1 00:00:17,239 --> 00:00:21,000 We're back with another edition of the Federalist Radio Hour. I'm Emily Jasinski, 2 00:00:21,079 --> 00:00:23,640 culture editor here at the Federalist. As always, you can email the show 3 00:00:23,679 --> 00:00:27,440 at radio at the Federalist dot com, follow us on Twitter at fdr LST. 4 00:00:27,679 --> 00:00:31,399 Make sure to subscribe wherever you download your podcasts as well. Today, 5 00:00:31,480 --> 00:00:37,479 I'm really excited to be joined by investigative reporters senior investigative reporters at the Washington 6 00:00:37,520 --> 00:00:42,399 Freebeacon, Andrew Kurt and Joe Simonson. They are out with a bombshell news 7 00:00:42,439 --> 00:00:48,240 story that gets documents from the Arabella Advisor's network and gets a sort of rare 8 00:00:48,399 --> 00:00:53,439 glimpse inside what is a very shadowy but very very powerful group on the left. 9 00:00:53,479 --> 00:00:57,600 So Joe Andrew, thanks for joining the show. Thanks for having us. 10 00:00:58,280 --> 00:01:02,039 Absolutely this is a phenomenal report that's already caught the attention folks like Ken 11 00:01:02,159 --> 00:01:03,959 Vogel at the New York Times, who does some good investigad reporting on dark 12 00:01:03,959 --> 00:01:08,200 money on his own. But this story is the documents that you guys have. 13 00:01:08,439 --> 00:01:12,519 This is a very very rare glimpse inside a very very powerful network and 14 00:01:12,799 --> 00:01:19,719 some folks probably recognize the name Arabella Arabella Advisors that probably is familiar to them, 15 00:01:19,040 --> 00:01:22,560 but maybe some other people that aren't, you know, super super super 16 00:01:22,560 --> 00:01:25,480 into the daily news cycle have missed it. So if you guys could both 17 00:01:25,480 --> 00:01:29,920 start just by telling us what you think people should know, the basics about 18 00:01:30,079 --> 00:01:34,560 what Arabella is, that'd be great. Yeah. So, Arabella Advisors think 19 00:01:34,560 --> 00:01:38,040 about like a pyramid, so Ba said at the top, and they manage 20 00:01:38,159 --> 00:01:45,400 five dark money nonprofit funds, the two most prominent being the New Metro Fund, 21 00:01:45,480 --> 00:01:48,959 which is a billion dollars charity, and the sixteen thirty Fund, which 22 00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:55,400 is one of the largest political nonprofit groups in the country. And Arabella Advisors 23 00:01:55,480 --> 00:02:00,719 is a for profit consulting firm that publicly states that they're just a back office 24 00:02:01,079 --> 00:02:06,239 hr administrator. They kind of handle the boring stuff for the network, but 25 00:02:06,400 --> 00:02:12,639 the documents that we obtained show that Arabella has much more granular involvement. And 26 00:02:12,680 --> 00:02:15,319 then and this start money network and they led on publicly. Um, they're 27 00:02:15,479 --> 00:02:20,759 these funds, uh, each of them run and them uh dozens if not 28 00:02:20,960 --> 00:02:25,439 hundreds of what are called pop up groups, So they're like nebulous. Um. 29 00:02:25,560 --> 00:02:30,639 You know, they call themselves nonprofit grassroots initiatives, but in reality they're 30 00:02:30,680 --> 00:02:35,719 you know, part of this massive multi billion dollars dart Money network and Arabella 31 00:02:35,719 --> 00:02:39,800 Advisors as a team of employees that oversee each one of these these projects. 32 00:02:39,840 --> 00:02:46,120 So um, so we've got this multi billion dollars network that has this uh 33 00:02:46,039 --> 00:02:51,120 uh you know for profit consulting firm and Arabella that is kind of, you 34 00:02:51,159 --> 00:02:54,639 know, directly managing um, you know, every aspect of this uh of 35 00:02:55,039 --> 00:02:59,120 of the network and all the projects that they run. And it's you know, 36 00:02:59,520 --> 00:03:04,599 it shows it's really a coordinated, top down effort, you know, 37 00:03:04,680 --> 00:03:10,759 from the start money And I think Emily like one of the up shots from 38 00:03:10,800 --> 00:03:19,199 the reporting is that I think it answers a lot of questions that your listeners 39 00:03:19,319 --> 00:03:23,479 might have or you know, average people who or might be on the right 40 00:03:23,719 --> 00:03:28,639 or turn on the news and you know, you look at some protests going 41 00:03:28,680 --> 00:03:32,319 on in DC, whether it's about like packing the court or releasing Trump's tax 42 00:03:32,400 --> 00:03:38,759 returns, and you know, I certainly thought this way for a long time. 43 00:03:38,800 --> 00:03:42,960 When you look at these protests, you see that they're usually actually very 44 00:03:43,120 --> 00:03:46,800 organized. A lot of the participants all have these signs that seemingly come out 45 00:03:46,840 --> 00:03:53,879 of nowhere, and it's not that it's super complicated to arrange these these protests 46 00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:59,919 or social movements or whatever. But one thing that you know this reporting show 47 00:04:00,280 --> 00:04:06,319 is that well there's actually like a very central player who is behind um, 48 00:04:06,719 --> 00:04:12,199 you know, core packing protests and stuff like that, and it's Arabella. 49 00:04:12,319 --> 00:04:16,839 And so when you have these huge left wing nonprofits like New Venture Fund, 50 00:04:17,639 --> 00:04:23,079 on the drop of a dime, um, all they have to do is 51 00:04:23,160 --> 00:04:27,160 call Arabella Arabella and say, hey, like, I want something on this 52 00:04:27,319 --> 00:04:31,079 court that discords out of control. Arabella says, that's fine, will set 53 00:04:31,160 --> 00:04:36,480 up something called a fiscal sponsorship m. We'll send in some of our staff 54 00:04:36,519 --> 00:04:44,920 and then overnight you have now what seems like a very complex nonprofit dedicated to 55 00:04:44,959 --> 00:04:48,800 a single issue. But but it's really easy to spin these things up. 56 00:04:48,879 --> 00:04:54,480 And you know they really are omnipotent um. A lot of protests that you 57 00:04:54,519 --> 00:05:00,439 see TV ads, I mean I've seen ads from Arabella, the kind of 58 00:05:00,439 --> 00:05:03,360 stuff that we're talking about. Arabella connected groups in playbook. I mean, 59 00:05:03,399 --> 00:05:06,319 they're all over and it's just really they have it down to a science. 