 million in outside spending, all of which went toward conservative groups.

The outside spending group that has spent the mostagainst Baldwin is Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, a politically active nonprofit that serves as the fundraising hub of the donor network spearheaded by billionaire industrialists David and Charles Koch.

Freedom Partners has spent around $1.7 million to defeat Baldwin, and as a 501(c)(6) trade association, it is not required to disclose its donors.

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CoC

https://www.citizenaudit.org/organization/453732750/FREEDOM%20PARTNERS%20CHAMBER%20OF%20COMMERCE%20INC/

Ein:453732750
Date Established:2012/01
Contact:MEGAN THOMPSON SMITH
Revenue:$139,344,951 as of 2015/12
Income:$141,499,152 as of 2015/12
Assets:$50,797,959 as of 2015/12
Accounting Year End:2015/12

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http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Freedom_Partners

Freedom Partners Action Fund

In 2016, Freedom Partners has used the Freedom Partners Action Fund (FPAF) to support candidates across the country who "promote free markets and a free society."[9] Here are the the candidates who received financial support from FPAF in the 2016 election cycle:

View the 2016 election cycle Freedom Partners Ads here.

Funding

According to a 2015 year-end FEC filing, Freedom Partners Action Fund raised $11.8 million in 2015 and now have $14.8 million available to spend on elections in 2016.[47] Those who contributed over $1 million to the Freedom Partners Action Fund in 2015 are:

Donor Meetings

Winter 2016

Freedom Partners again hosted the Koch network's winter donor meeting January 30-February 2, 2016 at the Renaissance Indian Wells Resort & Spa in California. Membership to this gathering reportedly costs $100,000.[48] According to reports, Freedom Partners did not commit to endorsing a Presidential candidate at the meeting. [48] However, they came up with five preferences for the GOP candidacy: Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, Rand Paul and Carly Fiorina.[49] The following public officials attended the meeting: Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE), Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX 5th), Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R), West Virginia Lt. Gov. Bill Cole, Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-FL 6th), Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA 4th), and Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt.[48]

Summer 2015

The Koch network held its 2015 summer meeting July 31-August 2 at the St. Regis Monarch Beach luxury resort in Dana Point, California. According to Politico, about 450 donors attended. Attendees included several Republican candidates for President: former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard Carly Fiorina, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.[50]

Politico also reported that several elected officials in attendance spoke about the influence of the Koch's donor network. Arizona Governor Doug Ducey "recalled that he attended a previous conference as a donor before being elected to his state’s top office last year. 'Every time I’ve been invited to this conference, I’ve benefited from this conference,' he said." Senators Ben Sasse (R-NE), Tim Scott (R-SC), and Dan Sullivan (R-AK), all first elected in 2014, "credited Koch network donors for helping the GOP take control of the Senate that year. 'Your help over the last election cycle produced the numbers that we have today,. Scott said [...] 'The major contributions and investments that you have made have played a major role."

Click here for a transcript of Charles Koch's speech.

Others reportedly in attendance included:

Politico also reported that New York hedge fund tycoon Robert Mercer was a Koch network donor.[50]

Winter 2015

Freedom Partners sponsored the Koch network's winter donor meeting the weekend of January 23, 2015 at a hotel in Palm Springs, California. Sources told Politico that Republican politicians including "Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida, and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin received coveted invitations to speak to the vaunted network assembled by the billionaire industrialist megadonors Charles and David Koch."[53] Walker's plans to attend were confirmed by a campaign spokesperson.[54]

At the meeting, it was revealed that the network planned to spend $889 million on the 2016 election campaign, a goal the New York Times called "unprecedented" and which "would put it on track to spend nearly as much as the campaigns of each party’s presidential nominee."[55]

“It’s no wonder the candidates show up when the Koch brothers call,” said David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to Mr. Obama. “That’s exponentially more money than any party organization will spend. In many ways, they have superseded the party.”[55]

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OMG

http://www.politico.com/story**/2015/**11/the-koch-brothers-intelligence-agency-215943

The political network helmed by Charles and David Koch has quietly built a secretive operation that conducts surveillance and intelligence gathering on its liberal opponents, viewing it as a key strategic tool in its efforts to reshape American public life.

The operation, which is little-known even within the Koch network, gathers what Koch insiders refer to as “competitive intelligence” that is used to try to thwart liberal groups and activists, and to identify potential threats to the expansive network.

The competitive intelligence team has a staff of 25, including one former CIA analyst, and operates from one of the non-descript Koch network offices clustered near the Courthouse metro stop in suburban Arlington, Va.It has provided network officials with documents detailing confidential voter-mobilization plans by major Democrat-aligned groups. It also sends regular “intelligence briefing” emails tracking the canvassing, phone-banking and voter-registration efforts of labor unions, environmental groups and their allies, according to documents reviewed by POLITICO and interviews with a half-dozen sources with knowledge of the group.

The competitive intelligence team has gathered on-the-ground intelligence from liberal groups’ canvassing events in an effort to assess the technology and techniques of field efforts to boost Democrats, according to the sources. And they say the team utilizes high-tech tactics to track the movements of liberal organizers, including culling geo-data embedded in their social media posts.

Such stealth activities are the kind that campaigns and party operatives often fantasize about but mostly shy away from ― both because of cost and potential political backlash if exposed.

Marc Short,president of Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, the network’s central group, declined to discuss its efforts to track the left, generally, or to comment on the competitive intelligence team, which operates as a unit within his group. But he did not dispute that the effort is a focus for the Koch network as it tries to rebound from the disappointment of the 2012 elections and gears up to spend a jaw-dropping $889 million on policy and political battles headed into November 2016.

“We were caught off guard by what the left was doing in 2012, and we'd be foolish to be caught in that position again,” he told POLITICO.

The increasingly robust Koch network has seized on significant tactical advantages afforded to big-money independent organizations ― but not party committees ― in modern politics. Unlike party committees, which are mostly subject to five-figure donation limits, donor disclosure and all manner of campaign finance laws and party rules, the Koch network of non-profit groups and for-profit companies can accept unlimited cash without disclosing donors and faces few spending restrictions.

The Koch ATM

By Kenneth P. Vogel

The competitive intelligence effort, reported here for the first time, also hints at the audaciousness of the Koch network’s mission. While the Republican Party focuses on winning elections, the Kochs want to realign American politics, government and society around free enterprise philosophies that they hope to spread more broadly.

A key to accomplishing the mission, from the Kochs' perspective, is countering super PACs and other big-money groups funded by rich liberals, as well as allied public sector unions and academic and media elites. The Kochs’ allies feel that those forces have worked together for decades with Democratic politicians and government bureaucrats to institutionalize the philosophy that heavy regulation and taxation of business is the only way to ensure an equitable society.

The Kochs concluded that defeating this well-funded left-wing infrastructure requires tracking the professional left in real time ― a capability they realized they lacked after the 2012 election. In the run-up to that election, the Koch network spent $400-million-plus attacking Democratic politicians and policies, only to see President Barack Obama win re-election and his party maintain control of the Senate. A forensic audit of the network’s efforts concluded the Kochs had been out-maneuvered by the left on the airwaves, in the data war and on the ground. Vowing not to let that happen again, the network began investing in the competitive intelligence team and other efforts to keep tabs on the left.

To be sure, the Kochs’ operation isn’t the only one focused on pulling back the curtain on its opponents. In fact, liberal activists and groups have frequently worked to expose the activities of the Koch brothers and their network. But the competitive intelligence team, like so many other Koch-backed programs, appears to be unique in its scale and its thoroughly methodological approach.

‘The Opposition: Understanding Their Strategy and Infrastructure’

The Koch network’s interest in intelligence on the inner workings of the left was revealed by a secret audio recording of a panel at a June 2014 closed-door donor gathering at the tony St. Regis hotel in Dana Point, Calif. The session, called “The Opposition: Understanding Their Strategy and Infrastructure,” focused on the group that the Kochs’ inner circle regards as the Rosetta stone for figuring out, and ultimately neutralizing, the big-money left ― theDemocracy Alliance.

