Following Leonard Leo’s dark money in pushing America to the far right

Last summer, I did a deep dive into the organizations connected to the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 and the entities that fund them. In doing so, I learned much about the network of dark money shaping our shared political and cultural life.

In the United States, nonprofit organizations are categorized by their function. True public charities acting for the benefit of society are classified as 501(c)(3) while nonprofits engaged in shaping politics by pumping money into political campaigns and action committees are classified as 501(c)(4). While 501(c)(3) organizations are required to include the names of their largest donors on their 990 tax filings, 501(c)(4) organizations are not.

Similarly, private foundations are classified as 501(c)(3). In their tax filings they are required to detail both where their income came from (such as dividends paid on stocks) as well as which nonprofits they fund and for how much. They also are required to distribute a certain percentage of their assets each year and must follow limitations on how much money they give to the politically focused 501(c)(4) organizations. The bulk of their donations are required to go to 501(c)(3) organizations.

“This legal version of money laundering is being used with great success by Leonard Leo.”

While that seems relatively straightforward, nonprofit organizations like Schwab Charitable Fund and Donors Trust Inc. complicate matters. They are classified as 501(c)(3)s and manage individual donor-advised funds (known as DAFs) — but unlike other 501(c)(3) organizations they are not required to disclose which individuals are funding the DAFs. This arrangement allows the uber-wealthy to make donations under a cloak of total darkness.

These individual donors deposit their billions of dollars with entities like Schwab, then instruct the managing entities which nonprofits to fund and for how much. When the donation is transferred to the nonprofit, it lists the funding entity rather than the individual donor who funded the DAF and said where the money should go.

When it comes to DAFs, the public (and the IRS) never know whose billions are funding which nonprofits.

This arrangement — a legal version of money laundering — is being used with great success by Leonard Leo, who orchestrated the decades-long shift of the judiciary to the far right.

Recently, journalists have written much about the shadowy dark money network he controls. But there is always more to discover in the dark.

In 2022, one of Leo’s pass-through funding entities — The 85 Fund — relocated its business office to Fort Worth, Texas. I happen to be a resident of Texas — the state at the epicenter of the Christian nationalist takeover of all levels of government. Leo’s network, its impact on Texas and, in turn, the state’s impact on the rest of the country are of particular interest to me.

One example of the tangled web

In 2020, billionaire electronics manufacturing mogul Barre Seid donated 100% of his shares in his company Tripp Lite to the new nonprofit 501(c)(3) founded and run by Leo: Marble Freedom Trust. Months later, when Tripp Lite was sold to an Irish conglomerate for $1.65 billion, Marble Freedom Trust received all the profits.

From there, Leo began distributing the funds to a handful of passthrough entities he controls.

Tax filings for Marble Freedom Trust are available for 2020 through 2022. In those three years, the trust transferred large sums of money to five nonprofits.

First, $325.55 million to Schwab Charitable Fund, a 501(c)(3) housing a DAF which Leo directly controls. That DAF in turn transferred $282.75 million to The 85 Fund, a 501(c)(3) previously known as Judicial Education Project.

Leo does not legally control this fund but is its primary contributor through the DAF at Schwab while also being paid more than $20 million per year by The 85 Fund for his “management support/administration/operations.” This arrangement piqued the interest of Washington D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb, who is investigating whether this arrangement is intended to allow Leo to skirt nonprofit laws.

The 85 Fund, in turn, has transferred more than $267 million to Donors Trust Inc., another 501(c)(3) housing a DAF Leo directly controls.

Second, $153 million to Rule of Law Trust, a 501(c)(4) Leo started in 2018 and directly controls.

That trust in turn transferred $24.5 million to The Concord Fund, a 501(c)(4) previously known as Judicial Crisis Network; $9 million to Fidelity Charitable, a 501(c)(3) housing a DAF; $6 million to Schwab Charitable Fund; $2.65 million to Knights of Columbus Charitable Fund; and nearly $6 million to Donors Trust Inc.

Third, $100.9 million to The Concord Fund. Like The 85 Fund, Leo does not legally control The Concord Fund but is its primary contributor through Marble Freedom Trust while also being paid more than $6 million a year for “consulting.” The Washington, D.C., Attorney General is investigating Leo’s relationship with this funding entity, too.

