“The Dark Money Groups Spending Big to Shape the Supreme Court are the Same Groups That Spent Millions Pushing Trump’s Big Lie and Funding Insurrectionists

From the summary of the Accountable.US report:

SUMMARY: Judicial Crisis Network, The 85 Fund, and their affiliated groups have spent tens of millions of dollars in dark money to shape the Supreme Court. This largely concealed network of right-wing organizations, which heavily revolves around conservative activist Leonard Leo, gravitate around major money conduits Donors Trust and the Bradley Foundation. These dark money groups not only funded Leo’s network of organizations to the sum of over $52 million in 2020, but also funded entities in 2020 that played a role in the insurrection to the sum of over $37 million, including the following notable examples:
• Donors Trust gave $1.01 million to the Thomas More Society and its Amistad Project, which was “an aggressive initiative” that filed 2020 election challenges in five states.
• Donors Trust gave $780,400 to Turning Point USA, a “right-wing youth group” which sent over 80 buses to the January 6 rally and includes “leading” election conspiracist Mike Lindell on its honorary board.
• The Bradley Foundation and Bradley Impact Fund gave a total of $351,300 to the Public Interest Legal Foundation a conservative legal organization which aims to purge voter rolls and is chaired by Cleta Mitchell, a Bradley Foundation board member and Federalist Society contributor who aided Trump’s attempt to get Georgia’s Secretary Of State to overturn Joe Biden’s victory. Mitchell was subpoenaed by the January 6th Committee in March 2022.
Donors Trust, which has been dubbed the “dark money ATM of the right,” is closely tied to Leonard Leo’s network and gave The 85 Fund over $48 million in 2020—but its funding has gone far beyond Supreme Court fights. In 2020 alone, it disclosed giving at least $28,135,539 to about 40 entities that have supported the insurrection or have fed into the “big lie” of election fraud that motivated the Capitol riot. Some of the worst examples include:
• $8 million to the State Policy Network, which partnered with the Heritage Foundation to push voting restrictions in Georgia and elsewhere following Trump’s “campaign of falsehoods about the 2020 election.”
• $1.6 million to the Government Accountability Institute, which “has pushed voter fraud claims” and was co-founded by Trump loyalist Steve Bannon, whose podcast extensively argued that Trump won the 2020 election ahead of the insurrection.
• $1.45 million to the Wyoming Liberty Group, which helped fuel Wyoming Trump supporters’ demands for 2020 election audits and falsely claimed the state’s election systems were vulnerable to online interference.
• $1.1 million to the Center For Security Policy, whose founder and executive chairman “questionedthe results” of the 2020 election and declared “YES, there was fraud in our election.”
• $1 million to Project Veritas, a right-wing disinformation group deeply involved in efforts to delegitimize the 2020 election before, during, and after votes were cast.
• $860,000 to the Center For America Greatness, a right-wing media outlet and think tank that promoted allegations of voter fraud shortly after the election and downplayed the Capitol riot in 2022.
• $839,000 to the Club For Growth, which was called “one of the biggest backers” of public officials who later voted to overturn the 2020 election.
• $728,700 to The Federalist Society, whose membership was closely tied to the Capitol riot, including senior member John Eastman, who presented Trump with a six-point plan to overturn the 2020 election and spoke at the rally preceding the capitol riot.
The Bradley Impact Fund & Lynde And Harry Bradley Foundation are the main political-finance engines of the right-wing Bradley Family. The Bradley Foundation’s board features Cleta Mitchell, a Federalist Society contributor who aided Trump’s attempt to get Georgia’s Secretary of State to overturn Joe Biden’s victory and was subpoenaed by the January 6th Committee in March 2022. In addition to its ties to Leo via Mitchell, the Bradley Network is a key funder of Leo’s endeavors, giving his various dark money groups over $3.5 million in 2019 and 2020. The Bradley entities also shoveled at least $9,077,225 to at least 15 different groups that have supported the insurrection or have fed into the “Big Lie” of election fraud that motivated the Capitol Riots. Some of the worst examples include:
• $6.5 Million to Project Veritas, a right-wing disinformation group deeply involved in efforts to delegitimize the 2020 election before, during, and after votes were cast.
• $401,900 to FreedomWorks, a Koch-backed operation that reportedly led protests about voter fraud after the 2020 election and hired a conservative activist after she was fired for participating in Trump’s attempt to have Georgia’s election results overturned.
• $275,000 to west coast think tank California Policy Center, a group that complained about ballot harvesting gave credence to election fraud claims in 2020, claiming Philadelphia and Detroit have poor records on election integrity and that unverified claims of fraud were “fishy.”
• $240,000 to The Prager University Foundation, A group that produced a video titled “How To Steal An Election: Mail-In Ballots,” and whose founder said, “January 6 is a smokescreen like the Nazis used the Reichstag Fire.”

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