The secret donors behind the effort to overturn the 2020 election
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- Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00
- Written by editor
New tax documents obtained by The Intercept reveal that secret donations from a handful of large corporations and wealthy individuals helped push conspiracy theory-fueled efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and reinstall Donald Trump as president.
The donations went to a shadowy right-wing group, the Bradley Impact Fund, which together with a larger, linked foundation has distributed money to organizations pushing conspiracy theories about election fraud, denying the results of the 2020 election, and crafting legal efforts to overturn the presidential vote.
Perhaps the most terrifying part of these revelations is that these dark-money contributions are perfectly legal and notoriously difficult to track. This information was only made public thanks to our newsroom’s hard-hitting investigative... journalism.
We know that this is just the tip of the iceberg, just one example of how big money infects and corrupts our politics. So we must keep digging.
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It’s not just right-wing corporate executives who are using their wealth and connections to undermine policy and legislation backed by the broad majority of Americans.
For example, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently surprised Congress with a statement against student debt cancellation.
As our own Ken Klippenstein and Ryan Grim reported, Pelosi’s opposition came after billionaire donors circulated a memo against cancellation through executive order.
The move puts Pelosi at odds with much of the public and the Democratic Party, but it aligns her with Democratic heavyweights Steven and Mary Swig: billionaire scions of the Bay Area’s oldest real estate dynasty who have deep ties to the California representative. Steven Swig has long served as a treasurer for Pelosi in her fundraising efforts, and his niece has worked in Pelosi’s congressional office.
Whether it’s right-wing megadonors pumping millions of dollars into overturning the results of a democratic election or San Francisco billionaires using their connections to undermine student debt cancellation, we need to keep exposing how the wealthy and well-connected are rigging American politics.
The U.S. has notoriously weak transparency laws. And the Supreme Court has all but gutted campaign finance regulations. This means we need hard-hitting investigative journalism to shine a light on how the wealthy are bending U.S. law and policy in their favor.
Thank you,
The Intercept team
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