NEW: from @AndyKroll @AndreaBNYC & me

How Leonard Leo remade state courts, state AG offices, and, oh yeah, the Supreme Court, without becoming a household name in America

he should be

propublica.org/article/we-don… a few highlights:

there was that time he pressured the Missouri governor to blow up the state's system for picking non-political, non-partisan judges

1/
NEW from ProPublica/me: a tale about what happened when corporations, en masse, stopped making donations to a group that embraced Stop The Steal...and then *went*back* to donating
propublica.org/article/raga-g… 2/ Meet the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA).

After the 2020 election, 18 RAGA members petitioned the Supreme Court to *invalidate*the*vote* in four states that went for Biden. (SCOTUS rejected them)

NEW
Donald Trump, Jr., gave a deposition to the DC attorney general last month, in probe of nonprofit Trump Inaug Committee possible over-payments to Trump Hotel DC. The transcript just became available.

documentcloud.org/documents/2053… Documents show Trump Org reserved a $49k block of rooms at Loews Madison hotel. After Trump Org did not pay, the nonprofit inaug committee paid the bill. DJT2 claims no knowledge. Guests included family friends, family driver, Real Housewife Jill Zarin

NEW from me & @shustry:

How Rick Perry & his DoE lent their imprimatur to a Louisiana co w/ no track record or assets, as it sought a major energy deal in Ukraine

After impeachment, the deal advanced

wnycstudios.org/podcasts/trump… /1 OK so it’s a bit of a shaggy dog tale
Let’s begin with energy exec Robert Bensh, who heard from Perry in early 2019. Perry’s aw-shucks manner caught him by surprise /2

WEEKEND LISTEN
the Ukraine mess might not have happened if it weren't for the Citizens United Decision in 2010. That's what the latest Trump, Inc. is all about.
wnycstudios.org/podcasts/trump… I'll explain: before Citizens United, only real, identifiable humanoids could put $$ in politics.

Afterwards, corporations were allowed to give unlimited $$ to groups called super PACs
law.cornell.edu/supct/html/08-…
/2

a great week for viral audio

soundcloud.com/the-daily-beas… context: Trump appeared at this private donor dinner for a superPAC. SuperPACs are not supposed to coordinate with campaigns.

The setting: the Trump hotel in DC

Last night I got to intro @AndreaWNYC at a party for her new book, American Oligarchs

I also described the Nine Pillars of Bernstein, based on close observation over many yrs

Ppl seemed to enjoy it, so I'm gonna share the Pillars now @AndreaWNYC 1. Everyone wants to help you. CEOs, public information officers, other journalists at rival outlets, people on the street. ANYONE could be a source, they just don’t know it yet. Your job is to let them know

This week, the House subpoenaed docs on Rudy Giuliani's activity in Ukraine.

Rudy says he was investigating “corruption” there

As it happens, I landed in Kyiv 10 days ago, for a long-planned reporting trip. Dumb luck!

What Rudy’s saying is *wrong* /1

wnycstudios.org/podcasts/trump… With the help of some Ukrainians, Rudy was pushing two conspiracy theories:

VP Joe Biden got a prosecutor fired as a favor to his son
Ukraine intervened in the 2016 election

We found no evidence to support either idea /2

ALL Trump Inc. episodes are special, but this week's ep is *important* wnycstudios.org/story/trump-in… in it, we lay our the many questions surrounding Trump's effort to build a tower in Moscow, in 2015-2016

This month, the Trump inaugural committee was subpoenaed
Then, a House committee investigated a plan to sell nuke tech to Saudi
there's a connection>> Trump friend *Tom*Barrack*
We profiled him this week for Trump Inc.
wnycstudios.org/story/trump-in… w/@JustinElliott Barrack's friendship w Trump is fascinating. Rhetorically, the two men could not be more different.
Trump (left) - Barrack (right)

Hey so one day after news of the inaugural committee subpoenas came out, @wnyc and @ProPublica published two fascinating docs that tell us something about the chairman of the committee, Tom Barrack wnycstudios.org/story/confiden… there's a strategy memo, from Feb 2017, which suggests Colony can profit from it's DC and international connections

In March, Trump Inc. asked a simple question

wnycstudios.org/story/trump-in… /1 After months of reporting, we have an answer: some of the money went to the Trump Organization. Ivanka Trump personally connected inauguration planners with her family’s DC hotel. We know, because we have emails. wnycstudios.org/story/trump-in…