sen whitehouse - dark money

[MOMFUDSKI]

A link to a podcast wherein he discusses monies from big donors hidden from view - going against Supreme Court rules. Listen to the first 30 minutes. Says getting right-wing judges on the Court is of utmost importance to these dark money people. They are even open to losing the Senate to accomplish this goal.

https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/skullduggery/e/77941013?autoplay=true

[orwell]

1. It's about time we started promoting...

...our own "conspiracy theories".

At least our side can ground them in reality.

Does anyone think this isn't likely happening?

We can call our S-Anon

or

Judgegate!

[Midnight Writer]

2. Jane Mayer has an excellent book out named Dark Money. Everyone should read it.

Details of the Dark Money networks, and the people who fund them.

[EleanorR]

3. Leonard Leo

For two decades, Leo has been on a mission to turn back the clock to a time before the U.S. Supreme Court routinely expanded the government’s authority and endorsed new rights such as abortion and same-sex marriage. Now, as President Trump’s unofficial judicial adviser, he told the audience at the closed-door event in February that they had to mobilize in “very unprecedented ways” to help finish the job.

Even as Leo counseled Trump on judicial picks, he and his allies were raising money for nonprofits that under IRS rules do not have to disclose their donors. Between 2014 and 2017 alone, they collected more than $250 million in such donations, sometimes known as “dark money,” according to a Post analysis of the most recent tax filings available. The money was used in part to support conservative policies and judges, through advertising and through funding for groups whose executives appeared as television pundits.

The groups in Leo’s network often work in concert and are linked to Leo and one another by finances, shared board members, phone numbers, addresses, back-office support and other operational details, according to tax filings, incorporation records, other documents and interviews.

Nine of the groups hired the same conservative media relations firm, Creative Response Concepts, collectively paying it more than $10 million in contracting fees in 2016 and 2017. During that time, the firm coordinated a months-long media campaign in support of Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Neil M. Gorsuch, including publishing opinion essays, contributing 5,000 quotes to news stories, scheduling pundit appearances on television and posting online videos that were viewed 50 million times, according to a report on the firm’s website.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/leonard-leo-federalists-society-courts/