60 00:05:06,319 --> 00:05:11,920 Somehowen House spin up these things. Yeah, really important point and actually this 61 00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:15,639 is speculative and I want to get into some of the broader stuff obviously, 62 00:05:15,680 --> 00:05:17,519 but one quick question. I think a lot of people, and we've heard 63 00:05:17,560 --> 00:05:23,959 this actually from Justice Alito and Justice Thomas's camps, have read into something perhaps 64 00:05:24,040 --> 00:05:29,560 coordinated by all of the recent pitches that ended up in media on Supreme Court 65 00:05:28,839 --> 00:05:31,560 ethics, etc. And to your point, Joe, about how when something 66 00:05:31,600 --> 00:05:38,399 sometimes feels really coordinated, it may be worth thinking there is in some ways 67 00:05:38,399 --> 00:05:41,800 a central player and all of this. So maybe you guys don't want to 68 00:05:41,800 --> 00:05:44,160 get too speculative on that question, but I'll just toss it open to both 69 00:05:44,199 --> 00:05:46,680 of you if either of you wants to take it. Is that potentially the 70 00:05:46,839 --> 00:05:50,720 kind of maybe campaign that you could see coming out of the Arabella in network. 71 00:05:53,120 --> 00:05:57,759 Well, on the question of Justice Thomas and Alito, yeah, I 72 00:05:58,759 --> 00:06:04,000 wouldn't feel comfortable speculating I'm connecting that to Arabella, But what I can say 73 00:06:05,319 --> 00:06:13,279 is that similar type movements to sort of restructure the Supreme Court left wing movements, 74 00:06:14,399 --> 00:06:17,160 I believe it's fitched the court right Andrew. Yeah, one of the 75 00:06:17,199 --> 00:06:21,680 most prominent Arabella pop up groups is called a Demand Justice, and they broke 76 00:06:21,720 --> 00:06:25,639 away from the network a few years ago. But in twenty eighteen, during 77 00:06:25,680 --> 00:06:28,040 the Capital hearings. You know, all of a sudden there was a state 78 00:06:28,199 --> 00:06:31,240 you know, ground swell of liberal protesters at the at the Supreme Court, 79 00:06:31,279 --> 00:06:35,000 and a lot of those being organized by Demand Justice. Well Demand Justice at 80 00:06:35,040 --> 00:06:39,680 the time, was there just a creation of the Arabella network. I mean, 81 00:06:39,680 --> 00:06:44,439 you have you know, they have multi billionaire donors throwing a ton of 82 00:06:44,439 --> 00:06:47,000 money into these into these networks, and which I was describing with the physical 83 00:06:47,040 --> 00:06:50,399 sponsorship arrangement, they're able to at the drop of the hat and you create 84 00:06:50,439 --> 00:06:54,759 groups like Demand Justice, and you kind of create a ground swell of what 85 00:06:54,959 --> 00:06:59,639 appears to be grassroots, independent support, but in reality it's you know, 86 00:07:00,079 --> 00:07:04,639 this creation of this UM, this massive dark money network that's that's kind of 87 00:07:04,680 --> 00:07:10,879 operating in the shadows. So they're able to spin up these initiatives that operate 88 00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:15,519 like legitimate nonprofit groups very quickly, and they just become the go to place 89 00:07:15,600 --> 00:07:21,160 for UM for liberal dark money. And on the question with the Thomas and 90 00:07:21,199 --> 00:07:26,959 Alida stuff in particular, again, you know, I don't have any evidence, 91 00:07:27,040 --> 00:07:30,319 very particular reason to believe like Arabella is behind this, although I feel 92 00:07:30,399 --> 00:07:39,920 quite confident saying if you do start seeing UM more organized protests against those who 93 00:07:40,120 --> 00:07:44,720 justices in particular like we saw against Cavanaugh. It's a very it's a very 94 00:07:44,720 --> 00:07:49,360 good chance that there's probably some connection to Arabella or the New Venture fund it. 95 00:07:49,360 --> 00:07:54,480 And so I think like when it comes to you know, dumping OPO 96 00:07:54,600 --> 00:08:01,920 research or whoever is um is going after Thomas or Aldo, that is, 97 00:08:03,439 --> 00:08:07,480 there is some type of stuff that they that Arabella, a new venture fund 98 00:08:07,959 --> 00:08:11,319 does, It's similar to that, But I think more when it comes to 99 00:08:11,399 --> 00:08:20,959 on the ground protests and in your face organizing or that astroturfed type behavior that 100 00:08:20,079 --> 00:08:24,319 Andrew was referring to. That's more where any venture fund comes in. It's 101 00:08:24,319 --> 00:08:28,839 this idea that we can create kind of political mobilization overnight. Yeah. The 102 00:08:30,199 --> 00:08:33,120 thing that raised a flag in my mind was the connection between George Soros and 103 00:08:33,360 --> 00:08:37,360 Pro Publica, and then obviously source is one of the funders of Arabella. 104 00:08:37,399 --> 00:08:41,320 And that's a question I want to toss open to you guys. A lot 105 00:08:41,360 --> 00:08:45,080 of Arabella gets pinned directly to Soros, and you'll know the answer to this 106 00:08:45,159 --> 00:08:48,240 better than idea than Maybe that's because the proportion of financing that comes from him, 107 00:08:48,679 --> 00:08:52,000 but also, as you note, it comes from Pierre Oh Midyar and 108 00:08:52,519 --> 00:08:56,600 others. So what can you tell us about at least what we know about 109 00:08:56,720 --> 00:09:01,519 some of those multi billionaires as you mentioned, that are behind this fairly vast 110 00:09:01,639 --> 00:09:03,799 network. Yeah, I don't have the exact dollar figures in front of me, 111 00:09:03,879 --> 00:09:09,879 but of the societies, they published their um that they may public their 112 00:09:09,200 --> 00:09:13,120 donations and they're a major funder of the network. Pierre Amadar is also a 113 00:09:13,159 --> 00:09:18,120 major funder is UM. Again it's something exact figure, something like twenty thirty 114 00:09:18,159 --> 00:09:24,879 million dollars in the previous elections cycle UM that they that that he dumped into 115 00:09:24,919 --> 00:09:28,080 the sixteen thirty fund, if I'm not mistaken, And the sixteen thirty fund 116 00:09:28,159 --> 00:09:31,840 is there. UM it's a five to one C four group, which means 117 00:09:31,840 --> 00:09:37,840 that they can engage in and direct political activity. So yeah, these the 118 00:09:37,879 --> 00:09:41,679 air bell networkers who say, uh, um, it's They've got a lot 119 00:09:41,720 --> 00:09:46,799 of major multi billionaire donors like that. And the thing with nonprofits or with 120 00:09:46,879 --> 00:09:50,000 dark money groups is they have to disclose who they get money too, so 121 00:09:50,480 --> 00:09:54,600 you're able to but they don't have to disclosure they received money from. So 122 00:09:54,639 --> 00:09:56,960 we can see, like with Pierre Amadar, he has his nonprofit groups and 123 00:09:58,399 --> 00:10:01,440 UM and George sars Is Open Society Network, Like we can see that they're 124 00:10:01,480 --> 00:10:07,679 disclosing donations to sixteen thirty fund, New Venture Fund and the other Arabella Advisors 125 00:10:07,679 --> 00:10:13,120 controlled funds. The challenge