The group, which is meeting this week in Washington, D.C., is a club of wealthy liberal donors and influential operatives. Since its creation in 2005, the DA, as the club is known, has steered more than $500 million to endorsed groups supporting Democratic politicians and liberal causes like fighting carbon emissions, income inequality and the role of money in politics, while expanding voter access, abortion rights and gay rights.

As a fundraising vehicle, it's the closest thing on the left to a mirror image of the Kochs’ operation, though the cash raised by the Koch network in recent years has far eclipsed the amount credited to the DA. Donors to both networks write huge and mostly untraceable checks to a collection of endorsed for-profit companies and non-profit groups registered under sections of the tax code ― 501(c)3 and 501(c)4 ― that do not require the disclosure of donors’ identities.

During the session at the St. Regis, Mark Holden, a key Koch legal and policy advisor, pointed out the irony in liberal attacks on the Kochs’ secretive spending, calling the DA “a shadowy network of c(3)s, c(4)s ― who don’t disclose their donors, remember — who attack us as a shadowy network of c(3)s, c(4)s) … Whatever they may say about us goes the same for them.”

But Holden told the donors, according to the audio recording, which was obtained and posted by a liberal blogger, “We’ve been able to learn a lot more details about them in the last couple of months from documents that someone in the group, Democracy Alliance, left behind at their last seminar. And it’s very interesting stuff. And, at the end of the sessions here, we’re going to have some handouts, and you’ll be able to see some of the documents that we were able to get a hold of.” He adds quickly ― and to some laughter ― “I’m general counsel and I just want to say it was all legit, legal, appropriate.”

As Holden discussed the Democracy Alliance's efforts, internal DA documents were projected onto a screen at the front of the bronze-chandelier-lit St. Regis ballroom, including a “portfolio snapshot” featuring descriptions of 21 groups that the DA recommended for funding and a breakdown of the “core functions of the progressive movement.”

‘Like the CIA’

It is unclear precisely which documents Holden presented to donors (though similar documents appear to have been published in the weeks before and after his presentation by a handful of media outlets, including POLITICO) or precisely how the documents were obtained.

Holden ― who sits on the board of Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce,which organized the St. Regis gathering and which oversees the competitive intelligence team ― declined to comment.

The competitive intelligence team is run by a veteran Republican researcher named Mike Roman, who is listed as Freedom Partners' vice president of research on the tax filing that group publicly released on Tuesday. That filing cites Roman's salary and benefits at $286,000 last year.

His team is part of Freedom Partners, but is managed through a limited liability company called American Strategies Group LLC, or ASG for short. ASG is set up as a type of corporate structure known as a “disregarded entity”, which exists only as a part of its parent group ― in this case Freedom Partners ― for the purposes of mitigating legal risk and separating revenue streams for accounting and tax compliance purposes.

ASG was the conduit for $13.3 million of Freedom Partners' cash between late 2012 and the end of last year, according to tax filings submitted to the Internal Revenue Service by Freedom Partners, including the filing publicly released on Tuesday covering 2014. It shows that ASG controls a holding company called CAVHOCO, Inc., which received a capital contribution of $17.5 million from Freedom Partners last year. CAVHOCO sits at the center of a confusing web of disregarded entities and holding companies, including one calledDemeter Analytics Services, Inc. That entity, which is the holding company for the Freedom Partners-owned data firm i360, was paid $11 million by Freedom Partners in 2014 for professional services, according to the tax return. Separate tax returns also listed Roman as trustee of a mysterious non-profit group called Public Engagement Group Trust, which appears to be dormant.

Roman, who did not respond to requests for comment, has worked to keep himself and his activity low-profile even within the discreet Koch operation.

One former network official said that when people were summoned to meetings at ASG’s offices, they sometimes had trouble finding the suite. “They told people that’s the way they liked it,” the official recalled. “They act all cloak and dagger – like the CIA. There was a joke about how hardly anyone ever met Mike Roman. It was like, if you wanted to find him, he’d be in a trench coat on the National Mall,” said the former official.

The regular intelligence briefings from Roman's team, which are sent from an address ending in “http://amersg.org” to high-ranking network employees, begin with a warning that “This briefing contains information that is confidential and may be legally privileged. If you are not an authorized recipient, you are hereby notified that you are forbidden to read, disseminate, distribute or copy any of the material contained within. Authorized recipients are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, or copying of this briefing is strictly prohibited.”

One such briefing sent in the weeks before the 2014 midterm elections and obtained by POLITICO contained highly detailed race-by-race breakdowns of the activities of liberal campaigns and their big-money supporters ― as well as conservative big-money groups ostensibly allied with the Kochs. It’s the sort of granular briefing that could be used to help the Koch network decide the most impactful ways to direct its own election spending. And it bears the hallmarks of research that combines close tracking of public information with original analysis of source documents, and possibly a dash of on-the-ground intel like that which could be gleaned by having an operative attend campaign events.

The briefing notes that in Arkansas, where there was a hotly contested Senate race between Koch network favorite Tom Cotton and Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Pryor,Democrats were holding a statewide get-out-the-vote training in Little Rock, as well as a college organizing conference, while an immigrant rights group was “phone banking regularly with the intent of registering voters.” But the briefing also contains big-picture analysis flagging that union-affiliate Working America “has 400 paid canvassers knocking on 5,000 doors daily across 13 states through Election Day, especially focusing on Senate races in AK, IA, KY, MI, and NC. NRSC Vice Chair for Finance Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) said the NRSC isn’t planning to devote any more significant resources to shore up key candidates in the red states of Kansas, Kentucky and Georgia.”

‘Scared to death of moles’

In addition to delving into the left, the competitive intelligence team also monitors potential Koch network threats, according to sources familiar with it. It tracks people deemed suspicious outside the offices of Koch network groups, circulating be-on-the-lookout photos to internal network email lists, while keeping an eye on the network's own ranks for possible leakers or disloyal employees.

One former network executive remembers an email containing a photo of a man identified as an operative with the environmental group Greenpeace who allegedly had been spotted taking his own photos outside the network’s cluster of offices in the Courthouse neighborhood of Arlington.

Connor Gibson, a Greenpeace researcher who focuses on the Koch network, said he visits its component groups’ offices once a year to pick up their tax filings, and he speculated he could have been the operative photographed by the competitive intelligence unit. While he said he’s never sought to conceal his identity during such visits, he added “If the Kochs consider me an opponent, I’m flattered.”

In another instance, sources say, Roman's team set out to identify an IT contractor who was working for one of the network's groups and was posting anonymous messages to Reddit, proclaiming that he worked for the Koch brothers but despised their stances. Within 48 hours, the team had sleuthed out the offender and his contract was terminated.

“They were scared to death of moles,” said the former executive.

A separate source ― an organizer who’s worked with the unit ― described it as “a full opposition research operation, only at about 10-times the level of any political campaign.” The organizer added “my guess is that most people inside the network don’t even know about it.”

Koch allies emphasize that the brothers and their network have been targets of regular sleuthing by the left. A nonprofit group called American Bridge 21st Century ― which is aligned with Hillary Clinton and the Democracy Alliance ― this year launched a $3-million project dedicated to researching, tracking and attacking the Kochs. Its staffers have been spotted recording the proceedings at Koch network events and appearances by the brothers, and it took credit for unearthing a trove of documents featured in a New York Timesstory about David Koch’s 1980 Libertarian vice presidential campaign. The group does not appear to be behind the untraceable recordings made from inside closed-door Koch donor gatherings over the years ― like the one of Holden’s dissection of the Democracy Alliance at the St. Regis.