Fourth, $41.1 million to Donors Trust Inc., which in turn transferred $48.7 million to The 85 Fund.

Fifth, $7.6 million to Knights of Columbus Charitable Fund, a 501(c)(3).

So, in its first three years Marble Freedom Trust — controlled by Leo — transferred $628.15 million of its initial $1.6 billion windfall to five nonprofits, four of which Leo either directly or indirectly controls. Those four nonprofits then collectively transferred $331.45 to The 85 Fund which, along with The Concord Fund, is under investigation by the D.C. Attorney General for breaking nonprofit laws. The 85 Fund, in turn, transferred $267 million back to one of the DAFs that Leo can make unreported payments from.

That’s not all

While all this is bad for the integrity of the nonprofit sector and the faith of the American public in the nonprofit sector, it’s important to note Leo’s financial network extends beyond the funding entities he has a financial stake in.

There are other — many other — multi-million and billion dollar foundations that also fund Leo’s pet causes. This coalition of right-wing elites funding small, extremist nonprofits in states across the country, played a role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election, and they were responsible for sowing conspiracies in advance of the 2024 election.

These foundations are managed by boards. Some of these boards are libertarian and looking to leverage the foundation’s wealth to eliminate workers’ protections and environmental regulations so they can accumulate even more wealth. Some are driven by purely ideological desires to revert to a time when racial and gender hierarchies were enforced. Others want to reenforce social hierarchies but wish to do so on religious rather than ideological grounds by pointing to Catholic “natural law” or a divine order of things. Still others are driven by a nihilistic, end-times theology in which they believe Christian Americans are called to reorder society in order to usher in the Second Coming of Christ.

“Here are a few of the billion-dollar foundations working to remake the U.S government as we know it today.”

Here are a few of the billion-dollar foundations working to remake the U.S government as we know it today. These foundations have a robust financial relationship with Leo’s network and, importantly, they are funding right-wing — and often extremist — organizations in Texas.

Diana Davis Spencer Foundation Inc., based in Bethesda, Md., was formed in 2012 from the merger of two previous foundations (Shelby Cullom Davis Foundation and the Kathryn W. Davis Foundation) and has more than $1.4 billion in assets. The organization is led by Abby Spencer Moffat, a trustee of the Heritage Foundation and the Media Research Center (a media content creator dedicated to sharing “alternative facts” rather than news in order “to defend and preserve America’s founding principles and Judeo-Christian values.”)

To the Foundation’s credit, unlike some of its peers it does actually fund some nonprofits doing tangible work to make the world a better place like feeding the hungry and housing the unhoused. However, the majority of the foundation’s funding is channeled into extremist right-wing organizations and into broadcasting conspiracy talking points. In 2020, the foundation funded multiple organizations that promoted the Big Lie that the election was stolen from Trump. Until recently, the foundation’s tax filings reflected extremist talking points about “protecting election integrity,” “liberating college campuses,” “Marxism in America” and “reclaiming liberty.”

The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation Inc., based in Milwaukee, Wis., was formed in 1942 by Harry Bradley following the death of his brother, Lynde. Harry managed the foundation until his death in 1965. As an anti-unionist and staunch anti-communist, he focused the foundation’s giving on free-market and anti-unionist causes from the beginning. Since Harry’s death, the foundation’s board has moved increasingly rightward to the point of extremism.

Foundation board member Cleta Mitchell participated in the Jan. 2, 2021, phone call with then-President Trump as he pressured Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” votes for him. She also reportedly was by Trump’s side watching the January 6 Capitol riot and, when subpoenaed to testify before the House Committee on the events, refused to cooperate.

The Foundation has a separate 501(c)(4) called The Bradley Fund. Together, the nonprofits sit atop more than $1.6 billion in assets.

Sarah Scaife Foundation, based in Pittsburgh, was formed in 1941 by Sarah Mellon Scaife, heiress to the Mellon banking fortune. Following her death in 1965, her reclusive children, Richard Mellon Scaife and Cordelia Scaife May, devoted their family’s fortunes to the causes of opposing unions and immigrants, and trafficking in climate-denialism.