those that we don't know UM from that from those 126 00:10:13,159 --> 00:10:18,559 disclosures, what specific projects they're supporting, So you know the various UM projects 127 00:10:18,600 --> 00:10:24,919 that are being run by New Venture Fund, you uh, you demand Justice, 128 00:10:24,960 --> 00:10:31,159 which we discussed. They've got other innocuous sounding UM groups called like the 129 00:10:31,240 --> 00:10:37,159 Student Experienced Research Network, Stop Deficits Talks, Americans for Tax Parent Fairness, 130 00:10:37,279 --> 00:10:41,120 the Institute for Responsive Government. It's really impossible to tell, like you know, 131 00:10:41,200 --> 00:10:46,039 which specific groups and initiatives gearge soros Is is funding or what pier Under 132 00:10:46,600 --> 00:10:50,000 is sending their money too. So that kind of available secrecy, I think 133 00:10:50,120 --> 00:10:52,279 is a kind of it attracts these big donors because they know that they can 134 00:10:52,320 --> 00:10:56,240 they can pour tons of money in. Then Arabella is going to be able 135 00:10:56,240 --> 00:11:00,720 to really pinpointing exactly where these funds need to go. And since they have, 136 00:11:00,879 --> 00:11:03,080 you know, such granular control over this massive dark money network, they 137 00:11:03,120 --> 00:11:09,080 can really maximize your value every dollar that's coming in, so they can get 138 00:11:09,080 --> 00:11:11,240 their assure campaigns up and running as effectively as possible. So it's I mean, 139 00:11:11,240 --> 00:11:16,639 it's a really um a good arrangement on their end that they can effectively 140 00:11:16,720 --> 00:11:20,600 use their their vest resources like this. Yeah, and and on that note 141 00:11:20,639 --> 00:11:24,559 too, And we don't even know to Andrew's point, we don't we know 142 00:11:24,679 --> 00:11:30,320 where Soros is usually sending his money, even where pure Omedar is usually sending 143 00:11:30,360 --> 00:11:33,639 his money, because he's just they have these non these foundations and they're public 144 00:11:33,679 --> 00:11:39,120 of their grants. We don't know exactly what their donations to the Venture Fund 145 00:11:39,120 --> 00:11:43,159 are you going to be earmarked for or whatever, But we know how much 146 00:11:43,200 --> 00:11:48,519 money that um Soros gets to the New Venture Fund or whatever, but we 147 00:11:48,559 --> 00:11:52,159 don't know like where New Venture Fund gets all its money. And there's a 148 00:11:52,159 --> 00:11:54,759 lot of UM. One of them that I'm not sure if we actually included 149 00:11:56,120 --> 00:11:58,399 UM in our peace, but that that I came across was, you know, 150 00:11:58,440 --> 00:12:01,519 there are a lot of ships that sound rather banal, like there's something 151 00:12:01,559 --> 00:12:07,919 called, I believe the Network for Teachers of the Year, which is connected 152 00:12:07,039 --> 00:12:11,720 or you know, ostensibly connected to what I think. Everyone knows that there's 153 00:12:11,720 --> 00:12:15,360 a Teacher of the Year award in every state and nationally as well, and 154 00:12:15,440 --> 00:12:18,120 I think the wearer it gets like an award from the president or whatever. 155 00:12:18,639 --> 00:12:22,480 But there's this other group called the Network for Teachers of the Year, and 156 00:12:22,480 --> 00:12:26,480 that sounds like really harmless or whatever. And for I think like a two 157 00:12:26,559 --> 00:12:31,440 or three year period, they were a fiscal sponsorship of the New Venture Fund, 158 00:12:31,519 --> 00:12:35,919 and you could we looked at their the internet, their website using the 159 00:12:37,000 --> 00:12:41,759 year an archive from before they were a fiscal sponsorship too. After they were 160 00:12:41,799 --> 00:12:45,320 a fiscal sponsorship again they spun off, but in that two or three year 161 00:12:45,440 --> 00:12:48,840 period, I mean, it's unrecognizable now now it's a left wing activist group. 162 00:12:50,200 --> 00:12:54,200 And you know, the point of of that anecdote is two is twofold 163 00:12:54,320 --> 00:13:00,840 is one is that the New Venture Fund has its tentacles or whatever in everything 164 00:13:00,960 --> 00:13:03,759 I mean, and even saying things that aren't necessarily political, like teach the 165 00:13:03,799 --> 00:13:09,159 Teacher of the Year award network or whatever. But also we don't know whose 166 00:13:09,200 --> 00:13:13,679 idea that was, you know, we don't know who what what wealthy liberal 167 00:13:13,720 --> 00:13:18,200 donor went to the New Venture Fund or Arabellam said hey, like I want 168 00:13:18,200 --> 00:13:24,000 to like totally transform this group, and that's when they did. 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You know, 203 00:15:54,759 --> 00:16:00,440 that's another thing that I wanted to ask you about. The you pick up 204 00:16:00,440 --> 00:16:04,960 on a really interesting discrepancy, a chancial discrepancy in their IRS filings, and 205 00:16:06,000 --> 00:16:08,000 this is related to the New Venture Fund. What can you tell us? 206 00:16:08,080 --> 00:16:14,039 This is also sort of a broader question about compliance with r R i RS 207 00:16:14,120 --> 00:16:17,279 regulations for C fours. I think many of these are C fours. They 208 00:16:17,320 --> 00:16:21,080 are probably some C three sprinkles in and what you learn from the documents you 209 00:16:21,120 --> 00:16:25,679 were able to obtain. Yeah, So when New Venture Fund applied for to 210 00:16:25,720 --> 00:16:30,840 become a charity UM back in two thousand and six, around that time frame, 211 00:16:30,320 --> 00:16:33,240 but they in order to become a charity, you sort of you have 212 00:16:33,279 --> 00:16:34,840 to make your case to the i R S. They're like, Hey, 213 00:16:34,840 --> 00:16:38,919 this is why you should allow us to essential use probably funds, task ductle 214 00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:44,320 donations and operate as a charity, and they said that we have a management 215 00:16:44,320 --> 00:16:48,159 support contract with Arabel Advisors and it's just going to be a temporary arrangement. 