Holden told the donors at the St. Regis that the big-money liberal groups in the Democracy Alliance were pursuing a two-pronged strategy that bears some similarities to the tactics of the Koch network. “What they do is they try to build a permanent infrastructure to win elections, and they obsess about us ― all of you,” Holden said. “And it’s the old quote ― first they ignore you, then they mock you, then they attack you, and then we win. We’re close to winning. I don’t know how close, but we should be, because they can’t attack the ideas. They don’t have the real path. All they do is target and they just try to silence people. You know, they’re afraid of us. They really are. They’re afraid of this room.”

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koch atm

The Koch network stepped up funding for its own groups in 2014, but also served as something of an ATM for some of the most powerful groups on the right ― doling out millions in grants to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Club for Growth and National Rifle Association, among major backers of Republicans ― according to a tax filing publicly released Tuesday morning.

The filings were submitted to the Internal Revenue Service by Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, the central group in the increasingly powerful network of conservative public policy and political groups helmed by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch.

The tax filings show that Freedom Partners, which was created in late 2011 to increase coordination within the Koch network, raised $162 million over the past two years ($36 million in 2013 and $126 million in 2014). The 2014 haul was almost entirely from six-figure membership dues of wealthy donors whom the Kochs convene twice a year for summits that highlight the virtues of fiscally conservative, small government policies ― and who raise money for groups and candidates who support those policies.

Freedom Partners and most of its grantees do not reveal their donors’ names because they are registered under a section of the tax code ― 501(c) ― that does not require them to do so.

The group’s impressive haul constitutes the lion’s share of the $290 million that the Koch network expected to spend in the run-up to the 2014 midterm elections. And its tax filings show that the group disseminated the majority of its cash to other groups, with the biggest donations going to a cluster groups that form the central core of the network.

Americans for Prosperity, the network's most politically aggressive group, received $22 million from Freedom Partners. Concerned Veterans for America, which seeks to engage veterans on fiscal issues, received $16 million. The LIBRE Initiative, which targets Latino voters, received $6.5 million. A group that disseminates money to reach evangelical voters received $6 million, while the American Energy Alliance, which opposes energy regulations, received $2 million.

But Freedom Partners also wrote grants to an array of groups that play key roles in the broader conservative coalition, but are not considered to be part of the network ― including some that have differed sharply with the Kochs’ public policy stances.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce received $2 million from Freedom Partners, despite lobbying for the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank, a program vehemently opposed by the Koch network as market-skewing corporate welfare. The Club for Growth and Heritage Action for America ― which supported a 2013 government shutdown that the Koch network said it opposed ― received $1 million and $150,000, respectively.

Other grantees outside the Koch network included the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action, which received $4.9 million, and a group called the Dr. Joseph Warren Institute, which spreads the message of medical professionals who oppose Obamacare. It received $300,000 from Freedom Partners.

Some grantees used Freedom Partners’ cash for highly specific campaigns that seemed to have at least the network's tacit endorsement. A $400,000 grant went to a group called Trees of Liberty, which, as POLITICO revealed last week, spent its cash attacking the leading rival of Koch-favorite Joni Ernst during her 2014 GOP primary campaign for the Iowa Senate seat she eventually won. Trees of Liberty was created in 2013 with the Kochs’ blessing to cultivate candidates who share their commitment to free-market conservatism.

The tax filings show that Freedom Partners paid Aegis Strategic $1.3 million in consulting fees. And Freedom Partners donated $693,000 to an affiliated super PAC, Freedom Partners Action Fund, which last fall aired ads attacking Democratic Senate candidates, including Ernst’s general election opponent, then-Rep. Bruce Braley.

Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce’s tax filings reveal that the group is branching out beyond merely disseminating cash to other entities for political and public policy advocacy, and has built its own robust operation. Its staff, which numbered 60 employees in 2013, grew to 133 employees last year. They were paid a total of $13 million in salary and benefits, including $794,000 that went to the salary and benefits of the group’s president Marc Short.

That salary puts him well ahead of Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, who made $153,000 last year, but far behind U.S. Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donohue, who was paid $4.9 million in 2011.

Freedom Partners also spent heavily on functions it used to delegate to grantees. It spent $1.9 million on focus groups and $1.2 million on advertising production. It paid $1.5 million to the firm of Frank Luntz, a regular guest at Koch donor seminars, and $1.4 million to the Utah-based direct mail firm Arena Communications.

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/11/koch-brothers-990-filing-215979

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Koch network super-PAC launches ad buys in Wisconsin, Nevada

BY LISA HAGEN - 05/02/16 10:56 PM EDT  

A top Koch network group on Monday launched seven-figure ad buys in Wisconsin and Nevada attacking the Democratic candidates running in competitive Senate races.

Freedom Partners Action Fund, a super-PAC that spearheads the conservative donor network helmed by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch, released a $2 million TV and digital ad buy in Wisconsin knocking former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) over the opioid over-prescription scandal at the Tomah Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

The ad, titled “The Real Story,” featured VA whistleblower Ryan Honl saying that Feingold received a memo about the issue in 2009 and blamed him that “nothing was done.”

“Russ Feingold ignored veterans concerns while veterans were dying at the facility,” Honl said in the ad.

Feingold’s campaign hit back calling the ad “false” and knocked his rival Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) over veterans’ issues.

“Sen. Johnson failed to protect our veterans, so instead of accepting responsibility, he and his allies have blamed his own staff and actively politicized a tragedy to the tune of over $2 million in dark money attack ads,” spokesman Michael Tyler said in a statement.

“If Johnson’s hands were clean, he’d demand that Freedom Partners take down this misleading ad. But don't expect much from a senator who's been content to let billionaires and outside interests bully Wisconsinites to distract from his own failed record."

This isn’t the first time outside groups have weighed in on this issue.

VoteVets.org, a progressive veterans group, launched a radio ad campaign in February accusing Johnson of ignoring whistleblower warnings about the VA issues. A month earlier, conservative outside group Wisconsin Alliance for Reform released a radio ad also accusing Feingold for not addressing the issues.

Feingold and Johnson are locked in what is considered one of the most competitive Senate races this cycle.

Freedom Partners also launched a $1 million TV and digital ad buy hitting former Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto (D) and dubbing her “another special interest politician.”

The ads blasted Cortez Masto for hiring a Washington, D.C., law firm during Nevada’s foreclosure crisis and accused the firm of making "millions on the mortgage settlements" as well as donating to her campaign.

“Catherine Cortez Masto could have done the job taxpayers were paying her to do, but, instead, she used the housing crisis to reward political cronies in Washington, D.C., with a lucrative contract,” Freedom Partners spokesman Bill Riggs said in a statement. “Cortez Masto got campaign contributions, her friends got millions of dollars, and Nevada got another special-interest politician.”

Cortez Masto’s campaign pushed back on the ads and called them “false attacks.” The campaign also took aim at Rep. Joe Heck (R-Nev.) and tied him to Wall Street.

“Washington Republicans are lying about Catherine Cortez Masto’s record because they know as Nevada’s next Senator, she will focus on solving problems for Nevada families, not pushing their extreme agenda,” spokesman Zach Hudson said in a statement. “The truth is: as Nevada’s Attorney General, Catherine Cortez Masto held the Big Banks accountable and helped deliver $1.9 billion in relief to Nevadans.”

“Congressman Heck took more than $300,000 from Wall Street after he sponsored a bill to give tax breaks to Big Banks – the same Big Banks that gave out bad loans and caused Nevada’s foreclosure crisis,” he added.

Rep. Joe Heck (R-Nev.), the establishment favorite, and 2010 GOP Senate nominee Sharron Angle are both running for the GOP nomination as they seek retiring Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) seat.

Freedom Partners has expanded their involvement in Senate races after launching ad buys in Ohio attacking former Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland. He will face off against vulnerable GOP Sen. Rob Portman.

