The 85 Fund

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Source URL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_85_Fundhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_85_Fund
Title The 85 Fund
Date published 2022-02-18
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Curator Dr. Victoria A. Stuart, Ph.D.
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Summary The 85 Fund, formerly known as the Judicial Education Project, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. It is part of a network of nonprofits linked to Leonard A. Leo, a prominent leader in the conservative legal movement. The 85 Fund was founded to counter the influence of Arabella Advisors, a liberal group with a similar structure. The 85 Fund raised at least $20 million in 2020.
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Enshrining Christian precepts in the law has been a goal of the religious right for a long time. Rightwing Christian legal advocacy groups are doing it through the courts; they're launching religious-liberty cases and advancing conservative judges to give them the rulings they want. They almost got the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that businesses have a Constitutional right to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people based on religious beliefs, and they convinced the Supreme Court to let private-sector employers shirk responsibility to provide women with federally mandated birth control coverage.

At the heart of this transformative effort is a man named Leonard A. Leo, a conservative Catholic activist and co-chair of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group. Leonard Leo has been called "one of the most powerful conservatives in the country." Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society have played a key role in putting 234 conservative judges on the federal bench and flipping three federal appeals courts for Republicans during the Trump administration. The group has been involved in appointing and confirming five of the current Supreme Court's six conservative justices, including Amy Coney Barrett, whom Leonard Leo "hand-picked" to replace the late Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2020-10.

Leonard Leo has done this by fundraising an estimated $400 million from undisclosed donors and funneling millions of these funds through a sprawling network of tax-exempt nonprofits to Creative Response Concepts, a conservative public relations firm in Alexandria, Virginia. It's run by Leo's friend and business partner   Greg Mueller, who also worked on the Human Capital Project  [fraudulent anti-abortion movements group - see also: Center for Medical Progress].  [Source,]

 
Corporate Information
 
Name The 85 Fund
Former name Judicial Education Project
Founded 2011
Key people
Type 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization
Status Active
Focus
  • Judicial appointments
  • Legal advocacy
Location United States
Headquarters Washington, D.C., U.S.A.
Areas served United States
Political position
Affiliations Judicial Crisis Network
Contents

Background

The 85 Fund, formerly known as the Judicial Education Project, is a 501(c)(3) organization based in Washington, D.C. It is part of a network of nonprofits linked to Leonard A. Leo, a prominent leader in the conservative legal movement. The 85 Fund was founded to counter the influence of Arabella Advisors, a liberal group with a similar structure. The 85 Fund raised at least $20 million in 2020.

Organization and Finances

The Secretary of The 85 Fund is Carrie Severino, who is the President of the Judicial Crisis Network. The 85 Fund is closely connected to Leonard Leo, the vice president of the Federalist Society. The 85 Fund's 2017 tax return listed a payment of $675,000 to the BH Group, an employer of Leonard Leo. Neil Corkery formerly served as president of the group [Wellspring Committee].

Between 2012 and 2017, The 85 Fund raised $46 million. In 2018, more than 99% of The 85 Fund's funding came from a single $7.8 million donation from DonorsTrust, a donor-advised fund. In 2020, The 85 Fund received $20 million in donations from DonorsTrust.

Obfuscation of Name

  • Aliases (illustrating an elaborate, obfuscating shell game):

  • Judicial Education Project  [aligned with the Judicial Crisis Network, aka Concord Fund], aka Honest Elections Project [overlaps Judicial Crisis Network], aka The 85 Fund [formerly: Judicial Education Project]

  • Funding

  • In 2018, Donors Trust funded more than 99% of the Judicial Education Project (now: The 85 Fund), a legal alias for the Honest Elections Project and The 85 Fund.

  • [ReadSludge.com, 2020-07-31] Here Are the Billionaires Funding Trump's Voter Suppression Lawsuits.  Dozens of billionaires have donated to the RNC's legal fund that is being used to fight against expanded access to mail voting.

  • Expenditures

    The 85 Fund donated $300,000 to the Independent Women's Forum, a conservative nonprofit organization.

    In 2020, The 85 Fund provided $750,000 in funding to the Mercatus Center, a think tank affiliated with George Mason University.

    In 2020, The 85 Fund donated $1 million to the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, formerly run by Matthew Whitaker. The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust filed a complaint to the United States Office of Special Counsel to investigate Jennifer Granholm, the current United States Secretary of Energy.

    In 2020, The 85 Fund donated $2 million to the Government Accountability Institute, a group founded by former White House strategist Steve Bannon and investigator Peter Schweizer, and chaired by Rebekah Mercer  [note: Mercer Family Foundation].

    Honest Elections Project

    The 85 Fund has provided funding for the Honest Elections Project.

    In 2020-04, the Honest Elections Project announced it was launching a week-long $250,000 digital and television ad campaign on Fox NewsMSNBC, and CNN against mail-in voting.

    Lawyers contracted by the Honest Elections Project sent letters to the secretaries of state in ColoradoFlorida, and Michigan to lobby for purges of voter rolls in these states. The Guardian reported that these letters used "misleading data to accuse jurisdictions of having bloated voter rolls" and threatened legal action. The Honest Elections Project filed legal briefs in favor of voting restrictions in NevadaVirginiaTexas, and Minnesota.

    In 2020, The 85 Fund provided $70,000 in funding to the Honest Elections Project.

    In 2020-09 the Honest Elections Project was involved in legal action concerning whether mail-in ballots that were postmarked before the 2020 U.S. presidential election but arrived up to 14 days after it should be counted; the suit was successful.

    The Honest Elections Project concluded that there was no widespread fraud in the 2020 United States presidential election and did not participate in any litigation to try to challenge or overturn the election results. The Honest Elections Project issued a statement criticizing the 2021 United States Capitol attack that occurred on 2021-01-06, saying: "The violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol was a heinous attack against democracy, the rule of law, and the election system the Honest Elections Project was created to defend."

    In 2021-05 the Honest Elections Project lobbied against H.R. 1, also known as the For the People Act. As of 2021, the executive director of the Honest Elections Project was Jason Snead  [local copy].


    Additional Reading

  • [OpenSecrets.org, 2021-12-16] Conservative "dark money" group raised record $50M in 2020 after election rebranding.

  • [2020-10-13] "Must-watch / read:" Senator Sheldon Whitehouse Schools Amy Coney Barrett on Dark Money.  Superb presentation illustrating Republican Party and dark money influencers on vested special interests (abolition of: affordable health care, access to abortions, LGBTQ+ rights, judicial freedom; concentration of obfuscated power; ...).

  • [OpenSecrets.org, 2020-05-27] Conservative "dark money" network rebranded to push voting restrictions before 2020 election.


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