216 00:16:48,399 --> 00:16:51,799 Um you know, for the first year, they're gonna you know, help 217 00:16:51,919 --> 00:16:56,240 us with our like you help manage payroll, legal compliance, just you have 218 00:16:56,320 --> 00:17:02,039 the boring behind the scenes back office work. And they specifically said that we 219 00:17:02,600 --> 00:17:07,119 expect this um, this agreement to be temporary and only last for one year 220 00:17:07,279 --> 00:17:11,799 term and then you know, after this period, we're gonna, you know, 221 00:17:11,160 --> 00:17:17,160 when we have the necessary resources, we're gonna run our own back office 222 00:17:17,160 --> 00:17:21,039 and kind of split away from Parabel Advisors. And this mattered. The DIRUS 223 00:17:21,160 --> 00:17:26,039 was concerned about this arrangement because the folks running Arabella Advisors are the same folks 224 00:17:26,039 --> 00:17:30,279 that are you know, the same board members behind new venture funds. So 225 00:17:30,599 --> 00:17:33,119 IVIRUS was concerned. They're like, hey, you guys are paying you know, 226 00:17:33,160 --> 00:17:37,279 this healty management feed to to Arabella Advisors. There's some of course who 227 00:17:37,279 --> 00:17:40,119 are like self dealing going on that you guys are profiting from from your own 228 00:17:40,200 --> 00:17:42,000 charity. And they made this case, we're only going to stay there for 229 00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:45,440 a year and then we're gonna break away. Well, it's been well over 230 00:17:45,480 --> 00:17:49,559 a decade and billions of dollars later, and Arabella Advisors is still controlling new 231 00:17:49,640 --> 00:17:53,519 venture fund from the top down. So M yeah, some legal actutions that 232 00:17:53,519 --> 00:17:56,279 we talked to so that you know that maybe something that IRIS could take an 233 00:17:56,319 --> 00:18:00,240 interest in. Is this kind of like bait and switch that they pull in 234 00:18:00,319 --> 00:18:03,079 order to get taxes M status in the first place. Though, it is 235 00:18:03,119 --> 00:18:07,759 important to note that you know, arrangements with your for profit consulting firms like 236 00:18:07,920 --> 00:18:11,599 Arabella and you know, helping manage charities in this manner is not unusual. 237 00:18:11,680 --> 00:18:17,559 What's unusual with Arabella Advisors is that they've got this these networks of funds and 238 00:18:17,680 --> 00:18:21,480 the fiscal sponsorship arrangement that we've been talking about with their hundreds of projects, 239 00:18:21,880 --> 00:18:25,039 and how the funds they're all you know, transferring huge sums of money in 240 00:18:25,079 --> 00:18:29,440 between each other, like well over one hundred million dollars just the past couple 241 00:18:29,480 --> 00:18:33,000 of years UM. And so that's what's unusual about about this arrangement. This 242 00:18:33,079 --> 00:18:38,599 is how like centralized control this um this uh Arabella Advisors has over over the 243 00:18:38,640 --> 00:18:42,240 network. And it's not what they it's not what they describe to the IRS 244 00:18:42,319 --> 00:18:45,839 that the when they first got taxes enter status. This is a totally different 245 00:18:45,839 --> 00:18:52,119 thing than what Virus had. You had approved their their charity status over a 246 00:18:52,200 --> 00:18:56,119 number of years ago, and on the and just in a joint or to 247 00:18:56,240 --> 00:19:03,039 the the fiscal sponsorship um my model that they use. So this one operates 248 00:19:03,079 --> 00:19:07,359 way more in a legal gray area. But it is important to note that 249 00:19:07,559 --> 00:19:15,400 this fiscal sponsorship model that the New Venture Fund engages in, that's another kind 250 00:19:15,400 --> 00:19:22,119 of carve out by the IRS that's granted to nonprofits. But the point of 251 00:19:22,160 --> 00:19:26,519 them is supposed to be temporary. In other words, I want to start 252 00:19:26,559 --> 00:19:30,160 a charity or a nonprofit, I don't really know how to do that. 253 00:19:30,319 --> 00:19:33,680 I go to a larger charity or a nonprofit and say, hey, like, 254 00:19:33,799 --> 00:19:37,359 I'm new to this. Can you guys just like basically run this for 255 00:19:37,519 --> 00:19:41,359 me, show me how to do it, and then over a course of 256 00:19:41,599 --> 00:19:44,640 like, you know, a few years. I think the IRS stipulates, 257 00:19:44,680 --> 00:19:48,319 you know, it should be around three years, I'll spin off and go 258 00:19:48,400 --> 00:19:56,279 independent. That's not always the case for fiscal sponsorships through the New Venture funds. 259 00:19:56,359 --> 00:20:00,920 Sometimes they just stop existing, like in the case like I can't think 260 00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:03,039 of a specific example, but a good one would be, you know, 261 00:20:03,039 --> 00:20:07,200 if we want to protest Clarence Thomas, we can just spin up a fiscal 262 00:20:07,240 --> 00:20:11,480 sponsorship for a year or two and then just you know, go away, 263 00:20:11,559 --> 00:20:17,680 you know, if he retires or something that the idea of fiscal sponsorship is 264 00:20:17,720 --> 00:20:21,799 not meant to eli. You can just pop up an interest the organization whatever 265 00:20:22,519 --> 00:20:26,559 it's most convenient. It's supposed to be a way to help out new charities. 266 00:20:26,920 --> 00:20:29,680 That's not really what the new Venture funded is doing a lot of the 267 00:20:29,720 --> 00:20:33,359 time. Yeah, I'd actually never heard of that. It's so interesting and 268 00:20:33,640 --> 00:20:38,160 a big question that I'm sure it's on a lot of people's minds because since 269 00:20:38,240 --> 00:20:44,119 and before the Citizens United ruling, it was Democrats acting and the left acting 270 00:20:44,160 --> 00:20:47,400 as though this was, you know, the right had a monopoly on dark 271 00:20:47,440 --> 00:20:52,319 money. Are there any organizations on the right that you know, are are 272 00:20:52,319 --> 00:20:56,640 flirting with this questionable territory when it comes to fiscal sponsorships, and are there 273 00:20:56,680 --> 00:21:02,480 any networks on the right um that are sort of on the same operating at 274 00:21:02,480 --> 00:21:06,079 the scale where I think, as you guys report, we're talking about dispersions 275 00:21:06,119 --> 00:21:07,960 of some one hundred and eighty nine million dollars over the course of two years. 276 00:21:08,440 --> 00:21:14,960 Yeah, UM, well I don't. Well, to be clear, 277 00:21:15,039 --> 00:21:22,240 Arabella is unrivaled UM with its vast empire and the amount of money that it 278 00:21:22,400 --> 00:21:26,279 that it processes every year. UM. I know that Leonard Leo I think 279 00:21:26,480 --> 00:21:33,079 is trying to UM set up a similar type of organization. UM. I 280 00:21:33,240 --> 00:21:37,599 think Andrew can speak more of that. Yeah, yes, UM considered to 281 00:21:37,680 --> 00:21:41,960 make Dinnard Leonard Leo like he's UM trying to emulate this. There's been reporting 282 00:21:41,960 --> 00:21:45,319 like an Axios a few years ago that he's trying to take the Arabella model. 