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UPDATE:April 28 — The legislation passed out of the Ways and Means Committee on a party line vote with all Republicans in support and Democrats in opposition. Prior to the vote, committee members were sent another letter in support of the bill. This letter came from Phillip Ellender, president of Koch Public Sector, the official lobbying and PR arm of the Koch brothers.

PREVIOUSLY:

WASHINGTON — Republicans in Congress are trying to decrease the already scant amount of disclosure for politically-active nonprofits — known as dark money groups. The legislative effort is unsurprisingly supported by the main political arm of the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch.

Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) is expected to introduce a bill in the Ways and Means Committee that would eliminate the requirement for nonprofits to make a non-public disclosure of their donors to the IRS when they file their annual tax forms. The donor disclosures — known as the Schedule B report — are not released to the public, but the list of donation amounts with the donor names redacted are released.

The bill is supported by Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, the dark money donor hub run by the Koch brothers. The Kochs operate a vast political empire that mostly operates through nonprofit organizations that do not disclose their donations.

“This bill is an important first step toward reaffirming Americans’ right to free speech while protecting them from threats and intimidation because of their personal beliefs,” Mark Holden, Freedom Partners chairman and lead lobbyist for Koch Industries, said in a statement.

Roskam’s legislation comes amid a court case involving the donor list of another Koch brothers outfit, Americans for Prosperity Foundation. California attorney general Kamala Harris had sought the donor list of the organization for non-public review to ensure that it was abiding by California laws. A federal court, however, agreed on April 21 with Americans for Prosperity Foundation’s argument that this was a violation of its First Amendment rights.

Campaign finance reform and transparency proponents issued a letter calling on members of the Ways and Means Committee to oppose Roskam’s bill. Those backing the letter include Brennan Center for Justice, Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause, CREW, Democracy 21, Public Citizen, Sunlight Foundation and Rootstrikers.

“Eliminating the existing requirement for disclosure to the IRS of donations to 501(c)(4) “social welfare” groups would open the door wide for secret, unaccountable money from foreign governments, foreign corporations and foreign individuals to be illegally laundered into federal elections through 501(c)(4) groups,” the letter reads.

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Freedom Partners Action Fund, a group at the center of Charles Koch's conservative political network, unleashed its first political ad of the 2016 campaign Wednesday, launching a $2 million campaign in Ohio's closely watched Senate race.

The ad targets Democrat Ted Strickland, Ohio's former governorwho formally captured his party's nomination Tuesday night. The 30-second commercial features a man identified only as "Joel," a former employee of the international shipping giant DHL, which closed its hub in Wilmington, Ohio, during Strickland's tenure as the state's chief executive.

"When he should have been in there fighting, we lost 400,000 jobs in the state of Ohio," Joel says in the ad. "His track record is not there. There's no reason to go back to Ted Strickland."

The ad argues that Strickland's policies created an environment that encouraged employers to move jobs to other states with more business-friendly tax policies.

Strickland is seeking to oust a Republican incumbent, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman.

Strickland spokesman David Bergstein defended his boss' record. "Washington power brokers and wealthy, shadowy special interests are spending millions to prop up Sen. Rob Portman because he’s pushing their agenda at the expense of Ohio’s working families," he said in a statement.

The new ad is a sign the Koch network is gearing up to play a big role in federal races, even as its leaders insist they are not trying to shape the Republican presidential primarydominated by billionaire Donald Trump, who notched five wins Tuesday night. Earlier this month, a Koch-affiliated group, Concerned Veterans for America, began a $700,000 ad campaign in Nevada that featured military veterans voicing support for Rep. Joe Heck, the Republican hoping to fill Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid's seat when the Democrat retires this year.

Republicans face a challenging election season as they fight to retain their majority in the U.S. Senate and defend GOP-held seats in seven states, including Ohio, that President Obama won both in 2008 and 2012.

Party insiders have begun to openly fret that a Trump nomination will endanger other down-ballot contests on Election Day.

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http://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/01/13025/cmd-and-crew-allege-koch-backed-group-broke-law

Trees of Liberty, a dark money non-profit financed and operated by the Koch political network, broke the law in helping Joni Ernst win her primary election in 2014, according to a complaint filed today by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

Trees of Liberty was set up by veteran Koch network political operatives a few months after Ernst appeared at a Koch donor retreat, and started running ads in Iowa within a week of its creation. Despite spending almost all of its budget to attack Ernst's primary opponent, Mark Jacobs, the group claimed on its tax filings with the IRS that it did not engage in political activity in 2014. Making false statements on a signed form to the IRS was a criminal violation. Additionally, Trees of Liberty violated its tax-exempt status by engaging primarily in political activity for the private benefit of now-Sen. Joni Ernst and the Koch network, the complaint alleges.

"Trees of Liberty appears to have violated the law the in three ways: the group misled the IRS by claiming it was not involved in political activity, engaged in more political activity than allowed and operated for the private interests of Sen. Ernst and the Koch political network," CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder said. "Any one of these violations should be enough for the IRS to act on; taken together, they overwhelmingly support the need for investigation and vigorous enforcement."

Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, often referred to as "the Koch brothers’ secret bank," provided $400,000 of the $440,000 the group raised.The group then spent $412,000—an incredible 94% of its expenditures—on "advertising campaigns on television, radio and online," most of which benefited Ernst. Over $346,000 of Trees of Liberty’s budget was paid to i360, a data analyst and ad buying firm described as the "Koch data mine."

"The Koch network is effectively a political party, and Trees of Liberty is operating to advance the Koch party's interests, rather than anything resembling 'social welfare,'" said Brendan Fischer, Center for Media and Democracy's General Counsel. "The evidence shows that the Koch network secretly used Trees of Liberty to play a decisive role in a primary election, but the American people may never get a full accounting of how much the Kochs are spending on primaries this presidential election year, or what they get in return."

==

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http://www.alternet.org/environment/how-koch-brothers-bankers-snuck-anti-wind-op-ed-past-new-york-times

Inthe run-up to the perennial debate in Congress over whether to extend a tax credit for the wind industry, The New York Times ran a provocatively headlined — and misleading — op-edcolumn denouncing it as corporate welfare. "Giving Billions to the Rich" was a broadside against Congress' end-of-the-year tax extenders package, which renews temporary corporate tax breaks, and it singled out the wind production tax credit as one of the most egregious.

The November 23 column was written by Marc Short and Andy Koenig, both from an organization called Freedom Partners. They pointed out that the package the U.S. Senate was considering at the time would revive a tax credit for new wind energy facilities during their first 10 years of operation, which would cost the U.S. Treasury an estimated $10.5 billion over the next decade. Congress had let the tax break expire at the end of 2014.

"The supporters of this 23-year-old credit initially argued that it was necessary to kick-start a nascent industry," they wrote. "Yet Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and others say wind power is cost-competitive with other energy sources. So why are taxpayers still forced to subsidize it?"

Besides the fact that a tax credit does not force taxpayers to "subsidize," i.e. give money to, the wind industry, Short and Koenig shrewdly confined their argument to temporary tax breaks. By doing so, they were able to avoid mentioning the fact that the wind industry's more-established competitors -- particularly fossil fuels, the primary cause of climate change -- enjoypermanent tax breaks and subsidies that are significantly larger.

The oil and gas industry, for example, has been receiving an average of $4.86 billion in annual tax breaks and subsidies in today's dollars since 1918, according to an analysis by DBL Investors, a venture capital firm. On top of that, Congress exempted natural gas developers from key provisions of at least seven major environmental laws, including the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act. That amounts to a substantial subsidy, too, by passing along any cleanup bill to taxpayers.

Renewable energy technologies, by contrast, averaged only $370 million a year in tax breaks between 1994 and 2009, according to DBL. The 2009 stimulus package did provide $21 billion for wind, solar and other renewables, but that support barely began to balance the scales that have tilted toward oil and gas for nearly 100 years and coal for more than two centuries.