The Scaife Foundation (along with the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation) funded the 2020 joint report by The Claremont Institute and Texas Public Policy Foundation called “79 Days Report” that suggested legal and messaging strategies in advance of the 2020 election to sow seeds of conspiracy in the event Trump lost. The Foundation has $1 billion in assets.

The Searle Freedom Trust, based in Washington D.C., was founded in 1998 by Daniel C. Searle. The foundation is sunsetting operations by the end of 2025 and spending down its assets per Searle’s request so that “the foundation will always remain in the hands of people who understand my intentions and are committed to carrying out the foundation’s mission.”

The Trust has been, and continues to be until its closure, an important player in Leo’s network and funds “research and education on public policy issues that affect individual freedom and economic liberty.” At its height, the Trust had $200,000 in assets.

All roads lead to Texas

Texas is notorious for being a safe haven for Christian nationalists, January 6 insurrectionists, and nonprofits like the NRA looking to avoid legal scrutiny.

In fact, Leo’s The 85 Fund conveniently relocated its mailing address from a P.O. Box in Washington, D.C., to a virtual office space in Fort Worth in 2022 as D.C.’s district attorney began digging into the legality of Leo’s funding network. But Leo likely saw the Lone Star State’s penchant for Christian nationalism and its willingness to dissolve the Constitutional separation of church and state as a draw too.

An October 2024 joint analysis by ProPublica and The New York Times drew attention to another Christian nationalist network in Texas funded by oil billionaires Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks. The article highlights the fact that not all Christian nationalists have the same intentions:

Some Christian nationalists advocate for more religious iconography in public life, while others harbor grander visions of Christianizing America’s political institutions. Those on the extreme end of this spectrum are sometimes called Dominionists, after the passage in Genesis in which man is given “dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”

“While Leo, a Catholic integralist, would disagree with the Dominionist theology shared by Dunn and Wilks, he’s made it clear that he, too, wants to remake America into a theocratic nation.”

While Leo, a Catholic integralist, would disagree with the Dominionist theology shared by Dunn and Wilks, he’s made it clear that he, too, wants to remake America into a theocratic nation.

Last year ProPublica reported on a then-unknown fundraising video Leo recorded for donors to the Austin-based Teneo Network in which he promised to “crush liberal dominance” in all areas of life — from finance and medicine to art and culture.

Teneo Network, founded in Austin by tech entrepreneur Evan Baerh, is a secretive network that, according to its sparse website, is “shaping American culture.” The website offers no details about the network — one must be invited to be involved. Leo joined the board of Teneo as chairman in 2021. Less than a year later The 85 Fund — a key component of Leo’s funding strategy — relocated to Fort Worth.

I reviewed nearly 100 tax filings to get a sense of the financial and ideological shell-game Leo’s network plays with Texas right-wing nonprofits. Five things stand out:

• Within Leo’s network, the Teneo Network is gearing up for something big, indicating it has a role to play in Leo’s larger plans in the coming years.
• There is a continued focus on filing numerous lawsuits in order to further chip away at laws and regulations intended to protect workers, students and the general public.
• There is an increased emphasis on producing and distributing right-wing (and often extremist) media to reshape the public’s understandings of basic concepts like “truth,” “liberty” and “freedom.”
• There is a lot of energy and money being given to organizations seeking to redefine what it means to be an American and a “true patriot.” Some of these organizations have a history of white supremacy.
• Billionaire right-wing funders, extremist nonprofits and those who stormed the Capitol on January 6 live in a symbiotic closed-loop. There is no indication this symbiotic relationship has changed in the last four years.

This network’s manipulation of language, American ideals and our shared life together through litigation and shady, conspiracy-laden media isn’t a surprise to anyone who has been watching this unfold over the last 10 to 15 years. But we need not settle for the darkness Leo’s network seeks to envelope us all in.

Like Grandma used to say, sunlight is the best disinfectant. Or, as the Gospel of John tells us: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.”