283 00:21:45,359 --> 00:21:49,799 This nowhere anywhere close to the scale that Arabella has going. And there's 284 00:21:49,799 --> 00:21:53,400 other networks in the on the left, like the Tides network that that also 285 00:21:53,839 --> 00:21:59,880 UM you know these mega charities such as a sponsor, UM, you know, 286 00:22:00,039 --> 00:22:03,799 it doesn't about hundreds of groups. A great example is the National Black 287 00:22:03,799 --> 00:22:08,000 Lives Matter group. For a long time they were physically sponsored by a group 288 00:22:08,079 --> 00:22:14,960 less had a convicted terrorists on his board and then uh a U and then 289 00:22:15,119 --> 00:22:19,960 they later shifted over to the Tides Foundation before they became their own charity in 290 00:22:21,799 --> 00:22:25,680 late twenty twenty. So UM, yeah, the left is really taken this 291 00:22:25,720 --> 00:22:29,000 model and run with it and this is uh, you know, nothing on 292 00:22:29,039 --> 00:22:33,039 the right that really compares um that Yeah, and on the on the right 293 00:22:33,079 --> 00:22:37,200 as well. I mean, I don't know what where Leonard Leo's project is, 294 00:22:37,359 --> 00:22:38,799 um, where it is headed. I know he has a lot of 295 00:22:38,799 --> 00:22:42,960 money now, um, and I'm you know, I mean given my phone 296 00:22:44,000 --> 00:22:48,400 number whatever he wants it. But I think that and you're without a number, 297 00:22:48,359 --> 00:22:51,119 yeah, I mean I don't know me Emily, you can pass it 298 00:22:51,119 --> 00:22:52,880 along, as you know, but I'm happy to take his money. But 299 00:22:53,160 --> 00:22:56,799 I think, like, on a serious note, one of the things that's 300 00:22:56,920 --> 00:23:04,960 um that distinguished and Arabella or even at Tides is that Arabella is staffed with 301 00:23:06,079 --> 00:23:14,519 season pros on how like all these people do who worked at Arabella is work 302 00:23:14,680 --> 00:23:21,079 on compliance, accounting, all sorts of stuff. I mean, you know 303 00:23:21,079 --> 00:23:26,440 they probably I'm sure your average senior Arabella person has launched like a dozen fiscal 304 00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:30,480 sponsorships. I mean that's speculation, but the point he still stands. Yet 305 00:23:30,559 --> 00:23:33,960 these people are professionals, um and yeah, I was looking at some other 306 00:23:34,079 --> 00:23:41,319 bios. I mean they have like master's degrees in nonprofit management, which is 307 00:23:41,319 --> 00:23:44,960 probably usually a complete waste of time unless you actually want to work for Arabella. 308 00:23:45,039 --> 00:23:47,480 There's probably like, you know, two firms, three firms in the 309 00:23:47,480 --> 00:23:52,160 country where that's useful, and Arabella is like is one of them. So, 310 00:23:52,200 --> 00:23:53,960 I mean, these people are fluent in how to operate these type of 311 00:23:55,000 --> 00:23:59,119 groups. And you know, I don't know, maybe Leonard Leo is is 312 00:23:59,359 --> 00:24:03,880 you know a hunch people is staffing up with people similar backgrounds. But you 313 00:24:03,960 --> 00:24:07,279 know, this has just been going on for so many years that the left 314 00:24:07,319 --> 00:24:15,279 just has a tremendous human capital advantage on top of a fiscal advantage as well. 315 00:24:15,799 --> 00:24:18,000 Well. I think another good point from all of that is that it's 316 00:24:18,039 --> 00:24:21,480 it's sort of the right, whether or not Leonard leon and I assume he 317 00:24:21,599 --> 00:24:25,119 is, you know, trying to match the vast scale of this that's behind. 318 00:24:25,279 --> 00:24:27,440 You know, it's it's the right attempting to catch up with years of 319 00:24:29,880 --> 00:24:34,640 organizing from this progressive network. And so the FEC you, as you report 320 00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:40,640 closed an investigation into some of these issues or some of these I rsque questions, 321 00:24:41,319 --> 00:24:42,720 M not that long ago, am I right? Like twenty twenty? 322 00:24:42,799 --> 00:24:47,319 Can you tell us a little bit more about that? Yeah? So U 323 00:24:48,480 --> 00:24:52,519 the one of the Air Bill's funds of sixteen thirty funds, was said with 324 00:24:52,559 --> 00:25:00,799 a Federal Election Commission complaint UM related to their foreign Magdona called Hunt Huntsberg Weiss, 325 00:25:00,680 --> 00:25:07,039 a Swiss billionaire, and so the complaint was alleging that Weiss was, 326 00:25:07,279 --> 00:25:11,079 you know, a foreign downer was pouring money into the sixteen thirty fund, 327 00:25:11,160 --> 00:25:18,000 which was then using those funds for partisan political activity. And so the allegation 328 00:25:18,079 --> 00:25:22,519 was that they were um, you know, taking foreign funds i legally using 329 00:25:22,559 --> 00:25:26,559 them for elections. The FEC's General Council was the top you know attorney at 330 00:25:26,599 --> 00:25:32,119 the FEC rule that or advised the commission that, you know, the sixteen 331 00:25:32,160 --> 00:25:37,480 thirty fund is spending so much money on politics that they really should be registered 332 00:25:37,519 --> 00:25:42,759 as a as a political committee. But the commissioners actually you voted against sticking 333 00:25:42,799 --> 00:25:47,720 any action against the sixteen thirty fund. What's interesting about this is that in 334 00:25:47,720 --> 00:25:52,720 twenty twenty, sixteen thirty fun spent about forty percent of its budget on electioneering, 335 00:25:53,440 --> 00:25:56,880 which the someth like one hundred and sixteen million dollars. It's a massive 336 00:25:56,920 --> 00:26:03,839 amount of money. But what the FEC commissioners said was that, well, 337 00:26:03,160 --> 00:26:07,640 since since they kept it under fifty percent, then they don't have to register 338 00:26:07,640 --> 00:26:11,559 as a political committee. So that's a kind of a what's so interesting about 339 00:26:11,559 --> 00:26:15,200 the air Bell network is that they operate at such a scale that you know, 340 00:26:15,359 --> 00:26:18,519 any normal nonprofit group, you know, spending one hundred and sixty million 341 00:26:18,559 --> 00:26:22,599 dollars on politics would have to register as a political committee. Like clearly they're 342 00:26:22,880 --> 00:26:29,000 they're they're pouring huge sums of money into into politics. But in twenty twenty 343 00:26:29,039 --> 00:26:32,559 sixteen thirty fun they had a total budget of about four hundred million dollars. 