The Koch Brothers' Bank

So who are Marc Short and Andy Koenig? The Times identified them only as "the president and senior policy adviser, respectively, at Freedom Partners, which advocates for free-market policies."

What the Times neglected to explain is that Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce (its full name) is a major pass-through funding arm of billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch — owners of the coal, oil and gas conglomerate Koch Industries — and Short and Koenig's Times op-ed is just a small part of a Koch brothers-financed campaign targeting wind and other renewable energy technologies.

Founded in November 2011, Freedom Partners functions as the Kochs' de facto bank, disbursing contributions from wealthy conservatives to a network of nonprofit "free-market" groups whose goals include rolling back public health, environmental and workplace protections. Unlike a foundation or a political action committee (PAC), Freedom Partners is classified as a trade association, enabling it to raise money without disclosing the names of its donor members, although the amounts and recipients of its grants are public. In June 2014, the organization expanded its arsenal by launching aSuper PAC, Freedom Partners Action Fund,which can raise unlimited sums of money and run ads advocating for or against candidates, but it has to divulge its donors.

Freedom Partners Action Fund, whose top donors include the Koch brothers and hedge fund mogul Robert Mercer, raised $29 million and spent $24 million during the 2014 election cycle in support of Republican candidates. But that's chump change compared to Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce's war chest. Between 2012 and 2014, it raised $418 million from its more than 200 anonymous members and distributed more than $387 million of it to dozens oforganizations. Much of that money paid for television attack ads, but a chunk of it went to climate science denier groups, including the American Energy Alliance, Americans for Prosperity, Americans for Tax Reform, Club for Growth, Heritage Action for America (the Heritage Foundation's political arm), and the 60 Plus Association. Those groups — along with Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation grantees Competitive Enterprise Institute and Frontiers of Freedom — were signatories on a July 27 letter to House members urging them to support a bill that would kill the wind production tax credit (PTC).

The letter claimed the proposed legislation "protects Americans from the large costs of an out-of-control subsidy." Since the PTC was created, the letter went on to disingenuously assert, "taxpayers have sent billions of dollars to large multinational corporations in the wind industry."

The bill referenced in the letter, "The PTC Elimination Act," was sponsored by Mike Pompeo of Wichita, Kansas — home of Koch Industries — and Kenny Marchant of Texas. Pompeo is Congress' top recipient of Koch campaign money, and ever since he took office in 2011 he has been introducing bills to scuttle the tax credit because, as he says, the wind industry should "compete on its own." As of November 17, the bill had 53 co-sponsors. Forty-six of them, including Marchant, received contributions from Koch Industries over the last five years.

Of course, no one would expect the Times to explain all of that, but the paper should have at least mentioned Freedom Partners' Koch connection. Beyond that, the paper also should have fact-checked its debatable description of the organization. Freedom Partners and other Koch-funded groups all claim to promote "free-market" policies, but they don't complain about the massive subsidies fossil fuel companies receive. For the Koch network, the wind production tax credit is a "wasteful handout," but eliminating tax breaks and subsidies for the oil and gas industry, as Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform once put it, would constitute "a massive tax hike on a vital sector of American industry."

That hardly qualifies as a consistent free-market position.

The Times' Opaque Transparency Policy

Coincidentally, a debate over how theTimes identifies op-ed contributors was sparked four years ago by a column attacking the wind industry. In June 2011, the newspaper ran a column by Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Robert Bryce that made a case for natural gas by misstating facts about renewables, and the Times failed to mention in Bryce's bio that Manhattan Institute funders ExxonMobil and the Kochs are in the natural gas business. A few months later, the Checks and Balances Project, a government and industry watchdog group, sent a letter to the Times criticizing the paper for failing to report op-ed writers' funding sources, citing Bryce's column as a prime example. Signed by more than 50 journalists and educators, the letter called on the paper to "set the nation's standard by disclosing financial conflicts of interest that their op-ed contributors may have at the time the piece is published."

The paper's public editor at the time, Arthur S. Brisbane, responded in acolumn titled "The Times Gives Them Space, but Who Pays Them?" "[T]he issue of authorial transparency is an important one," Brisbane wrote, "albeit one that isn't always simple." He then turned to Editorial Page Editor Andrew Rosenthal to explain the complexities.

Op-ed writers have to sign an agreement that states: "You agree to disclose to the Times any financial interest you may have in the subject matter of the article," Rosenthal said. Besides that, "story editors ask each writer if there is any real or perceived material or financial interest we should know about." Finally, Rosenthal said, author bios are written for "clarity, transparency and brevity."

Brisbane recommended that the Times do more. "So, while I recognize that theTimes has limited space in print to provide more disclosure, I believe it should do more to help readers learn about outside op-ed contributors," he wrote. "In print, besides noting prominent past achievements, author [bios] should include the writer's current paid role ... On NYTimes.com, the Times should include links to [an author's] organizational ties so readers can investigate, if they wish. Finally, it would be useful if the Times required contributors to provide a document listing all current paid positions, and publish a link to the document."

Did the Times take Brisbane's advice? Apparently not.

Wind Wins This Round, But More Transparency Needed

Fortunately, the Koch campaign to break wind was foiled this time around by some last-minute horse trading on Capitol Hill. End-of-year negotiations over the omnibus government spending bill extended the wind production tax credit through 2019 in exchange for lifting the 40-year-old federal ban on oil exports. That's good news for the wind industry.

According to the American Wind Energy Association, the production tax credit has helped quadruple wind-powered electricity since 2008, from 16,700 megawatts to more than 70,000 MW at the end of last year, enough to power more than 19 million homes. The tax break also has helped drive down the cost of wind power by 66 percent over the last six years, and Iowa, South Dakota and Kansas -- Mike Pompeo's state -- now get more than 20 percent of their electricity from wind. Nine other states get more than 10 percent of their electricity from wind, and a recent Department of Energy report concluded that the United States should be able to generate 20 percent of its electricity from wind by 2030.

The omnibus deal was also good news for Koch Industries, because lifting the ban on oil exports likely will boost its business. After all, it owns 4,000 miles of pipelines as well as refineries in Minnesota and Texas that, according to the company, together can process more than 600,000 barrels of crude oil a day.

The bad news is that, even after the debate prompted by an anti-wind op-ed back in 2011, The New York Times continues to provide a platform for special interest mouthpieces and fails to disclose their benefactors. To be sure, theTimes is hardly alone. But it's especially puzzling when it comes to the Times, whose editorial board routinely rails against "the scourge of dark money" in the U.S. political system and calls for greater transparency.

The Times should hold itself to the same standard. If its editorial page editors insist on publishing special interest propaganda, they should let their readers know who is paying for it. In this case, an op-ed with the headline "Giving Billions to the Rich" is indeed remiss if it doesn't mention the fact that the covert sponsors of the column, the Koch brothers, are among those benefiting the most from government largesse.

Elliott Negin, a senior writer at the Union of Concerned Scientists, was a foreign news editor at National Public Radio, the managing editor of American Journalism Review, and the editor of Nuclear Times and Public Citizen magazines. His articles have appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, Columbia Journalism Review, The Hill, Huffington Post, Mother Earth News, The Nation, The Progressive, Roll Call, Washington City Paper, the Washington Post and other publications.

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Kochs' Freedom Partners Spent $129M in 2014, Invested Massively in Voter Data Lists

Submitted by Brendan Fischer on November 18, 2015 - 10:04am  Brendan Fischer and Mary Bottari

The Koch network's secret bank, "Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce," spent big during the 2014 midterm elections, including doubling its investment in voter data collection efforts and secretly backing U.S. Senate candidates associated with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

Freedom Partners is also vastly expanding surveillance and intelligence gathering on the Kochs' perceived opponents, *Politico* reports today, with a 25-person "competitive intelligence" team (including at least one CIA analyst) led by Freedom Partners' vice-president of research, Mike Roman.