Extremist network taking shape in Texas

Below are 15 of the many Texas nonprofits connected to Leo’s network. These snapshots offer a glimpse of what Leo’s network likely has planned for Texas and the rest of the country. My hope is that journalists and researchers will make use of this information to continue the pursuit of liberty and justice against those using dark money to dismantle our government and our shared values.

The American Civil Rights Project. Legal name: The Equal Voting Rights Institute. This 501(c)(3), started by Dan Morenoff in 2013, is still run out of the same P.O. Box in Dallas that was listed in its initial IRS filing 12 years ago. Morenoff is the only Texas-based board member and is the nonprofit’s single employee.

The nonprofit’s tax filings reveal its sole activity from 2015 to 2020 was to file and litigate a lawsuit challenging Dallas County’s 2011 redistricting plan. The opening paragraph of the filing in Harding v. Dallas states: “Four Anglo voters in Dallas County, Texas, challenge the county’s 2011 redistricting plan for electing county commissioners, urging that it denied their rights under §2 of the Voting Rights Act and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by providing only one Anglo-majority district.” Since the conclusion of the case, the organization has turned to producing right-wing media content and filing amicus briefs supporting lawsuits filed by other right-wing nonprofits.

Between 2020 and 2023, the American Civil Rights Project received $450,000 from the Sarah Scaife Foundation and $350,000 from The 85 Fund.

American Alliance for Equal Rights. This 501(c)(3) was formed in Richmond, Texas, in 2021 by Edward J. Blum as a legal counterpart to his other nonprofit, Students for Fair Admissions, which won twin Supreme Court cases in 2023 (Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina). Taken together, the landmark cases found the use of race-based affirmative action programs in college admissions violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

Since Blum’s Supreme Court wins, American Alliance for Equal Rights has been filing lawsuits against government contractors and small businesses that offer programs aimed to assist protected classes in launching a business.

In 2023, the organization received $225,000 from The 85 Fund. Leo’s network also funded Blum’s other nonprofit, Students for Fair Admissions. From 2020 to 2022, that organization received $250,000 from The 85 Fund, $200,000 from Sarah Scaife Foundation, $153,100 from Donors Trust and $28,552 from Schwab Charitable Fund.

American Energy Institute. Originally founded as Texas Natural Gas Foundation in Austin in 2015 by Jason Isaac, this 501(c)(3) initially focused on providing school districts with funds to replace high-diesel buses with ones using propane — a benefit for the natural gas industry.

In 2023, the nonprofit rebranded itself as American Energy Institute and relocated from its Austin address (the home of a former board member) to a mailbox rental service in Wimberly, Texas. With the rebranding, the organization’s mission, according to its website, is to “Liberate America’s energy, driving economic prosperity through abundant, affordable and reliable energy. Affordable and reliable energy is the driving force behind economic prosperity. The American Energy Institute represents energy producers across the United States, all with one united goal: spreading the message of abundant, reliable and affordable energy to help Americans live longer and live better.”

Following its rebranding in 2023, American Energy Institute received $250,000 from Donors Trust and $125,000 from The 85 Fund.

Benjamin Rush Institute. This 501(c)(3) was started by Californian Beth E. Haynes in 2013. In 2016, its mailing address was changed to a P.O. Box in Dallas and the contact changed to Richard Walker (the same Richard Walker of the now-defunct 501(c)(3) National Center for Policy Analysis). Today, the contact is listed as Montana businessman Jack Brown, but the organization is still run out of the same Dallas P.O. Box.

The organization seeks to do for conservative medical school students what the Federalist Society did for conservative law students and in doing so shift the medical profession rightward and toward a fully “free enterprise system that reduces costs and fosters innovation.” It, too, has turned to producing right-wing media content that is being distributed to aspiring medical professionals nationwide.

Between 2020 and 2023, Benjamin Rush Institute received $290,000 from the Sarah Scaife Foundation and $265,000 from The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.

Constituting America. This 501(c)(3) was founded in 2010 by actress Janine Turner (known for her television roles playing Maggie O’Connell in Northern Exposure and Katie McCoy in Friday Night Lights). Turner has described her politics as libertarian. The organization produces media for the general public — especially K-12 students. Constituting America has a close relationship with Hillsdale College, one of the institutions responsible for the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025.