344 00:26:32,839 --> 00:26:37,480 So as long as they kept that political spending under two hundred million, then 345 00:26:37,559 --> 00:26:40,599 they don't have to, you know, essentially follow the rules that that any 346 00:26:40,599 --> 00:26:44,000 other nonprofit group would would have to follow, you know, in resture room 347 00:26:44,000 --> 00:26:48,880 into FEC. So that's another interesting aspect to their Bell network is that they're 348 00:26:48,880 --> 00:26:52,200 operating at such a scale that they're able to do things that normal nonprofit groups 349 00:26:52,240 --> 00:26:56,519 just can't do. And it seems like it's just like snowballing. The longer 350 00:26:56,519 --> 00:26:59,599 they're around, Like you know, the morning that Left Point megadiers are saying 351 00:26:59,599 --> 00:27:00,720 like, yeah, this is this is where we need to park our money, 352 00:27:02,200 --> 00:27:06,720 um and and to most effectively use it as as little disclosed as possible 353 00:27:06,920 --> 00:27:12,759 and also on the that arbitrary and I believe actually one of the appointed Republicans 354 00:27:12,799 --> 00:27:18,319 on the FEC commission, a great you know, was one of the votes 355 00:27:18,359 --> 00:27:22,200 against taking action. But I think, you know, when we talk about 356 00:27:22,279 --> 00:27:26,400 what is political spending, that that's also an important question. I mean, 357 00:27:26,400 --> 00:27:32,319 there's a difference between direct political spending and you know, something like the example 358 00:27:32,359 --> 00:27:36,240 that we lead on lead in on on our first piece about the Student Experience 359 00:27:36,240 --> 00:27:41,279 and Research Network. Um, you know, is that a political group? 360 00:27:41,400 --> 00:27:45,039 I mean probably not. It certainly doesn't seem that way to the naked eye. 361 00:27:45,160 --> 00:27:49,359 But if you start seeing what the Student Experience Research Network does, it 362 00:27:49,440 --> 00:27:55,880 what it does is it lobbies for left wing initiatives such as like increasing diversity 363 00:27:56,319 --> 00:28:00,480 or um, you know, getting rid of scaredize testing and university and stuff 364 00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:03,160 like that. And so you know, again that's kind of one of those, 365 00:28:03,640 --> 00:28:11,559 um, totally a political sounding group that really has this left wing agenda. 366 00:28:11,720 --> 00:28:18,119 And yes, it's not like normal campaigning or politicking, um, you 367 00:28:18,119 --> 00:28:22,519 know, like setting up you know, an issue advocacy campaign or backing a 368 00:28:22,640 --> 00:28:26,039 candidate. But you know, you wonder how this type of stuff DI and 369 00:28:26,079 --> 00:28:33,279 all that stuff seeps into these organizations or what or whatever, um and and 370 00:28:33,319 --> 00:28:41,359 a lot of it is through these nonprofits um and and that helps him avoid 371 00:28:41,839 --> 00:28:47,559 that forty percent or fifty percent threshold that the FEC kind of arbitrarily came up 372 00:28:47,599 --> 00:28:51,039 with. And we should we should mention that this is the first of to 373 00:28:51,200 --> 00:28:56,000 investigator. This is you just reference the first investigative peace there there are two 374 00:28:56,039 --> 00:28:59,440 of them, um And the second one we've talked about a bit, alludes 375 00:28:59,480 --> 00:29:03,200 to vote rights questions and the lead up to the election. And so this 376 00:29:03,279 --> 00:29:07,279 is another big question, but a really interesting one. Um. You know, 377 00:29:07,319 --> 00:29:11,200 we're talking about the days before the twenty twenty election. We've mentioned other 378 00:29:11,279 --> 00:29:14,920 causes that Arabella focuses on. Can you tell us a little bit about what 379 00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:18,000 you know, if it's possible to step back from thirty thousand feet and look 380 00:29:18,039 --> 00:29:22,400 down at what issues Arabella is tackling? Are there some themes? Are there? 381 00:29:22,480 --> 00:29:29,400 Some like really some issues that are are bigger focuses of Arabella that folks 382 00:29:29,400 --> 00:29:30,480 should know, the kind of as you said earlier, Joe, how they're 383 00:29:30,480 --> 00:29:34,960 tentacles in. I mean, the thing is like, this is a network 384 00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:38,880 that breaked in three point three billion dollars in twenty twenty and twenty twenty one. 385 00:29:40,200 --> 00:29:42,559 So they're they're kind of active everywhere. They've got a really kind of 386 00:29:42,559 --> 00:29:48,640 a capture on really anything left the center in DC and apolitism, if you 387 00:29:48,759 --> 00:29:53,680 know. Their tendles are everywhere. So when when you have that much money 388 00:29:53,680 --> 00:29:56,440 coming in, you know, billions of dollars a year, year, I 389 00:29:56,480 --> 00:30:00,440 mean, it's just year active in everything. So, um, I'll give 390 00:30:00,480 --> 00:30:04,440 you an example. UM, I mean Andrew's right that. I mean, 391 00:30:04,480 --> 00:30:11,599 you know, any you know left wing issue of the month, they're you 392 00:30:11,640 --> 00:30:14,920 know, they're there, I mean Coronel Justice. Um, you know, 393 00:30:15,119 --> 00:30:18,279 I mean I mean literally everything. I mean, they're you know, they're 394 00:30:18,319 --> 00:30:22,519 backing cancer or you know, scientific research organizations that now have to do all 395 00:30:22,519 --> 00:30:26,119 sorts of d I stuff. I mean, they're they're literally everywhere. But 396 00:30:26,240 --> 00:30:30,160 I'll give you an example, which I think is good. Um. I 397 00:30:30,200 --> 00:30:34,839 was reading Politico about a month ago, and I wrote the playbook Play a 398 00:30:34,880 --> 00:30:40,640 playbook, which is a newsletter. Um, and I noticed at the top 399 00:30:40,680 --> 00:30:44,279 of the newsletter every day they have a spot, you know, sponsored by 400 00:30:44,519 --> 00:30:48,839 you know whatever, Chevron whoever, And one of the for a few days 401 00:30:48,119 --> 00:30:56,680 there it was sponsored by this group called Stopped physical hawks, stopped deficits squawks, 402 00:30:56,680 --> 00:31:00,319 stopped to stop deficits squawks. And I was like, what is that. 403 00:31:00,400 --> 00:31:03,559 I've never heard of that before. It's not usually like Chevron or whoever 404 00:31:03,880 --> 00:31:08,720 is normally sponsoring it. And I click on the link and it was an 405 00:31:08,880 --> 00:31:18,839 entire organization dedicated to UM opposing UM. I believe the Center for Responsible Federal 406 00:31:18,279 --> 00:31:23,400 Budget, which is a kind of like center centrist center left almost I mean 407 00:31:23,400 --> 00:31:32,799 they're pro taxes, high taxes. Because that group had basically scored Biden's budget 408 00:31:32,880 --> 00:31:37,640 really poorly, and and and and has you know, kind of been needling 409 00:31:37,680 --> 00:31:38,480 Biden like you need to do more about the deficit. That you need to 410 00:31:38,480 --> 00:31:45,519 do more about the deficit, but