Soros-Linked Nonprofit Led By Clinton & Obama Alum Spending Millions To "Stop" Kavanaugh
Today's edition of "George Soros Meddles" is brought to you by ten-week-old political advocacy group Demand Justice - a Soros-linked organization which has pledged $5 million towards a "multi-platform" campaign to stop Judge Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the US Supreme Court.
Headed by former Clinton campaign press secretary Brian Fallon and longtime Obama aide Christopher Kang as chief counsel, Demand Justice was created and financed by nonprofit organization the "Sixteen Thirty Fund," which has received millions from the Open Society Policy Center (OSPC), according to the Daily Caller's Kevin Daley and Andrew Kerr.
As we reported two weeks ago, Demand Justice intends to fight "Trump's hateful vision for America" by opposing his Judicial picks across the country - including the Supreme Court.
The campaign will feature television spots promoting embattled Democratic Senate incumbents in West Virginia, Indiana, and North Dakota, who face competitive Republican challengers this November.They will also run ads in Maine and Alaska, urging GOP Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski to oppose the nomination. Collins and Murkowski are pro choice moderates who have broken with their party on Obamacare repeal and federal funding for Planned Parenthood. The spots urge the senators to protect abortion access by withholding support for nominees who oppose the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. -Daily Caller
The Sixteen Thirty Fund collected some $2.2 million in contributions from the OSPC between 2012 and 2016 - while more recent records are not available. The OSPC, meanwhile, is virtually indistinct from Soros's Open Society Foundations (OSF), the 87-year-old's grant-giving and philanthropic network.
The [Sixteen Thirty] Fund is largely financed by a handful of donors. Financial statements filed with state oversight officials in 2014 show just three contributors accounted for 70 percent — or some $11.5 million — of the Fund’s total donations and grant revenue. Disclosure forms filed with the same agency in 2016 present similar facts. Fewer than five donors gave $13.3 million to the Fund, representing 63 percent of their donations.One of those donors is the OSPC. The Center’s tax forms show the Soros group gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Fund each year between 2012 and 2016, the last year in which records are publicly accessible. The Center gave the Fund $350,000 in 2012, $772,000 in 2013, $125,000 in 2014, $550,000 in 2015, and $481,483 in 2016. -Daily Caller
The Caller reports that the OSPC has no staff of its own - rather, Open Society Foundation employees are compensated for work done on OSPC efforts.
“OSPC has no employees,” the form reads. “Employees of Open Society [Foundations], a related section 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization, perform services for OSPC. OSPC advances funds to Open Society [Foundations] for their services based on the time they spend on OSPC matters. Their compensation is determined by Open Society [Foundations], and is based on market comparability data and is documented in Open Society [Foundations’] records.”
The Sixteen Thirty Fund created Demand Justice in May of this year in order to counter a network of conservative advocacy groups which "advertise and organize around judicial confirmations," according to the Caller.
Republicans have significantly outpaced Democrats in this space in recent years, given conservative voters’ sustained interest in the federal courts.Executive director Brian Fallon told The New York Times that DJ hopes to “sensitize rank-and-file progressives to think of the courts as a venue for their activism and a way to advance the progressive agenda.” -Daily Caller
Kavanaugh:
Praised *dissent* in Roe
Criticized Roberts ruling on Obamacare
Says sitting POTUS can't be indicted/can fire special counsel whenever he wants
Opposes net neutrality
Opposes consumer bureau
Says assault weapon bans are unconstitutional
Praised *dissent* in Roe
Criticized Roberts ruling on Obamacare
Says sitting POTUS can't be indicted/can fire special counsel whenever he wants
Opposes net neutrality
Opposes consumer bureau
Says assault weapon bans are unconstitutional
Hillary Clinton threw her support behind her former Press Secretary's new political machine in a late June tweet:
Given the news coming out of the Supreme Court this week, I'm excited to support @WeDemandJustice's critical work by welcoming them into the @OnwardTogether family.
"Long after Donald Trump is no longer our President, his takeover of our courts will keep alive his hateful vision for America for decades to come," their website reads. "Trump’s judges are overwhelmingly white men. Many are not at all qualified for their posts. And they consistently hold extreme, right-wing views."
"If we truly want to stop Trump, we can’t surrender this fight." -Demand Justice
Since the Sixteen Thirty Fund serves as Demand Justice's fiscal sponsor, it doesn't submit its own tax returns or disclose its supporters. As such, beyond the Soros network's $2.2 million contribution to Sixteen Thirty over five years - it's difficult to determine how much money individual donors like Soros have channeled directly to Demand Justice since its inception ten weeks ago.
The National Council of Nonprofits says that fiscal sponsors provide “fiduciary oversight, financial management, and other administrative services” for its dependents, like Demand Justice. As such, many grants or donations DJ receives are awarded by way of the Fund. Both organizations are based out of the same Washington, D.C., address.Supporters can also give to DJ through ActBlue Civics, a major fundraising platform for leftwing causes.Given this structure, it is difficult to know how much money individual donors like Soros have channeled to Demand Justice. Daily Caller
Meanwhile, Capital Research noted last month that "coupled with the fact that Fallon recently spoke at the Atlanta Conference of the Democracy Alliance, a shadowy network of left-leaning donors including George Soros, it is clear that Demand Justice could be well on its way to becoming something much bigger than the obscure nonprofit it is now. As a (c)(4), it is allowed to engage in unlimited lobbying. But it can also support or oppose candidates for election (as long as that activity isn’t the organization’s primary purpose, which currently means spending no more than 49 percent of expenditures on electioneering)."
And just like that, the newly formed, Soros-linked, Obama and Clinton alum operated nonprofit has sprung up with a $5 million "multi-platform effort" to prevent Judge Brett Kavanaugh's ascension to the US Supreme Court.
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten