1/ I have a BIG new story to share with you.
It’s about LEONARD LEO, the man who’s been called the “hidden architect” of the Supreme Court’s conservative majority.
Our investigation goes deeper, and reveals more, than any story about Leo.
It's 🧵 time…
2/ If Leo’s name rings a bell, it’s probably for his work advising Donald Trump.
Remember Trump's list of SCOTUS picks from 2016?
Leo crafted it.
But what Leo built is SO MUCH bigger than just — just! — the Supreme Court.
Here’s what we learned…
propub.li/3RVSKXA
3/ We talked to more than 100 people who know Leo, worked with him, got his funding or studied his rise.
We drew on thousands of pages of court documents, tax filings, emails, and other records.
We unearthed tons of new material (including the photo below)...
4/ There’s scoopy material throughout our story.
We reveal, for instance, that Leo arranged for a group of conservative mega-donors to meet with Clarence Thomas in private . . . AT the Supreme Court.
The leader of this donor group? Paul Singer.
5/ Long ago, Leo realized it wasn’t enough to have the Supreme Court.
To undo rulings like Roe, he’d need to ensure SCOTUS heard the right cases brought by the right lawyers & heard by the right lower ct judges.
He built a machine to shape state courts, AGs & judge races.
👇👇
6/ He also created a pipeline to train and churn out conservative judges and lawyers — the future Scalias and Thomases, if you will.
You’ll recognize some of the judges whose careers he nurtured, including Aileen Cannon — now JUDGE Aileen Cannon of the Mar-a-Lago docs case
7/ To fuel this machine, Leo raised a huuuuuge amount of money.
$600 million between 2014 and 2020, to be precise.
And then, in 2021, he blew that sum out of the water when he took control of a $1.6 billion — with a B — fund. propub.li/3rZpfJI
8/ One key revelation about Leo’s influence is his close relationships with Supreme Court justices.
He once said Antonin Scalia was “like an uncle.”
Clarence Thomas is a godfather to one of his daughters.
He’s traveled with Samuel Alito and Alito’s wife, Martha-Ann.
9/ But as George Conway (@gtconway3d) told us, Leo is more than a friend to the justices.
He’s a “den mother," Conway said, helping take care of the judges even after they had made it to the highest court in the country.
This quote from Conway is illuminating:
10/ As George Conway and others saw it, Leo’s relationships w/ the justices amplified his influence.
Leo hosted a dinner during the big Federalist Society conference w. justices, donors, and public figures.
Conway attended a few of Leo's dinners.
He described the dynamic:
11/ Another crucial thing to understand about Leo is his faith.
He’s a devout Roman Catholic.
A big admirer and supporter of Opus Dei.
He’s a Knight of Malta, the global charitable group of influential Catholics.
Here's @ForeignPolicy on the knights: foreignpolicy.com/2011/01/19/who…
12/ Leo is a big supporter of the Catholic Information Center, an Opus Dei-affiliated outreach group that says it’s the closest tabernacle to the White House.
That political power speaks to the nexus of politics & religion in Leo’s work.
Leo is a big CIC donor — see this photo
13/ More than any other person, Leo stands at that nexus of the conservative legal movement and the religious right.
He’s involved w/ Students for Life, the Becket Fund, and Catholic University.
His faith also helped forge those connections with several Supreme Court justices.
14/ There’s something else our story illuminates in a new way:
Leonard Leo’s influence at the state level.
I think this paragraph in our story absolutely nails it in a way no other story has:
15/ Leo is not afraid to play bare-knuckle politics.
We shed new light on a time he lit into a GOP governor over a judicial pick he disagreed with.
He threatened that governor with “fury from the conservative base, the likes of which you and the Governor have never seen.”
16/ He's also not infallible.
He's suffered defeats. In Missouri, he and his team's efforts to defeat Breckenridge and sink the so-called "Missouri Plan" failed.
He's lost in Wisconsin too.
But he's learned from the defeats as much as the victories, people told us.
See this:
17/ One of the biggest questions we tried to answer was:
What does Leo do next?
What are his plans for the future? His next targets?
We delve into all of that in our investigation...
propub.li/3RVSKXA
18/ Top of his list: He wants to expand the strategy he used at the Federalist Society to shape…
…all of *American* society.
He sees a nation plagued with ills: “wokism” in education, “one-sided” journalism, misguided ideas like environmental, social and governance policies.
19/ He views the broader American culture as increasingly hostile to people of faith.
In a 2022 speech, he blasted a “progressive Ku Klux Klan” and “current-day barbarians, secularists and bigots” who move America further from a “natural order.”
Watch:
20/ And he has the money to fuel these growing ambitions:
In 2021, the Chicago businessman Barre Seid put his fortune — $1.6 billion — into a trust.
Then Seid gave Leo control over that money.
The guy nicknamed "Moneybags Kid" in high school is now a mega-donor of his own.
21/ He's investing in projects like the Teneo Network, a “confidential” network of young conservatives and libertarians.
Teneo wants to create a “talent pipeline for the future of America.”
Think CEOs, doctors, media moguls.
Maybe a future president. propublica.org/article/leonar…
22/ After months of talks, Leo agreed to be interviewed on the condition we NOT ask him about his financial activities or relationships w/ SCOTUS justices.
We declined & sent a list of Qs & facts we planned to report.
His responses are in the story. Here are a few key quotes…
23/ In response to the main thrust of our story, Leo told us:
“The work I have done in the legal culture has been shaped by the conviction that respecting and enforcing limits on the power of the state are essential to advancing the dignity and worth of all individuals.”
24/ We also asked Leo about his fundraising talents, and whether his relationships with judges, justices, and other influential figures helped him raise huge amounts of money.
Here was our question and his response:
25/ And when we asked Leo about arranging the meeting for the Singer-affiliated donors with Justice Thomas at the Supreme Court, he sent this response:
(Singer declined to comment. Thomas didn't respond.)
26/end
OK, that’s plenty of tweeting — X-ing? — for now.
Thanks for following along.
One final plea:
If you liked this 🧵
Please listen to our three-part podcast with @onthemedia about Leo, his life, and his power.
Listen here: propub.li/3Q2TSGu
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