stop deficit squawks. Low and behold is 411 00:31:45,519 --> 00:31:48,559 a fiscal sponsorship by the New Venture Fund. And it just seemingly came out 412 00:31:48,559 --> 00:31:52,400 of nowhere. It's dedicated to a single think tech. I mean, imagine 413 00:31:52,440 --> 00:31:59,200 if there was an entire nonprofit dedicated to stopping like the Federalist or AI or 414 00:31:59,279 --> 00:32:02,680 Brooking since I mean completely devoted. They the whole fancy website, they're buying 415 00:32:04,119 --> 00:32:12,000 playbook advertisements, they're sponsoring playbook And this wasn't around a year ago, and 416 00:32:12,039 --> 00:32:15,319 it might not be around in another year. And so the point of that 417 00:32:15,559 --> 00:32:19,799 story is like you start going crazy. I mean, if you start, 418 00:32:19,880 --> 00:32:22,000 if you start you know, looking around, like home, where do they 419 00:32:22,039 --> 00:32:23,880 come from? Blah? And a lot of the time we found is that 420 00:32:24,279 --> 00:32:30,599 literally a physical sponsorship, um, you know, made by Arabella And so 421 00:32:30,680 --> 00:32:34,319 it's just remarkable. I mean. And when I say any pet issue, 422 00:32:34,359 --> 00:32:37,599 I mean literally any pet issue. Some donor or someone whoever doesn't like a 423 00:32:37,680 --> 00:32:42,400 report by a think tank, a center left thing tank. Um, you 424 00:32:42,440 --> 00:32:45,880 know you're gonna you're gonna build boards against you. Yeah, don't give them 425 00:32:45,920 --> 00:32:50,559 ideas. Is there anything that we haven't touched on it you think is really 426 00:32:50,599 --> 00:32:53,319 important? Either of you thinks it's really important to understand about the story or 427 00:32:53,720 --> 00:32:59,599 maybe you know that's new when you're reporting. You mentioned the second report that 428 00:32:59,640 --> 00:33:00,799 we had, and I don't know if we have no time to go into 429 00:33:00,920 --> 00:33:04,319 a lot of the records that we have plenty of time by the way. 430 00:33:04,359 --> 00:33:07,000 So and it's really really interesting, especially as it pertains to twenty twenty and 431 00:33:07,079 --> 00:33:10,680 the pandemic and law it's getting changed. So please feel free to dive in. 432 00:33:12,119 --> 00:33:14,759 Yeah, so a lot of a lot of the records that we got 433 00:33:14,720 --> 00:33:19,559 to pertained to the specific UM the Aventure fun project called the Voting Rights Lab. 434 00:33:20,160 --> 00:33:25,039 And what the record show is that UM they and interviews with former employees 435 00:33:25,039 --> 00:33:29,759 that had that projects, UH, you know, lead to the twenty twenty 436 00:33:29,759 --> 00:33:32,079 elections. They wanted to challenge right state voting laws, but they knew that 437 00:33:32,640 --> 00:33:36,680 no Republican lawmaker at the state of federal level is that We're going to work 438 00:33:36,720 --> 00:33:39,519 with a group tied to Arabella. So what they did was it is seized 439 00:33:39,559 --> 00:33:45,160 control of the supposedly independent nonprofit group called Secure Democracy and use that as a 440 00:33:45,240 --> 00:33:52,759 vehicle to UH to lobby and and and persuade Republicans to to UM to ease 441 00:33:52,839 --> 00:33:58,079 up on their on voting rights or voting access legislation and like mail and voting 442 00:33:58,079 --> 00:34:00,960 and in issues like that, and and it worked, and employees told us 443 00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:05,920 that perform employees told us that, you know, especially every lawmaker that they 444 00:34:05,920 --> 00:34:10,639 that they worked with was was misled and the at a really high level when 445 00:34:12,280 --> 00:34:17,960 it this voting rights is supposedly indpendent voting access group Secure Democracy. They also 446 00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:24,480 engaged in and political activity. They were they were running political ads against Republican 447 00:34:24,559 --> 00:34:29,679 Senators email sort of their attorney was saying, you need to classify these as 448 00:34:29,719 --> 00:34:34,519 as as political activity. The problem for the Venture Fund as a charity is 449 00:34:34,559 --> 00:34:37,960 that their employees were approving all of these activities, and that's a big no 450 00:34:38,079 --> 00:34:43,920 no for a charity because charities are absolutely prohibited from engaging in even a dollar 451 00:34:44,039 --> 00:34:49,559 of political activity. So we got a number of attorneys that told us on 452 00:34:49,599 --> 00:34:53,239 the record that like these emails, these records that they, you know, 453 00:34:53,679 --> 00:34:59,760 showed some serious potential misconduct and the Irish should investigate, um, you know, 454 00:34:59,800 --> 00:35:06,840 the um uh Venture Fund using it's it's charitable resources to advance the political 455 00:35:06,840 --> 00:35:10,360 activities and control this uh, the supposedly independent um you know, voting rights 456 00:35:10,360 --> 00:35:15,280 nonprofit group, UH. This arrangement that was done so they could essentially you 457 00:35:15,480 --> 00:35:17,960 tricked Republicans into working with them and lead that to the twenty twenty elections and 458 00:35:19,000 --> 00:35:23,239 also in twenty twenty one. UM. And so it just what we found 459 00:35:23,239 --> 00:35:28,239 so interesting about this story was just like it gas the links that the Arabella 460 00:35:28,320 --> 00:35:30,719 goes to, you know, to achieve its it ends, you know, 461 00:35:30,760 --> 00:35:34,880 even to the point of you know, controlling groups that aren't necessarily inside of 462 00:35:34,920 --> 00:35:37,079 it's it's umbrella. And it just raises the question of just you know, 463 00:35:37,239 --> 00:35:42,039 how many other groups out there are being you know, secretly controlled by this 464 00:35:42,239 --> 00:35:45,480 h by this Megan dark money group. It's it's hard to tell without you 465 00:35:45,639 --> 00:35:50,800 having your internal records like this. But and and and again it speaks to 466 00:35:51,079 --> 00:35:57,159 kind of the vast size of Arabella. UM and and inevitably if any large 467 00:35:57,239 --> 00:36:02,559 organization, UM, you're going to run into compliance issues. I don't I 468 00:36:02,599 --> 00:36:07,000 don't think that in the case that we wrote about that it was a question 469 00:36:07,039 --> 00:36:09,440 making a mistake. We have evidence that it was a it was a it 470 00:36:09,519 --> 00:36:15,159 was a person ignoring um, their council's legal advice. But um, but 471 00:36:15,280 --> 00:36:17,880 you know, I can think of all sorts of like you know, at 472 00:36:17,920 --> 00:36:23,480 and examples of an organization you know, running a foul of I r ask 473 00:36:23,559 --> 00:36:29,039 their fec laws because they just they don't know enough or or whatever. They're 474 00:36:29,039 --> 00:36:36,880 disorganized. But the problem is is that Arabella, you know, deals largely 475 00:36:37,079 --> 00:36:40,320 in the in the realm of politics. And when you have a network this 476 00:36:40,599 --> 00:36:46,480 big, when you're not complying with the law. You know, Democrats like 477 00:36:46,519 --> 00:36:51,280 to talk about democracy or whatever, and I'm not one who does. But 478 00:36:51,920 --> 00:36:55,000 you just start running into into problems like that. And if you have a 479 00:36:55,119 --> 00:37:00,920 huge, multibillion dollars network that is so big that it can't possibly always follow 480 00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:06,079 the law all the time, I think that's worthy of scrutiny. And I 481 00:37:06,119 --> 00:37:10,920 think you know, in the case that we wrote about here what's being alleged, 482 00:37:10,960 --> 00:37:15,280 and we've records to show this is not just Oath wrote the law. 483 00:37:15,360 --> 00:37:16,920 Let's go fix it. It's Oaks. We wrote the law. Let's try 484 00:37:16,920 --> 00:37:22,880 to hide it from the government. And you know, an issue related to 485 00:37:22,880 --> 00:37:27,679 that as well is that, you know, all sorts of charities not political 486 00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:32,039 politically related. You know, if you pull out a random nonprofits nine nineties, 487 00:37:32,039 --> 00:37:36,480 which is their task forms that are made publicly, um, you can 488 00:37:36,519 --> 00:37:42,039 get anyone's. Basically, it's really easy to find all sorts of discrepancies. 489 00:37:42,079 --> 00:37:45,440 You know, people don't have good accountants, so they're doing it themselves. 490 00:37:45,559 --> 00:37:50,199 And you know it's technically you're in violation of the law. You really should 491 00:37:50,239 --> 00:37:52,760 fix it. But you know, at the end of the day, if 492 00:37:52,800 --> 00:37:57,320 like some small cancer organizations like nine nineties don't match up, it's probably it's 493 00:37:57,400 --> 00:38:01,039 it's not really meaningful. But but when you have an organization at this scale 494 00:38:01,199 --> 00:38:05,360 involved in politics and in the case that we talked about, you know, 495 00:38:05,800 --> 00:38:12,320 lobbying to change voting laws, which I know a lot of conservatives believe is 496 00:38:13,320 --> 00:38:17,360 in large part why President Joe Biden one in twenty twenty m And you know 497 00:38:17,400 --> 00:38:23,320 they're natively engaged in in illegal activity. You know that that's not just a 498 00:38:23,519 --> 00:38:27,559 oops. We you know our payroll is off. I mean, this is 499 00:38:27,599 --> 00:38:31,679 a huge, huge problem. And you know it's impossible to say whether secure 500 00:38:31,719 --> 00:38:37,000 democracy or voting rights lab is the reason why so many states change their red 501 00:38:37,039 --> 00:38:39,199 states as well change their voting laws in twenty twenty. But you know there's 502 00:38:39,239 --> 00:38:46,159 ceraarly a primary actor and when that happened. Yeah, that's an important point 503 00:38:46,199 --> 00:38:52,559 because it reminds me of the like indicta han Hand Sandwich like weaponization of government 504 00:38:52,559 --> 00:38:58,159 in general. Um, these are such byzantine financial structures and the laws are 505 00:38:58,280 --> 00:39:01,599 you know, reflect the same byzantine structures. So it's just it's such a 506 00:39:01,639 --> 00:39:04,960 mess. The entire world is such a mess. Is there anything else? 507 00:39:05,000 --> 00:39:07,840 Guys? Well, have you heard that you we haven't talked about that you 508 00:39:07,840 --> 00:39:14,519 think is important? No? I mean I just think that, you know, 509 00:39:15,079 --> 00:39:22,599 going back to um kind of the less advantage structial advantage on this kind 510 00:39:22,639 --> 00:39:29,079 of stuff. UM. You know, I hope that it provides some answers 511 00:39:29,119 --> 00:39:36,840 to people who wonder how the left is so organized and um you know, 512 00:39:36,880 --> 00:39:44,480 if you know your history, actually there's there's been a lot of wealthy foundations 513 00:39:44,599 --> 00:39:47,559 involved in left wing and issues in this country for for a very long time. 514 00:39:49,280 --> 00:39:54,239 But where we are now today, Um, it's like gone corporate. 515 00:39:54,920 --> 00:40:00,239 Um. And it's it's far more professional. It's not just like the Forward 516 00:40:00,280 --> 00:40:05,119 Foundation or whatever cutting a check to the black panthers. Um. You know, 517 00:40:05,400 --> 00:40:12,880 we have a very complex network um that operates, Um that that's taking 518 00:40:12,920 --> 00:40:17,440 full advantage of our of our tax laws right now. Um. And and 519 00:40:17,480 --> 00:40:22,760 again it's not a question of like some air to a fortune, um, 520 00:40:22,800 --> 00:40:28,440 you know, cutting checks into sixties and seventies to some left wing pet Cause 521 00:40:29,400 --> 00:40:34,119 it's really a I use this word not it's not a loaded I say it's 522 00:40:34,119 --> 00:40:38,000 a conspiracy. I mean it is a it is a huge, huge network 523 00:40:38,400 --> 00:40:43,960 um that that is involved in all sorts of political issues. UM. And 524 00:40:44,280 --> 00:40:47,280 um you know, I think that that probably explains I think a lot of 525 00:40:47,320 --> 00:40:52,519 confusion that the average American has when they see these protests or whatever. Um 526 00:40:52,559 --> 00:40:55,800 And I think that that, to me was the biggest takeaway. It answered 527 00:40:55,840 --> 00:41:00,360 a lot of questions I had about why the left seems so good at this. 528 00:41:04,679 --> 00:41:07,280 Yeah. No, that's actually a really helpful way to look at it. 529 00:41:07,480 --> 00:41:12,199 Well, Senior investigative reporters Andrew Kerr and Joe Simonson from the Washington Free 530 00:41:12,239 --> 00:41:14,840 Beacon, you do not want to miss their reporting. You can go check 531 00:41:14,880 --> 00:41:16,920 it out at the Free Beacon's website. It's really really, really excellent, 532 00:41:17,039 --> 00:41:21,639 such high quality. Thanks to both of you for coming on and breaking it 533 00:41:21,639 --> 00:41:24,320 down. Thanks, thank you. Emily. Of course you've been listening to 534 00:41:24,360 --> 00:41:28,760 another edition of The Federalist Radio Hour. I'm em Elijashnski, culture editor here 535 00:41:28,760 --> 00:41:30,360 at The Federalist. We'll be back soon with more. Until then, be 536 00:41:30,480 --> 00:41:51,119 lovers of freedom and anxious for the prey.