No. of Recommendations: 10
Leonard Leo, the Federalist Society co-chair -- who helped to choose and advocate for Dementia Don's Supreme Court nominees, has a billion-dollar network of tax-exempt nonprofits, and is also a major contributor to Project 2025* -- has been under investigation by Washington, D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb for various ethics violations by justices, prominently including Clarence Thomas, and whether Leo-aligned groups violated tax laws governing nonprofit organizations.
Once they caught wind of the investigation, Schwalb became the target of conservative media on unrelated crime issues and GOP Reps. James Jordan, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and James Comer, who heads the House Oversight Committee. On Oct. 30 they announced a probe of Schwalb’s Leo investigation. Coincidentally, on Oct. 20 Leo's Concord Fund had hired a Virginia lobbying firm to handle issues related to “oversight” and “law enforcement,” matters over which Jordan and Comer have jurisdiction.
Then, in December the House chairs threatened to subpoena Schwalb.
One day later, "Concord Fund made a $250,000 contribution — its first to a federal political action committee in nearly nine years — to a fundraising group allied with House GOP leadership, according to Federal Elections Commission disclosures."
Since then Schwalb has been under attack by Leo-aligned groups, including a group of conservative attorneys general from other states and the Wall Street Journal editorial board.
Schwalb has been probing Leo since he received a complaint about whether Leo-aligned groups violated tax laws governing nonprofit organizations, as POLITICO reported last August. Tax-exempt groups in Leo’s network have spent millions of dollars on his for-profit consulting business, CRC Advisors.CRC is best known
for its work with the Swift Boat Veterans in 2004, which criticized former presidential candidate John Kerry, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, for his actions in that war. More recently it worked on behalf of then Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in the wake of Christine Blasey Ford’s claim in his 2018 confirmation hearings that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her when both were in high school.Details here:
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/23/brian-sch...* Project 2025’s manifesto promises to defund the Department of Justice, dismantle the FBI, break up the Department of Homeland Security and eliminate the Departments of Education and Commerce.
