Thread by @AndyKroll

🚨 I’ve got a juicy story to tell you about Leonard Leo.

Last time we checked in with Leo, we revealed details about a $1.6 BILLION gift he'd received.

That huge donation begged the question:

What will Leo do next?

Answer: “Crush liberal dominance.”

How?

It's 🧵 time

Leo helped run the Federalist Society for 3 decades, building a pipeline for conservative judges & justices.

He was an architect of the 6-3 SCOTUS conservative supermajority that overturned Roe.

His latest project?

It’s called the Teneo Network. 2/

propublica.org/article/leonar…

Teneo Network is a “private and confidential” network of young conservatives.

Their goal: to take what the Federalist Society did for judges and lawyers and expand it to:

Wall Street. Silicon Valley. Media. Corporate America. Energy.

A Federalist Society for everything. 3/

Until now, Teneo has flown under the radar.

But @propublica and @ItsDocumented obtained more than 50 hours of Teneo videos and 100s of pages of documents.

We interviewed Teneo members.

Here’s what we learned… 4/

Teneo Network’s members have included big names in the conservative vanguard:

Senators @JDVance1 and Josh @HawleyMO

In fact, Hawley cofounded Teneo back in 2008

Rep. @EliseStefanik, now the 4th-ranked House GOPer

As well as major cultural figures on the right... 5/

Teneo’s origin story — as told by one of its cofounders — includes another name you’ll recognize:

Peter Thiel, the iconoclastic investor and Trump backer.

Here’s the story Teneo’s former leader tells of how the group got started, with Thiel present at the creation 6/

The videos @propublica & @ItsDocumented obtained are filled w/ fascinating insights into how conservative leaders think.

Consider this scenario, as laid out by Teneo cofounder Evan Baehr, about how “the left” wields its cultural power.

We found this hypothetical revealing 7/

Teneo Network didn’t really take off in its first few years.

Then, circa 2017-18, Leo took notice of the group.

And that’s when its prospects — and its finances — really took off… 8/

Teneo’s finances soared from ~750K in '17 to nearly $5 million in 2021 — a 666% increase.

Some of Teneo’s most recent new members are [[eyes emoji]]

Three senior aides to Ron DeSantis
Virginia’s solicitor general
Nebraska’s AG

Speakers at Teneo’s events include big names 9/

Gov. Ron DeSantis himself has spoken at Teneo’s big annual retreat.

More on that to come… 10/

What does all this mean in practical terms?

A bunch of powerful and up-and-coming conservatives get together — so what?

An email we obtained explains how Teneo Network has leveraged its people across sectors and politics on the issue of fighting “woke capitalism” 11/

We asked Leo about Teneo and his role and vision for the group.

He didn’t shy away in the least.

Here’s what he told us

12/

Teneo Network is just one piece of the puzzle about what Leo is up to now.

But if the Fed. Society’s success is an indication, you could hear a lot more about Teneo soon.

Including from us. So watch this space…

And pls share today’s story!

13/end

propublica.org/article/leonar…