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Sep 24, 2018 52 tweets 27 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
The dark web of Leonard Leo, Kavanaugh & GOP legal cesspool. Been working w/@JamesFourM on all things LL. This wk brings new context, exposing GOP conspiracy behind this SCOTUS nom

I'll lay out domestic front & soon Jay's gonna drop the international heat 🔥🔥🔥

[THREAD]
July 9, 2018: Trump Announces Brett Kavanaugh as SCOTUS Nominee

Trump began his speech noting key attendees in the East Room that evening, including Scalia's widow, Maureen. A similar intro to the one he gave during the Gorsuch announcement in 2017.
At the beginning of Trump's speech there was a 2nd shoutout that got little to no attention

nytimes.com/2018/07/09/us/…
No one really seemed interested in exploring why Reagan's AG--a major conservative legal activist-- was in the East Room during the Kavanaugh announcement + got shoutout before Trump even named his pick.

But for me.. This detail was my key takeaway👇

Good ole Maggie had a different *but perhaps equally important* take @JamesFourM

She saw the Kavanaugh nomination as a big Sekulow win (& that this detail was worth pointing out).

It's all about what happens in the shadows:

Jay Sekulow is not just "one of Trump's private lawyers" (per Maggie H descrip)

Edwin Meese III is not just a former US Attorney General

C. Boyden Gray is not just a tobacco heir

Leonard Leo is not just Exec VP- Federalist Society
Quick refresher: This GOP crew (Sekulow, Meese, Gray, Leo) are the 4 horsemen (circa George W. Bush presidency)

As WH counsel for HW Bush, Gray ordered FBI to investigate Anita Hill's accusations during Thomas hearings. The game has since changed.

wsj.com/articles/SB111…
This Leonard Leo mega-thread covers most of what you need to know about the man Clarence Thomas considers 3rd most powerful in the world⤵️

Let's run-through the highlights:

Leonard Leo & Scott Pruitt are BFFs.

HHS Secretary Price made a quick exit for a fraction of the corrupt activity we saw from Pruitt. LL is linked to nearly every Pruitt scandal you can name. I rounded them up here.

Leo owns Trump (& Mitch) (& SCOTUS)

Leonard Leo & his fellow horsemen are behind all those dreadful Judicial Crisis Network TV commercials you are seeing 24/7.

thedailybeast.com/dark-money-gro…
If you unplugged your cable, don't own a TV, or are living under a rock - you can check out Judicial Crisis Network ads here on their YouTube channel.

youtube.com/channel/UCii6a…
You've probably seen lots of this woman, Kavanaugh character witness Louisa Garry.

Louisa Garry is a Judicial Crisis Network CRISIS ACTOR as @SpicyFiles will tell you...

Video:
Louisa Garry was cited in yesterday's New Yorker piece on Kavanaugh accuser from Yale.

@SpicyFiles has you covered w/deeper analysis here⏬

I hope @RonanFarrow & @JaneMayerNYer listen to Spicy's call to follow up w/Louisa Garry & JCN‼️

You won't be able to find all of Judicial Crisis Network's ads on their YouTube channel. Like the Trump campaign in 2016, JCN has many "Unlisted" YouTube videos 📺

Unlisted is essentially the YouTube equivalent of a Facebook dark post. I explain here:

Here is one of JCN's "unlisted" videos -- a TV ad from early 2016.

You might be asking yourself -- which US President nominated Jane Kelly to SCOTUS?

No one nominated Jane Kelly.

In March 2016, she was reported as a **potential** SCOTUS nominee. Judicial Crisis Network pounced on Kelly immediately.

Buying the highest court in the land requires some serious dedication. No stone unturned.

thedailybeast.com/dark-money-gro…
Buying the highest court in the land is also quite expensive.

