Dark money crucial to judicial group, helps others in Trump orbitby Robert Maguire and Anna Massoglia Source: Open Secrets
Just after President Trump’s January announcement that Neil Gorsuch was his pick to fill the late Justice Antonin Scalia’s Supreme Court seat, a nonprofit that most Americans have never heard of launched ConfirmGorsuch.com.
[Blogger's Note: We're not dealing with 'little league' players here - two members of the Ricketts family, mega-millionaire owners of the Chicago Cubs elite sports franchise that has Spring Training here in Mesa at the taxpayer-financed Sloan Park at Riverview - are prominently featured in Open Secrets. It's only 'a secret' here]
Complete with a tender video telling how Gorsuch “ran a paper route, shoveled snow, worked the night shift” before becoming a judge, the site provides biographical material and recorded lectures from Gorsuch. ...cute homey and rigged snapshots.
Originally called the Judicial Confirmation Network, JCN was started by a low-profile conservative fundraiser and lawyer named Ann Corkery (along with her husband Neil Corkery as treasurer). It had substantial early backing from “California foreclosure king” Robin Arkley II to help marshal support for President George W. Bush’s nominees to the federal bench.
Conveniently, the Wellspring Committee is also run by Ann Corkery, who continued to draw a $120,000 salary for her 10 hours of work per week for the organization fiscal year 2015. (The group’s 2016 filings will not be available until later this year.)...JCN rebranded itself the Judicial Crisis Network following President Barack Obama’s election, shifting focus to blocking the new president’s federal court nominees and spreading the network’s reach to state level races. Aiming to influence judges and like-minded attorneys general in several states, JCN began pumping millions into other groups that took big stakes in state Supreme Court and AG races, including Wisconsin Club for Growth, the American Future Fund, and the Republican Attorneys General Association.
Wellspring’s donors remain a mystery, but their beneficiaries do not, because 501(c)(4) groups are required to report grants they make to other organizations in public portions of their tax returns.
Funding GOP data, opposition research and moreDespite its large grant to JCN, Wellspring still had some funds left for other groups. For instance, it also gave $100,000 to “AR2 Inc.,” the 501(c)(4) arm of the “America Rising” network that creates and disseminates opposition research for Republican candidates and groups.
Only a small circle of other groups have reported any funds going to or from AR2. The super PAC arm of America Rising reported receiving funds from AR2. And AR2 received a payment from Ending Spending the same year.
A 501(c)(4) that has earned a reputation as a heavy political spender, Ending Spending’s CEO is Todd Ricketts, President Trump’s nominee to be deputy secretary of commerce, and it is chaired by John “Joe” Ricketts, Todd’s father.
Coming full circleIn 2015, the Wellspring Committee also became an early backer of a shadowy nonprofit that eventually reported spending over $20 million opposing Hillary Clinton and supporting Donald Trump in the presidential race: the 45Committee. Wellspring gave $750,000 to this rapid-response political operation helmed by Todd Ricketts (remember America Rising and Ending Spending?) and worked in tandem with an affiliated super PAC called Future45.As Team Trump has made the transition from campaign to administration, 45Committee has likewise shifted from promoting or opposing candidates to spending millions supporting President Trump’s cabinet nominees.
And to bring the whole web back to its center, Wellspring gave $75,000 to the Federalist Society, an organization of conservatives and libertarians who “place a premium on individual liberty, traditional values and the rule of law.”
The Federalist Society is run by longtime Executive Vice President Leonard A. Leo. Leo has been credited with creating Trump’s list of possible Supreme Court nominees and was Gorsuch’s initial point of contact with the Trump administration.
And it’s not much of a coincidence that JCN pledged to spend $10 million to get Gorsuch confirmed. Leo, after all, was a major force behind the creation of Wellspring’s primary beneficiary, attending a formative dinner just after Bush’s re-election with Ann Corkery, Robin Arkley and…Justice Scalia.
Who knew how neatly it would all wrap up?