“The media produced by Constituting America promotes the myth of American exceptionalism.”

The media produced by Constituting America promotes the myth of American exceptionalism.

Between 2020 and 2023, Constituting America received $20,000 from Donors Trust, $300,000 Diana Davis Spencer Foundation and $10,000 from The Bradley Impact Fund.

Emergent Order Foundation Inc. This Austin-based 501(c)(3) was originally founded as public relations firm Emergent Order LLC in 2011 by video producer and director John Papola. This organization applied for and was granted nonprofit status as Emergent Order Foundation Inc. in 2018, and since then the two entities have existed side-by-side under Papola.

Emergent Order LLC has been tied, along with American Institute for Economic Research, to “The Great Barrington Declaration,” a controversial document released in October 2020 calling for an end to pandemic restrictions and advocating for “allowing the coronavirus to spread naturally in order to achieve herd immunity.”

Emergent Order Foundation is a content media producer with the stated mission of “telling heroic stories of virtue that celebrate American freedom and the potential it unlocks in each of us.”

Between 2020 and 2023, Emergent Order Foundation Inc. received $3.335 million from Donors Trust, $935,060 from The Bradley Impact Fund, $720,000 from The Searle Freedom Trust, $660,000 from Sarah Scaife Foundation, $250,000 from The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, $110,500 from Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund in 2023 (the first gift from this entity after Leo created a $9 million DAF there), and $20,100 from Schwab Charitable Fund.

First Liberty Institute. Originally founded in 1972 as Liberty Legal Institute, beginning in 1997 under the direction of President and CEO Kelly Shackelford the 501(c)(3) began to focus on what it calls “religious liberty” cases in Texas. In reality, the overwhelming majority of lawsuits the organization has filed have been on behalf of evangelical Christians seeking to infuse their expression of Christianity into all areas of public life at the expense of individuals of other faiths or of no faith.

In 2012, the organization launched Texas Values — a separate 501(c)(3) to more directly focus on public policy proposals and grassroots organizing to advance Christian nationalism in Texas. Texas Values just had a big win with the Christian nationalist curriculum adopted by the state.

First Liberty Institute has rebranded twice since its founding, taking its new name in 2016. Attorneys from First Liberty were part of the team to litigate Kennedy v. Bremerton School District all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Like most of the organizations on this list, First Liberty also has branched out and is producing right-wing media content — in this case pushing the false narrative that Christianity is under attack in America. The organization also is listed on the advisory board for the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025.

Between 2020 and 2023, First Liberty Institute received $2.5 million from Schwab Charitable Fund, $110,000 from The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation and $33,000 from Donors Trust.

The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity. Founded in Austin in 2016 by Ames Brown and Avik Roy, the Foundation is a think tank that “seeks to expand economic opportunity to those who least have it, using the tools of individual liberty, free enterprise, technological innovation, and pluralism.”

Its managing and advisory boards include individuals from the right-leaning Cato Institute and Manhattan Institute as well as tech entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. Until recently, Vivek Ramaswamy was a board member.

Between 2020 and 2023, The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity received $365,000 from Sarah Scaife Foundation, $250,500 from The Bradley Impact Fund, $225,000 from The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, $225,000 from The Searle Freedom Trust and $41,138 from Donors Trust.

Job Creators Network. This network operates both a 501(c)(3) and a 501(c)(4). It was founded by the recently deceased Bernie Marcus, co-founder of Home Depot, to create and prepare spokespeople to advocate for business deregulation.

The organization produces right-wing media content and hosts seminars to promote its ideals. More recently, the organization has joined the cadre of conservative nonprofits filing lawsuits against local, state and federal governments on everything from student loan forgiveness to vaccine mandates. The 2019 tax filing by the Diana Davis Spencer Foundation indicates the Foundation’s gift of $150,000 was earmarked “for the fighting socialism educational program.”

The organization’s CFO/COO Phil Willard also is listed as a board member for Our United Voices Inc., a Texas 501(c)(4) established in 2023 as an apparent straw donor for political contributions in the 2024 election cycle.