Freedom Partners, officially organized as a "business league," acts as a conduit for the hundreds of millions raised from David and Charles Koch and their wealthy allies. According to the group's 2014 tax filing, made public on Tuesday, Freedom Partners raised $126 million during the 2014 midterm elections and dispersed it to political organizations within the Koch network, with almost all of that funding coming from "membership dues" paid by the billionaires and millionaires who attend the Kochs' biannual donor summits.

The group's revenue jumped 350 percent from the previous year--from $35,800,000 in the non-election year 2013 to $125,946,972 million during the 2014 midterm elections--a pattern more common to political committees than the "business league" that Freedom Partners claims to be.

Yet this was only half of the $250 million the group dispersed during the 2012 presidential elections, which itself is likely only a fraction of the amount that will be spent in the 2016 presidential election year.

$11 Million Investment in Sophisticated Voter and Targeting

According to the Freedom Partners filings, one of the Koch network's biggest investments has been in its growing voter database.

"Demeter Analytic Services" looks to be the funding conduit for the Koch data analytic operation that is giving the Republican Party a run for its money. It received $11 million from Freedom Partners in 2014, and is described in tax filings as one of five C-Corporations wholly owned by Freedom Partners.

This is more than twice as much as Freedom Partners reported giving to its data efforts in 2013.

Although Demeter doesn't have a web presence, it appears to operate from the same address and same suite as the entities associatedwith the Koch data operation (the nonprofit Themis Trust and its for-profit arm i360), according to the address on FEC filings describing payments to Demeter.

It is not clear whether Demeter replaced Themis Trust, the Koch data operation also named for a Greek god that had previously been working with i360.

Freedom Partners' 2013 tax filing listed a $5,781,000 payment to Themis, but Themis did not appear anywhere on Freedom Partners' 2014 filing. Themis'2013 tax filing described Demeter as a "related organization."

The Koch network launched its massive voter data operation with the goal of "amassing detailed voter profiles and developing the sort of technological wherewithal that propelled President Obama to victory in both 2008 and 2012," according to the National Review. i360 is led by Michael Palmer, former chief technology officer for Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign.

The i360 website boasts of a database of over 250 million voters. "We source thousands of attributes from multiple consumer data compilers, constantly refresh voter registration information from all states and gather millions of political and issue attributes on an ongoing basis," its website states. The data is "targetable on both TV and digital media – enabling you to deliver a consistent message to your target voters, whether they are reading their mail, surfing the web or both."

One way the operation collects voter data is by buying it directly from states. Demeter is the sole funder of a Super PAC called "VFA PAC" that hasn't made any independent expenditures—but which did purchase voter lists from the Secretaries of State in places like Virginia, Illinois, and North Dakota.

The data is perfected by extensive canvassing by other groups in the Koch network, including the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity, Concerned Women of America, Libre Initiative and Concerned Veterans of America. According to the *Washington Post*, the Koch political operations employ 1,000 full-time staff, more than double the number four years ago.

Many observers think the project has already eclipsed the voter lists maintained by the Republican National Committee (RNC), posing a risk for some candidates and the party's influence. *Politico*recently reported that the Kochs had "spurned entreaties from the Trump campaign to purchase state-of-the-art data and analytics services from a Koch-backed political tech firm called i360."

Kochs Selling Voter Data to Ben Carson

But the Koch data operation didn't turn down Ben Carson.

Although the Kochs rejected Trump, Carson's campaign has paid Demeter Analytic Services around $11,000 per month to access its voter database, according to recent filings. Carson's presidential exploratory committee also paid $21,196 to Demeter for list rental.

There is no evidence that any other presidential candidate has accessed the Demeter database.

Demeter also appears to rely heavily on foreign tech employees on H1B visas.

According to one source, it filed for seven H1B visas in 2014.

Foreign workers are not uncommon for tech industry, but it is a little bit odd that the Kochs' effort to reshape U.S. politics is staffed with foreign labor.

Tens of Millions to Koch Groups, Millions More to Chamber,

In addition to the data operation, Freedom Partners funds went to a number of well-established groups within the Koch network, such as:

Millions more went to organizations within the broader right-wing infrastructure, such as $4.9 million to the National Rifle Association's Institute for Legislative Action, $2 million to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (and $100,000 to the Illinois Chamber of Commerce), $1 million to Club for Growth, and $150,000 to Heritage Action.

"Main Street Growth Project" Goes to Bat for Giant Financial Institutions

A $100,000 grant also helped flush out a previously unknown entity called the Main Street Growth Project. The grassrootsy website says the group is working on behalf of regular checking-account holders, small businesses, small investors and community banks tofight the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC), an oversight body created by Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform bill.

But those "regular checking-account holders" should have $50 billion or more to catch the "Main Street Growth Project's" attention. The policies that the "Main Street" group is working on would largely affect the massive financial institutions that meet the threshold for a "systemically important financial institution" and trigger extra regulatory scrutiny under Dodd-Frank.

During the 2008 financial crisis behemoth institutions like insurer AIG helped create the crisis and spread the contagion around the globe by peddling dangerous derivatives products, but because they were not regulated like banks (which can be taken over and dissolved by the FDIC), the federal government struggled to resolve the serious threats posed to the economy by the collapse of AIG.

Part of the solution was to create an uber-oversight body authorized to break apart or even shut down massive financial institutions threatening the U.S. and global economy called the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC). While the Main Street Growth website presents the FSOC board members as random Obama appointees, in factit includesthe most powerful financial regulators in the country, including the Secretary of the Treasury, the Fed Chair, and the heads of the SEC, FDIC, CFTC, OCC and more.

Main Street Growth Project was started by former Romney and Paul Ryan staffers as well as AEI's Paul Wallison to help institutions fightthe "systemically important financial institution" designation. They comfort asset managers: "You didn't cause the financial crisis. But now you're getting caught in the regulatory crossfire. We're here to help."

Today, as David Dayen reports, the roll back of the modest Dodd-Frank protections against another financial collapse is still priority number one for the GOP Congress. Among other attacks on the bill, the GOP wants "to raise the asset threshold for automatically labeling a 'systemically important financial institution' (SIFI) from $50 billion to $500 billion, giving big firms relief from expanded regulation under Dodd-Frank. They would also give existing SIFIs ways to wiggle out of the designation."

Backing ALEC Candidates

Some Freedom Partners funding can be directly tied to ALEC politicians running for higher office.

In Colorado, where ALEC alum Cory Gardner was running for U.S. Senate, Freedom Partners gave $95,000 to "I Am Created Equal" (IACE) Action and $50,000 to the Colorado Women's Alliance.

The two women-focused groups worked to blunt attacks on Gardner from his opponent, incumbent Sen. Tom Udall, on issues of abortion rights.[tom won, mark lost]

This year, IACE Action was active in fighting a local Colorado Springs referendum to increase the sales tax by .62 percent to fund road improvements. Americans for Prosperity, whose Colorado chapter is based in the city, also publicly opposed the referendum.

The Freedom Partners filing shows that the Kochs were also behind the mysterious dark money group "Trees of Liberty," which spent hundreds of thousands in the Iowa U.S. Senate primary backing ALEC member Joni Ernst, who had previously been considered the underdog in the race.

The network's early support for Ernst shows that the Kochs are increasingly intervening in GOP primaries and hand-picking candidates, as *Politico* described.

After Ernst secured the nomination, she was backed with big spending from Koch groups, including Freedom Partners' Super PAC the "Freedom Partners Action Fund," Americans for Prosperity, and the 60 Plus Association, as well as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which received $2 million from Freedom Partners in 2014.

Promoting Government Intervention in Private Affairs

Although the Kochs have recently been on a PR blitz framing themselves as "classical liberals" who oppose government intervention into private affairs, both Gardner and Ernst are vehemently opposed to a woman's right to choose.

The Kochs also directly funded organizations that oppose abortion rights and same sex marriage, but which work to elect candidates who—like Ernst and Gardner--will support deregulatory efforts that benefit the Kochs' bottom line.

Freedom Partners gave over $1 million to CitizenLink, the political arm of the religious right group Focus on the Family.

CitizenLink is currently campaigning to defund Planned Parenthood and has been a big supporter of anti-LGBT candidates who "work against basic civil rights and legal protections," according to the Human Rights Campaign. Freedom Partners also reported giving $1.3 million to CitizenLink in its previous tax filing.

Freedom Partners additionally gave $5.7 million to "EVNGCHR4 Trust," another evangelical religious right entity that in past years has passed most of its Koch funding to CitizenLink.

Freedom Partners also gave $225,000 to Susan B Anthony List, another anti-abortion group.

Complex Web of Interlocking Entities

The Koch data operation, "Demeter Analytic Services," is one of five "C-Corporations" listed on the tax filing as wholly owned by Freedom Partners.

Freedom Partners has become notorious for creating a complex web of interlocking legal entities to disguise the flow of funds from one group to the other.

Need proof?

The four other C-Corporations on the 990 are Cavhoco, Inc., Dbldbl, Inc., Knslt, Inc., and Thoco.

"Thoco" is listed as a "holding company" directly controlled by DblDbl Inc.

Dbldbl, Inc. is described as a "consulting company," as is Knslt, Inc.

Both Dbldbl, Inc. and Knslt, Inc. are controlled by Cavhoco Inc.

Cavhoco, Inc. is described as a "holding company."

Cavhoco, in turn, is controlled by "American Strategies Group LLC."

In another part of the tax filing, "American Strategies Group LLC" is described as a "disregarded entity" wholly owned by Freedom Partners.

"American Strategies Group LLC," in turn, is controlled by the "American Enterprise Group LLC," which is also described as wholly controlled by Freedom Partners.

Other disregarded entities include the "American Entrepreneur Fund LLC," "MIC LLC," and "American Strategic Innovations LLC."

Confused yet? That may be the goal.

Although Freedom Partners has been described as the "Koch Brothers' Secret Bank" and is a major conduit for funding from the Koch network, it isn't the only source of Koch bucks.

Both Charles and David have their own personal foundations that disclose grants to a similar set of groups. And documents show that the brothers write personal checks to AFP and other Koch-connected organizations, and use the corporate treasury of the privately-held Koch Industries to fund political organizations, without any public disclosure.

David Armiak contributed to this article

ALEC Exposed

Campaign Finance

http://www.prwatch.org/news/2015/11/12979/freedom-partners

http://mediamatters.org/research/2015/11/17/pro-koch-cbs-analyst-received-15-million-from-t/206918

Koch Organization Paid Frank Luntz's Firm Roughly $1.5 Million

Politico: Freedom Partners Chamber Of Commerce Is The "Central Group" In The Koch Brothers' Financial Network.Politico's Ken Vogel wrote that Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce is the "central group in the increasingly powerful network of conservative public policy and political groups helmed by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch." Freedom Partners was created in 2011 and "raised $162 million in 2013 and 2014. Three quarters of that haul came in last year, almost entirely from six-figure membership dues of wealthy donors who the Kochs convene twice a year for summits that highlight the virtues of fiscally conservative, small government policies -- and that raise money for groups and candidates who support those policies." *Politico*, [11/17/15]

Freedom Partners Paid Luntz Global LLC Roughly $1.5 Million In 2014. An IRS filing for Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, publicly released on November 17, said that the Koch organization paid Luntz Global LLC $1,496,879 for market research in 2014. Luntz is the founder and president of Luntz Global. FreedomPartners.org, accessed [11/17/15, LuntzGlobal.com, accessed 11/17/15, via *Politico*]

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sue s 3/15

Conservative mega-donors David and Charles Koch have created one of the most powerful political forces in the United States. The two brothers made their combined $86 billion at the helm of the country's second-largest privately-held corporation, Kansas-based Koch Industries, and have poured money into a web of political advocacy organizations, limited-liability corporations, a trade association and a super PAC that have helped elect conservative politicians and opposed environmental protections and the Affordable Care Act.

The network, which includes political nonprofits Americans for Prosperity, the 60 Plus Association and Generation Opportunity, raised over $400 million for the 2012 elections.

Earlier this year, the Kochs announced at a donor gathering that they plan to spend nearly $900 million on the 2016 elections, significantly more than the entire Republican Party spent in 2012. To help raise that enormous sum, the Kochs will rely on about 300 donors from their conservative network.

The identities of the Kochs' allied donors, shielded by weak disclosure laws for political nonprofits and the use of private LLCs, have been mostly a mystery -- until recently.

The Freedom Partners Action Fund (FPAF) was launched in June 2014 as an extension of the original Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, a trade organization in the Koch network that raises and disperses money. It made over $23 million in independent expenditures in the 2014 election benefiting conservative U.S. House and Senate candidates, according to federal campaign finance reports. FPAF is a super PAC that's legally required to disclose its donors.

Records show that 15 businesspeople from Southern states made donations of $100,000 or more to FPAF in 2014. Of those, seven have contributed $400,000 or more:

* Ronnie Cameron is chair of the Arkansas-based agribusiness giant Mountaire Corp., which gave a whopping $3 million to FPAF between June and October last year. A document from a confidential Koch donor gathering near Palm Springs, California in early 2014 found in a hotel showed Cameron had a personal meeting with Charles Koch, the elder brother and chair and CEO of Koch Industries, along with Kevin Gentry, vice president for development at Koch Companies Public Sector, a limited liability corporation that both lobbies and spends politically. At another donor gathering in 2011, Charles Kochpraised Cameron for having given over $1 million to Koch-related causes over the previous 12 months.

* Paul L. Foster, chair of oil refining company Western Refining in El Paso, Texas, gave $1 million to FPAF in October. With a personal fortune worth $1.5 billion, Foster (center in photo) met with Charles Koch personally at last year's donor gathering.

* John W. Childs, founder and CEO of the private equity firm J.W. Childs Associates, gave $700,000 to FPAF in 2014. While his firm is based on Boston, Childs has a home in Vero Beach, Florida, the address listed in campaign finance documents. He scored a private meeting at the "Koch Residence" with Charles Koch at the 2014 donor gathering and was also recognized in 2011 for donating over $1 million to the Koch network. Childs was the country's 12:{th:(style="vertical-align:text-top;outline:none"):}:-biggest individual donor to outside spending groups in 2012 ($4.2 million) and No. 22 in 2014 ($2.4 million).

* Wayne Laufer, co-founder and retired CEO of Houston, Texas-based oil and natural gas corporation Bois d'Arc Energy, now lives in Sanibel, Florida. Laufer (at right in photo) donated $600,000 to FPAF last October.

* Richard B. Gilliam, founder of Virginia-based coal mining company Cumberland Resources, contributed $500,000 to FPAF in July. Gilliam (at left in photo), who sold Cumberland to Massey Energy for close to $1 billion in 2010, gave nearly $1.1 million to independent spending groups in 2012. Now a director at rare-metals mining corporation Endurance Gold, he met privatelylast year with Charles Koch and Richard Fink, CEO of Koch Companies Public Sector and Koch Industries board member. Charles Koch praised Gilliam in 2011 for giving over $1 million to the Koch network in a one-year period.

* Mrs. P. Mitchell, a self-employed investor from Dallas, gave $500,000 to FPAF on Oct. 27, 2014. Her identity is unclear.

