Wondering where the misleading narrative about #JudgeJackson pushed by Sen. Hawley yesterday — re criminal sentences — comes from? Spoiler: it has dark money origins 🧵
It appears this line of attack originated via the American Accountability Foundation, an outfit with clear links to Conservative Partnership Institute that was launched in 2021 to oppose Biden’s nominees.
It was then promoted in a separate “report” by the Article III Project (A3P), another right-wing outfit that received almost all its known funding from the dark money Concord Fund in 2019.
Concord Fund, also called the “Judicial Crisis Network,” has funneled tens of millions into capturing the courts + launched a $2.5M ad campaign attacking #KBJ. It’s tied to Leonard Leo–kingpin of the dark money web focused on reshaping the courts + the law washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/…
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The dark money/court capture group @judicialnetwork just announced a $1.5M ad buy. The ad takes a jab at #KBJ, but mostly peddles a vanity project/film about Clarence Thomas.
The story behind this hagiography + ad campaign is what’s really revealing.
Let’s follow the $$$. 🧵
First, the ad buyer:
JCN is part of Leonard Leo’s web that has raised nearly $600M in recent years to capture the Supreme Court + reshape the law. The ultimate goal: reverse a century of legal precedents disliked by Leo and his super-rich secret funders. truenorthresearch.org/2022/03/leonar…
JCN’s ad directs viewers to a seemingly revamped site: clarencethomas.com, listing Clarence Thomas as its copyright holder. There you can see the “documentary” “Created Equal.” Here are some of its funders, which we’ll take up one by one.
Over & over in the #KBJ hearings, we’ve heard Republicans make accusations about “left-wing dark money.”
There's a big problem with those attacks:
When they had a chance to vote for financial disclosure/transparency for dark money groups, those Republican Senators opposed it.🧵
In 2010, @SenWhitehouse introduced the DISCLOSE Act to combat dark money in response to the Court’s Citizens United decision, which struck down bipartisan fair election rules.
Senator Blackburn's appearances in today & yesterday's SCOTUS hearings delve into a host of culture war issues out of the blue. It’s worth interrogating the origins of these attacks on #JudgeJackson 🧵nytimes.com/2022/03/21/us/…
Blackburn has close ties with a right-wing culture war group that calls itself the “Independent Women’s Forum,” which backed controversial Trump nominees to the Court and has touted its ability to appear neutral.
This week, True North released a report highlighting talking points IWLC, IWF’s legal center, sent to GOP Senators in advance of the hearing. truenorthresearch.org/2022/03/dark-m…
The @USChamber has launched a full court press against the #BuildBackBetter plan. But many of its corporate members say they support families & #ClimateAction. Their $ to the Chamber speaks louder than words. Tell them to back this historic agenda!
Hey @Amazon try delivering paid family leave & clean energy standards by demanding the @USChamber stop opposing the #BuildBackBetter plan.