Between 2020 and 2023, Job Creators Network received $2.1 million from Donors Trust Inc., $1.5 million from the Diana Davis Spencer Foundation, $500,000 from The 85 Fund, $200,000 from The Concord Fund, $100,100 from Schwab Charitable Fund and $50,000 from The Searle Freedom Trust.

Passages America Israel Inc. Started by Randal Scott Phillips in Illinois in 2016, when Phillips relocated to Allen, Texas, in 2020, this 501(c)(3) relocated as well.

Passages America Israel’s mission is “to offer Christian students a life-changing experience that strengthens their identity in Christ, exposes them to the complex realities of modern Israel and the Middle East, (and) provides them with opportunities to develop their leadership abilities.” The organization believes “the future of Christian faith and leadership in America … depends on the next generation of Christian leaders being deeply rooted in their biblical faith and values, as well as being exposed to modern Israel firsthand.”

The organization’s statement of faith is a standard Calvinist declaration holding to original sin, a literal interpretation of the Bible and Christianity as the only true religion. While not explicitly articulating a version of Christian Zionism, the organization’s positioning of itself in relationship to the state of Israel echoes themes of that ideology.

Passages America Israel Inc. has an interesting relationship with Leo and Teneo Network Inc. (where he is chairman). In 2020, Donors Trust granted Passages $1 million. That same year, Donors Trust donated $1 million to The 85 Fund earmarked “for the Passages Project,” and The 85 Fund, in turn, served as the passthrough donating $1 million to Passages. In 2022, Donors Trust donated $2.5 million to Passages and restricted it “for general operations, plus one trip to Israel for Teneo each year.” In 2023, Donors Trust simply donated $2.5 million to Passages for general operating support.

Teneo Network Inc. This Austin-based 501(c)(3) was founded in 2008 by venture capitalist Evan Beah and Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri. It received its nonprofit exemption in 2018. Teneo Network was part of the advisory board for the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025.

In a recent interview with The Bradley Impact Fund, CEO Amanda Covo said of the secretive network: “Teneo is the talent pipeline for the conservative movement. We are laser-focused on transforming the key institutions shaping American culture.” Covo goes on to say, “The Left dominates academia, the media, corporate America, major financial institutions and our schools. We see Hollywood blacklisting pro-America films, hormone therapies for children being normalized in American culture, major American companies forcing a ‘woke’ ideology into our lives, and foreign policies being championed that weaken America. That absolutely has to change. Teneo can change it. And that’s our focus.”

“Both seek to erase the separation between church and state and replace it with a Christian theocracy.”

Teneo’s self-understanding echoes two different but complementary political theologies: Protestant Dominionism and Catholic integralism. Both seek to erase the separation between church and state and replace it with a Christian theocracy.

There is little doubt Leo sees Teneo as an important piece of his efforts to mold American society into a new Christendom. Given Leo’s success in shifting the entire American legal and judicial landscape to the extreme right, anyone who values the Constitutional separation of church and state as well as the multiracial, multifaith community shared by all Americans should be paying very close attention to this organization.

Between 2020 and 2023, Teneo Network Inc. received nearly $10.36 million from Donors Trust, $1.575 million from Diana Davis Spencer Foundation, $135,000 from The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation and $130,050 from Schwab Charitable Trust.

Texas Public Policy Foundation. This 501(c)(3) was originally formed in Austin in 1989 by conservative activists James R. Leininger and Fritz S. Steiger. In 2018, the organization opened an office in Washington, D.C.

The think tank produces policy proposals and advocates for a list of right-wing causes. It is at the front of the push by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to pass a school voucher program and worked behind the scenes to craft Christian nationalist curriculum recently adopted by the state.

Kevin Roberts, head of the Heritage Foundation, led the organization before taking over Heritage in 2021. He now sits on TPPF’s board alongside Tim Dunn, one of the Texas billionaires who adheres to Dominionist theology. Unsurprisingly, the organization was on the advisory board for the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025.

Texas Public Policy Foundation, along with The Claremont Institute, co-authored the 2020 “79 Days Report” that proposed legal and messaging strategies in advance of the 2020 election in order to sow seeds of conspiracy in the event Trump lost. The “79 Days Report” was referenced by the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol in its Final Report.

The House Select Committee interviewed Attorney John C. Eastman, who faced multiple charges in several states for his participation in the attempt to help then-President Trump overturn the 2020 election. In the leadup to the 2020 election, Eastman, a senior fellow at Claremont Institute, participated in a number of “war game” scenarios that were then part of the report published by Texas Public Policy Foundation and Claremont Institute.

From 2020 to 2023 — even after Texas Public Policy Foundation’s involvement in attempts to overturn the 2020 election was public knowledge — the organization received $1.45 million from The Searle Freedom Trust, $1.367 million from Donors Trust, $708,050 from Schwab Charitable Trust, $425,000 from The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, $285,200 from The Bradley Impact Fund and $200,000 from Diana Davis Spencer Foundation.

Torch of Freedom Foundation. This 501(c)(3) was founded by former Texas legislator Rick Green in 2000. Shortly thereafter, Green joined the controversial Christofascist organization Wallbuilders. Since then, the two organizations have been closely connected.

In 2003, the Foundation launched its signature program: Patriot Academy. There are various courses offered. Wallbuilders founder and pseudo-historian David Barton — who has spent his career trying to convince people the United States was founded as a Christan nation, there is no Constitutional separation of church and state and Christianity should be given priority over all other religions — teaches the Patriot Academy’s course titled “Biblical Citizenship in Modern America.” The signature course offered by the Academy is its five-day “Constitutional Defense” course in which participants train on using handguns while attending lectures on the Academy’s interpretation of the Constitution. The goal is to train patriots who can take up arms and defend the Constitution if necessary.

In 2020, Torch of Freedom Foundation received a gift of $21,000 from Schwab Charitable Trust. In 2023 it received a second $30,000 from Schwab as well as a $300,000 grant from The Bradley Impact Fund.

True the Vote. This 501(c)(3) was founded in Houston by Tea Party activist Catherine Engelbrecht because, she says, “Then in 2008, I don’t know, something clicked. I saw our country headed in a direction that, for whatever reason — it didn’t hit me until 2008 — this really threatens the future of our children.” What happened in 2008? Barack Obama was elected the country’s first African American president.

More recently, True the Vote perpetuated the debunked conspiracy theory of widespread voter fraud across the country while enriching Engelbrecht and those around her. The organization was a main contributor to the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. The organization was behind the debunked conspiracy of ballot-harvesting by Democratic-aligned individuals in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin during the 2020 presidential election. The conspiracy was the basis for the controversial film, 2000 Mules. True the Vote has faced multiple lawsuits for voter suppression and continues to spread conspiracy theories around election integrity.

Between 2020 and 2023 — even after the organization’s involvement in manufacturing and spreading the Big Lie was public knowledge — True the Vote received $507,800 from Donors Trust, $176,452 from Schwab Charitable Trust and $43,700 from The Bradley Impact Fund.

Young Americans for Liberty Foundation. This 501(c)(3) is a libertarian conservative student organization that began in Arlington, Va., in 2008. The organization relocated to Austin in 2018.

Young Americans for Liberty chapters were at the heart of the controversies in 2017 in which the chapters sought to have alt-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos speak at universities across the country, resulting in protests around definitions of hate speech. Since then, chapter members have been linked to the white nationalist hate group Identity Evropa, and its successor, American Identity Movement. Young Americans for Liberty who are also affiliated with the American Identity Movement were involved with the Charlottesville Unite the Right Rally, and following the rally, other chapters hosted white nationalist and rally attendee Nick Fuentes as a speaker.

Between 2020 and 2023, Young Americans for Liberty Foundation received $158,128 from Schwab Charitable Trust, $21,000 from The 85 Fund and nearly $6 million from Donors Trust. $360,000 of the Donors Trust support was designated “for the Florida Project” and $20,000 was restricted “in support of 1776 Project.”

 

Mara Richards Bim serves as a Clemons Fellow with BNG and as program director at Faith Commons. She is a spiritual director and a recent master of divinity degree graduate from Perkins School of Theology at SMU. She also is an award-winning theater artist and founder of the nationally acclaimed Cry Havoc Theater Company which operated in Dallas from 2014 to 2023.

 

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