* Art Pope's Henderson, North Carolina-based discount store chain Variety Wholesalers gave $400,000 to FPAF through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Variety Stores, on Sept. 16, 2014. Just 11 days earlier, Pope -- a major donor to conservative candidates and causes in North Carolina -- had resigned after serving almost two years as state budget director under Gov. Pat McCrory (R), a period in which Pope and Variety Wholesalers halted their political spending. Pope has longstanding ties to the Kochs, having served as a founding board memberof Americans for Prosperity, and his family foundation has given millions to AFP's 501(c)(3) nonprofit arm. Pope also attended Koch donor gatherings in 2010 and 2011, when Charles Koch praised him for having given over $1 million to Koch-related causes in the previous year. In turn, the Kochs have contributed to conservative advocacy groups founded by Pope, including the Civitas Institute and the John Locke Foundation.

The other major Southern donors to FPAF are Dian Graves Staiof Abilene, Texas, former director of First Financial Bankshares ($250,000); Robert B. Rowling of Dallas, chairman of TRT Holdings, which owns Omni Hotels, Gold's Gym International and an oil and gas exploration firm, among other companies ($200,000); James A. Pattersonof Louisville, Kentucky, a self-employed investor ($200,000); George W. Gibbs III of Jacksonville, Florida, former CEO of Atlantic Marine Holding Co., a shipbuilding and construction company acquired by BAE Systems in 2010 ($200,000); Edward L. Diefenthal of Metairie, Louisiana, president and CEO of the Woodvine Group, which operates companies that buy and sell chemical processing and bulk handling equipment ($150,000); Stephen I. Chazen of Bellaire, Texas, president of Occidental Petroleum Corp. ($125,000); Thomas O. Hicks of Dallas, chairman of Hicks Holdings, which operates the company that formerly owned the Texas Rangers and the Dallas Stars ($100,000); andRobert L. Luddy of Wake Forest, North Carolina, president of CaptiveAire Systems, which sells commercial kitchen ventilation equipment, and founder of private school chain Thales Academy ($100,000).

If past is prelude, we can expect these figures to continue bankrolling the Kochs' political efforts in 2016, which in addition to the presidential election will include U.S. Senate races in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina and South Carolina.

(To comment on or to share this story, click here.)

:{

INSTITUTE INDEX - The growing oil train threat}:

Train carloads of oil and ethanol expected to be hauled by rail in the U.S. this year:nearly 900,000

Since 2008, percent increase in train carloads of oil being hauled in the U.S. due to the oil shale drilling boom, which produces a particularly explosive product:4,000

Number of Americans living within about 500 yards of an oil train line, which deliver product to refineries on both coasts and the Gulf of Mexico: 16 million

Oil train derailments the U.S. government predicts will happen this year:about 15

Over the next two decades: 207

Average number of "higher consequence" oil train derailments the government expects per year: 10

Number of people who could be killed in just one of these "higher consequence" accidents: 200

Estimated amount in damages such an incident could cause: $6 billion

Number of tank cars of crude oil hauled by the CSX train that derailed in rural Mount Carbon, West Virginia on Feb. 16 while headed to an oil-shipping depot in Yorktown, Virginia: 107

Number of the railcars that caught fire in that disaster, which occurred along the the Kanawha River: 19

Number of days the fire burned: 4

Number of people evacuated from the area: about 1,000

Number of homes destroyed: 1

Gallons of crude oil spilled into the James River last year after an oil train derailed near downtown Lynchburg, Virginia: 30,000

Gallons of crude spilled into wetlands near the rural, majority African-American community of Aliceville, Alabama in a November 2013 oil train derailment:nearly 750,000

Number of months later that crude oil was still oozing into the wetland, which a reporter described as smelling "like a garage": 4

Number of people killed in a July 2013 oil train explosion in Lac-Megantic, Quebec after flaming oil engulfed a crowded bar and restaurant on a Saturday night: 47

Number of victims whose remains were never found because the intense heat vaporized them: 5

Date by which new federal oil train regulations were supposed to be finalized and implemented by regulators: 1/15/2015

Number of days before the deadline that the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration posted documents to its website related to recent meetings with oil and rail industry lobbyists, who have objected to the additional costs: 2

Month to which the rollout of the regulations has been pushed back: 5/2015

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Today, the Koch-funded "Freedom Partners," which secretly distributed $250 million during the 2012 election season, posted its first federal tax report which uncloaked several Koch-related entities that were previously unknown. Last week, Politico broke the newsof the existence of this group. Today, new details of the group's spending are available for the first time.

The new-ish organization, formally known as "Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce," lists five entities which it owned 100% of:

All of these entities, whose assets totaled more than $1.4 million as of October 2012, share the same street address: 2200 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 102-391, Arlington, Virginia 22201. All of these corporations are registered in Delaware. The activities of these groups is not known and their current assets are also unknown. (These corporations are listed on the form as "disregarded" in IRS lingo not because they no longer exist but because of a technical tax definition for certain companies that are similar to sole proprietorships or controlled by just a few people.)

The Koch-Fueled CPPR Got More than $100 Million Last Year

The Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce's tax filing also lists the names and amounts of all of the entities it funded between late 2011 and the eve of the 2012 elections. Here is the list of the top five groups to which the Kochs' Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce funneled millions:

Kochs Have Claimed No Role on Gun Policy; the NRA Got Millions

In the past 18 months as controversy has grown over the role of the Koch-funded American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in pushing so-called "Stand Your Ground" legislation, Koch Industries has repeatedly issued denouncements that it has any role in gun policies. The Center for Media and Democracy, however, has documented how extreme gun policies of the National Rifle Association (NRA) have flourished while Koch Industries has had a seat on and led ALEC's Private Enterprise Board (which was recently rebranded as the Private Enterprise Advisory Council).

While it is not known if Koch Industries has donated any funds to the Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, what is known -- as CMD has documented -- is that this organization is filled with Koch operatives, was launched in the same building as the Charles Koch Foundation, and has very close ties to David and Charles Koch, who are two of the richest men in the world.

Now, with this tax filing it is clear that this Koch-related operation is directly funding the NRA. The NRA received more than the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, receiving $3,465,000. The NRA describes itself as a membership organization, where people can pay $35 to be a member and get a subscription to one of the NRA magazines. However, the NRA has not disclosed how much of its funding comes from gun manufacturers or non-profit groups such as the Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce.

The Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce also gave millions to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation of Independent Business, and the National Association of Manufacturers.

More Mysteries of the Koch Network Exposed

In addition to these, the Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce spent another $50 million on other groups, cumulatively, some of which are well known and some of which have flown below the public's radar:

Some of these groups have been directly connected to the Koch fortune by prior research, such as the Heritage Foundation's arms (which are long-time recipients of Koch money), the Center for Shared Service (which helps recruit right-wingers for jobs in the Koch network and which shares an office building with theCharles Koch Foundation) Themis and Libre (which advance Koch corporate agenda of Ayn Rand-style economic policies), and the Tea Party groups (which the Kochs initially claimed to the New Yorker's Jane Mayer that they had little to do with, despite evidence to the contrary).

Other groups were not yet tied to Koch money, like Generation Opportunity (which is aimed at college graduates struggling to find work in this economy and which attempts to blame progressive policies for the economic crisis that was actually spurred by Koch-style deregulation peddled by David Koch's Citizens for a Sounds Economy, which pressed for the repeal of Glass-Steagall protections, the predecessor group of Koch's Americans for Prosperity).

Others, such as the array of LLCs in the list in addition to the gigantic sum given to CPPR, raise additional questions about the Koch agenda and how it was spent during the last election cycle when hundreds of millions in dark money was poured into so-called issue ads and other "public education" activities that coincided with election themes.

The Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce describes itself as devoted to advancing its members "common business interests." It is a trade group organized under section 501(c)(6) of the tax group, with corporate members (which may be able to write-off part of their investment as a business expense). The question a growing number of people are asking is how the pursuit of these common business interests is actually undermining the prosperity of ordinary Americans, while advancing the interests of some of the richest few in the country.

(This article has been updated, including new links
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