Leonard Leo & his horsemen have an endless flow of dark money at their fingertips and they spend big via Judicial Crisis Network -- to the point of saturation as @SpicyFiles reports:

And if you're buying the highest court in the land, you make sure ur 💰's on the right horse, cc @LuluLemew

LL/horsemen learned lesson w/Justice Roberts' betrayal (⬇️)

To ensure loyalty to their agenda they need puppet judges (& some Kompromat) 🤔

The 4 horseman of the GOP judiciary coup are very tight w/Justice Thomas:

-Clarence sats LL is 3rd most powerful person in world
-Linked to Ginni Thomas (wife) via Corkerys
-Leo & Ginni were the founders of Groundswell, synchronized GOP "journalism"

I know this is a lot of info but Groundswell is an important piece of the GOP judiciary coup. Leonard Leo & Edwin Meese were known contributors to Groundswell

@DavidCornDC did epic rptg on this in 2013.

Groundswell significance/key pts broken down here:
Groundswell is important: shows breadth of GOP conspiracy to stack compromised, conservative activist judiciary--beyond legal sphere

The 4 horseman are 4 lawyers; 4 lawyers at head of a secret grp helping right-wing journalists to collaborate

@DavidCornDC got his hands on notes from a Groundswell mtg, describing "a 30 front war seeking to fundamentally transform the nation"

Groundswell may have looked like it was just about issue advocacy. But it was always about taking the courts.

motherjones.com/politics/2013/…
Steve Bannon, Matt Boyle & other Breitbart writers were known Groundswellers.
Trump nat sec advisor John Bolton was also an active participant (Recall his PACs activities 2013-14.

4 Horsemen + Mercers? These 2 links form Exhibit A.

4 Horsemen + Mercers

Exhibit B: Mercer family has given millions to the Federalist Society (of which Leo is Exec VP).

Note timing: "since 2013"

publicintegrity.org/2017/04/28/208…
4 Horsemen + Mercers

Exhibit C: Same time you have the birth of Reclaim New York. Founded ~2013-14.

Leonard Leo has long sat on Reclaim's very small board w/Mercer daughters (+ Bannon who left in Aug 2016)

h/t @WendySiegelman

Sept 5, 2018: Day 2 Kavanaugh hearings; Sen Sheldon Whitehouse lays out a near copy of Groundswell 2013 agenda looking at recent SCOTUS 5-4 cases

Vast conspiracy: GOP waged + winning their "30 front war seeking to fundamentally transform the nation"

pic:
Also in late 2013, The Federalist (as in #WhoFundsTheFederalist) was founded. For those who confuse Federalist w/Federalist Society-- you are excused b/c you're prob right in the end

4 horsemen launched "30 front war" -- multiple fronts, workstreams..

Worth repeating: Federalist launched Sept 2013, few mos after Groundswell took off

Federalist content aligned w/GSwell goals.

Federalist's been ground zero for GOP fave fake narratives from hoax Planned Parenthood vids (2015) to DOJ attacks (2018)

Worth mentioning that seemingly shared agenda of GOP 4 Horsemen & Federalist pub often echo the sentiments of a specific faction of the George W. Bush White House--specifically, Team Cheney

Both John Bolton & Blackwater resurface, Libby pardoned - lots of Cheney lurking about🤔
And worth everything to the Cheney faction.. the Libby pardon

These dark GOP operatives generated all that neg sentiment towards GW Bush for pubs like Breitbart to push.

1 GSwell workstream was Karl Rove smear campaign. What timing, Jeff Sessions! ⬇️
Which is why it was no shock to find this old tweet from husband of Chuck Grassley aide BARBARA LEDEEN (you know, Judge Kavanaugh's email buddy who had a mole spying on the left...)

GW Bush was dead to them when he only commuted Libby's sentence, despite their pleas & demands.
Browse through what is still live of The Federalist's views on both Scooter Libby & Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald.

Start here.

If you were wondering where Trump got his early witch hunt talking pts--look no further...

thefederalist.com/2017/03/01/tru…
Know who cared an awful lot about Scooter Libby's situation?

