Behind The Clinton Campaign: DARK MONEY ALLIES

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"....there’s still a lot we don’t know about these groups’ finances: We won’t have the relevant FEC filings for the second half of 2015 until January. And the 501(c)(4) nonprofits involved in the campaign won’t file 990 forms covering this cycle until likely 2017, well after voters have cast their votes. Even then, we still won’t know who donated to those groups because 501(c)(4)s don’t have to disclose their donors. And while the FEC is gridlocked, any enforcement action is unlikely. All of this leaves voters in the dark about exactly who is spending some pretty big money to support Hillary Clinton..."

We already examined Clinton’s biggest super PAC supporters earlier this week, Priorities USA Action and Ready PAC, plus her official campaign PAC. Now we’re going to dive deeper into the dark money supporting Clinton: the money in groups that don’t have to disclose their donors, and the money that moves from those groups to super PACs that support Clinton.

The groups we’re looking at here are all founded by David Brock, a Clinton enemy-turned-ally who runs a number of liberal super PACs and nonprofits. Some of these groups are directly supporting her; others aren’t, but have donated to the groups that do support her. In addition to the groups we’ve outlined here, Brock is also on the board of Priorities USA, and he’s president of a group called the American Independent Institute, which funds “individual journalism projects, with an emphasis on exposing the nexus of conservative power in Washington.” Just a few weeks ago, Brock bought the progressive news site Blue Nation Review, which will now be headed by Peter Daou, Clinton’s former digital strategist and founder of the Hillary Men project. In 2014, Brock became chairman of the board of the ethics watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), which is now located at the same offices as all the groups listed below.

All the groups listed below are located in the same offices: 455 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. For this post, we used Sunlight’s Real-Time Influence Explorer, which allows you to view campaign filings as soon as they hit the Federal Election Commission. We also looked at various groups’ IRS 990 forms, which often only become available more than a year after they’re filed.


cont'

http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2015/12/03/behind-the-clinton-campaign-dark-money-allies/

[leveymg]

1. what tangled webs we weave . . .

[Segami]

2. The Clinton theater of deception and misdirection

She can show republicans how its done.....

[leveymg]

3. That's what Big Money machine politics does

Nature of the beast.

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4. "..According to Hillary Clinton’s campaign Web site,..

"...“Hillary’s vision for America” includes “campaign finance reform” as an issue “she will fight for as president,” arguing that “we have to end the flood of secret, unaccountable money that is distorting our elections, corrupting our political system, and drowning out the voices of too many everyday Americans.”


- Of course, most candidates and super PACs say they are following the law and not coordinating, no matter how ludicrous the claim appears in light of the facts. But according to Correct the Record, the super PAC and Clinton’s campaign have taken a new and different approach — actually claiming the right to coordinate.

Correct the Record is run by Clinton ally David Brock, who boasts that the organization directly coordinates with the Clinton campaign. How can this be? Brock and the campaign appear to believe that their lawyers have found a loophole in the FEC’s definition of “coordination.” Correct the Record says it can fully coordinate with the campaign as long as it communicates with the public only via the super PAC’s Web sites and not, for example, via TV and radio ads.

Many campaign finance lawyers, myself included, think no such loophole exists and that it is illegal for Correct the Record to spend money in coordination with the campaign. However, Team Clinton is seemingly playing the odds that the feckless FEC will never challenge it and that the public will not notice the campaign’s contribution to the destruction of our campaign finance laws. If so, the campaign’s willingness to pursue such a “loophole” tells us much more about Clinton’s attitude toward campaign finance reform than any speech or quote on her Web site.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/clintons-campaign-finance-hypocrisy/2015/11/20/64f6be08-8d78-11e5-ae1f-af46b7df8483_story.html

[Betty Karlson]

10. Corrupt the Record shows almost everything that is wrong with Clinton's candidacy.

It's disgusting, and demeanng to the ideal of Democratic progress.

[grasswire]

5. Brock has turned into quite the guru

I am sure he will be tasked with protecting Hillary if she is elected. And be handsomely rewarded.

[Segami]

7. Brock has been cast in leg irons to atone for his past sins

against both Clintons..............redemption for Brock might be realized only until she's anointed #45.

[m-lekktor]

12. exactly! well put. nt

[madfloridian]

6. Media Matters is in the same building.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/media-matters-washington

Did not know that. Did not know that Brock now is in charge of CREW.

So many sites I trusted are now sites for Hillary's campaign.

[Segami]

8. Thats the whole idea behind deception and misdirection.

[KoKo]

18. Indeed.........The Brock Media Empire

Who could have thought?

[in_cog_ni_to]

23. David Brock - Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington..

Ooooooh the irony!

Melanie Sloan will be GREATLY missed!

There goes CREW. Melanie is gone and Brock took over. Such a shame.

PEACE
LOVE
BERNIE

[JDPriestly]

9. K&R.

[marym625]

11. kick!

[AzDar]

13. K & R

[Divernan]

14. HRC dodging transparency? Quelle Surprise!

More from the OP link:

Until May 2015, Bridge had several staff dedicated solely to pushing back on attacks against Clinton as part of a project called Correct the Record, but that split off as a separate super PAC. This division of labor — opposition research at Bridge, pro-Clinton defensive work at Correct the Record — has been described by Brock himself, discussing his decision to leave Bridge for Correct the Record: I essentially had to make a decision. Do I want to be involved in supervising and handling the research against the Republican candidates? ... Or do I want to be involved in some combination of defense and offense for Hillary Clinton?

Notable donors this cycle to Bridge include American Bridge 21st Century Foundation (more on that in a minute), which gave $1.2 million; philanthropists George Soros and Steve Silberstein, who gave $1 million and $200,000, respectively. NextGen Climate Action Committee also contributed $250,000. We’ve written extensively about how this 501(c)(4) is funded almost entirely by hedge fund manager and environmentalist Tom Steyer. American Bridge has paid the executive vice president of Media Matters, Angelo Carusone, $3,000 a month for management consulting since January 2014.


American Bridge 21st Century Foundation is another 501(c)(4) organization, also known as a dark money group. It runs Bridge Project, which says it’s “dedicated to opposing the conservative movement’s extreme ideology and exposing its dishonest tactics.” The site has a database, “Conservative Transparency,” that allows users to search for conservative donors, recipients and organizations. Featured donors include the Koch brothers and The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.

The hilarious part (if you find dodging transparency hilarious) is that the group has an entire database for uncovering the money behind conservative causes, documenting spending from their 990s, and blogging about conservative donors, but it does not disclose its own donors on that website, or anywhere else. We reached out to American Bridge for comment on this, and will update this post if we receive anything from them.

On that note: The foundation arm of American Bridge 21st Century has donated a lot of money to the Bridge super PAC, which does have to disclose its donors. In the first six months of 2015, the foundation gave $1.2 million to the super PAC. In 2014, they donated $2.5 million. That’s $3.7 million dollars funneled from the foundation to the super PAC in just the last two years — with donors safe in the knowledge that their names won’t be disclosed to the public.

[KoKo]

20. ...! for exposure n/t

[Segami]

21. Kick

for exposure.......

[nc4bo]

15. Bookmarking!

My goodness

[99Forever]

16. Dirty deeds, done not so dirt cheap.

When corrupt politicians are for sale, there's ALWAYS some corrupt scumbag willing to buy them.

[slipslidingaway]

17. knr nt

[KoKo]

19. Recommend....Very Important Information from "Sunlight Foundation."

[nc4bo]

22. Kick. nt

[in_cog_ni_to]

24. Kick! n/t