Former US AG Edwin Meese III

(also Tucker Carlson's dad...)

scooterlibby.com/committee/defa…
Meese was on the advisory cmte of the Libby Legal Defense Fund.

This may explain the type of work the former AG did within the Groundswell project...

scooterlibby.com/committee/defa…
A little detail in @DavidCornDC 2013 Groundswell follow-up:

Former US Attorney General's place in the "30 front" war was leading the Karl Rove smear campaign. Sick dude.

Guessing Meese has Jeff Sessions on speed dial (or at least did back in '13)...

motherjones.com/politics/2013/…
This 2013 piece fills in all the missing pieces on the strange civil war that catapulted the GOP to the blindly partisan, loyalty-obsessed, no morals party it is today in 2018.

THE ROVE PROJECT was key moment along GOP's road to Trump (& Kavanaugh)

motherjones.com/politics/2013/…
So fast-forward to July 9, 2018 announcement of Kavanaugh SCOTUS nom.

Trump had good reason to name-drop Former AG Edwin Meese in his intro. Meese's role & connections to the Kavanaugh pick...pretty deep.
Meet Meese doppelgänger John Malcolm.

Director of the MEESE Center for Legal & Judicial Studies, and Senior Legal Fellow, with The Heritage Foundation.
Malcolm, the Director of the MEESE Center for Legal & Judicial Studies was right by the boss' side in the East Room of the WH for the Kavanaugh announcement.

law.com/nationallawjou…
The Kavanaugh nomination was a cake baked long before that night in early July 2018.

We know the Kavanaugh web domain was acquired in 2017; thanks @ninaandtito & @spicyfiles for loading us up w/receipts.

And the GOP's four horsemen have deployed their coalition to defend Kavanaugh & destroy anyone that gets in the way of his confirmation at all costs.

Not many new names making headlines here...

JCN operatives, and of course, Ed Whelan.
The 4 horsemen & their henchmen are in hail mary mode.

Ed Whelan is not a rogue GOP operative. He is part of a robust team.

This @SteveSchmidtSES thread 🔥 

Again, Ed Whelan is no rogue right wing conspiracy nut. His recent efforts were aided by a GOP PR "powerhouse," CRC

politico.com/story/2018/09/…
The same GOP PR shop that acquired Kellyanne Conway's polling company.

@SpicyFiles paints a clear picture: there's little-to-no distance between this coalition & the WH.

In light of Mr. Whelan's Kavanaugh evil twin conspiracy dumpster fire, his org, the Ethics & Public Policy Center (EPPC) released a statement yesterday.

Barely a slap on the wrist. So much for those ethics.

eppc.org/publications/s…
So @MrFelt_ took a peek under the hood at the EPPC and their roster of "ethical" folks in the company of Ed Whelan.

Felt's highlights caught my eye.

So as @MrFelt_ points out, Leonard Leo has a presence w/the EPPC as does a new & interesting name w/both old and new Russian ties - Howard A. Dahl.

Through the EPPC, Dahl is connected to 1 of the 4 horsemen, our shadow POTUS Leonard Leo.
This new name - Howard Dahl - sits alongside a 2nd member of the GOP dark horsemen w/his board affiliations. Dahl serves on the Board of Trustees of The Trinity Forum w/none other than the Honorable(?) Edwin Meese III.

ttf.org/board-trustees…
Howard A Dahl, a new name w/interesting connections:

📌Ed Whelan (via EPPC)
📌Leonard Leo (via EPPC)
📌Edwin Meese (via Trinity Forum)
📌Brett Kavanaugh (via all the above)

🚨 Old & new Russia ties -- what can we make of these dots @JamesFourM?
Lots to unpack + can't wait to see @JamesFourM findings

But you see what we already have here?

-Elevating compromised, puppet judges
-Disinfo ops via Groundswell, Federalist
-Propaganda saturating airwaves

GOP adopted Russian playbook long ago

[art thx to Claude/@maddogpac]
Doesn’t stop here..

Follow Jay’s thread to connect more dots and how Howard Dahl fits into the bigger picture here.

You know @JamesFourM is a puzzle master—now watch it all come together..

⏪Rewind to Edwin Meese's Groundswell workstream b/c this is interesting. cc @JamesFourM

Tweet posted during same timeframe as Meese-led Karl Rove smear campaign, ROVE PROJECT.

Was Trump already colluding w/right-wing media in 2013? Who sent him the Groundswell talking pts?

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More from @emlas

Sep 26, 2018
FYI, the 2 most common examples of process (behavioral) addictions are pathological gambling & sexual addiction.

Compulsive lying is another.

#StopKavanaugh
“Have you ever sought treatment for a gambling addiction?”

salon.com/2018/09/13/doe…
1998, Kavanaugh shares ?s he wrote for Bill Clinton.

Asks aides “IS IT TOO GRAPHIC?” “SHOULD IT BE MORE GRAPHIC (kidding)?”

Kinda impressive for a guy who says he lost his virginity "many yrs after high school" (Fox News, 9/24/18)

politico.com/story/2018/08/…
Read 9 tweets
Sep 7, 2018
At least 6 Pro-Kavanaugh witnesses are Federalist Society "contributors."

Why is this private organization so embedded in every stage of the judicial nomination process?

Who the fuck elected the Federalist Society? Not me.
Read 11 tweets
Aug 27, 2018
The GOP is ready, willing, able & actively engaged in covering up Trump crimes & corruption. We question their motives all the time. The base? Kompromat?

How about their ongoing joint DATA collection/usage?

Some thoughts via URL forensics.

[THREAD]
A list like this should inspire articles of impeachment
But has it inspired even 1 change of heart among GOP leaders?

Mind-boggling to watch them stand by their man w/this resume/rap sheet given risk this strategy poses to the future of their party..

axios.com/newsletters/ax…
They've assessed the situation -- "risk" is better than "(certain) doom"

The RNC & loyal Trump R's known that exposing Trump will result in the latter⏫

B/c the entire Republican party apparatus is tied to the Trump Train-- & tied deepest through DATA.

nymag.com/daily/intellig…
Read 33 tweets
Aug 16, 2018
This story further exposes the corruption of not just GOP politicians & dark money groups, but also media vendors. h/t @RighteousBabe4
"None of the campaigns popping up on BLP’s email list have reported paying Mustard Seed Media, BLP’s owner, or any other firm associated with the site. "

Have they forgotten about The Prosper Group?

elink.thedailybeast.com/view/5a5e85382…
The Prosper Group (TPG) is a very popular vendor across GOP campaigns and orgs

2018 clients (& more receipts down-thread)

Read 8 tweets
Aug 15, 2018
URL Project [UPDATE]: The collection has expanded.

I now have 450+ tracking links just for Trump/Pence Facebook Ads. I'll add some details on my findings and theories (i.e. what is MIH?) soon but for now, feel free to take a peek 👀

Spreadsheet👇

docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…
Soon I'll be adding in the tracking links for other marketing channels (Twitter, Email, SMS, FB Messenger, Banners, Breitbart & more).

Further details on these tracking links in this long & winding thread 🤓

Note: The count's gone up for URLs with Cambridge Analytica mentions. On June 20th when I started this thread, I had 15..

Today I have 38 🤗

Trump & RNC can't deny what is hard-coded into their own tracking links.

Read 4 tweets
Aug 10, 2018
This Andrew Miller situation is extremely significant. We've only just begun to scratch the surface.

Mueller is on the right track here.

Nov 8, 2016 was the culmination of a long journey for Trump & crew. 2010-2012 was a key time period on this track.
We keep going in circles, finding the same people popping up in shady places. Reunions are a key theme in Trumpland--but maybe no one ever leaves.

2010: NY Gubernatorial race

Roger Stone, Andrew Miller, Kristin Davis

nytimes.com/2010/08/12/nyr…
Read 38 tweets

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