Thread by @mcorley

.@elianayjohnson reports that a #darkmoney group, the previously unknown American Exceptionalism Institute, is spending $100k on ads that accuse Sen. Rand Paul of representing al Qaeda’s interest with his opposition to Gina Haspel’s CIA director nomination politico.com/story/2018/04/…

Johnson notes that the group was “incorporated a year ago by Columbus, Ohio-based attorney James Ryan.” American Exceptionalism Institute is now the third entity incorporated Ryan that started spending money to targeting politicians with ads.

As @AndrewJTobias reported, a c4 called the Independence and Freedom Network contributed $850k to a super PAC backing OH Lt. Gov Mary Taylor in her OH Gov bid right before the PAC ran ads against her opponent: cleveland.com/open/index.ssf…

The same lawyer, James G. Ryan incorporated Independence and Freedom Network, Inc. on April 13, 2017 – the same exact date he incorporated American Exceptionalism Institute, Inc.:

Almost a year later, Ryan incorporated another group, LZP LLC, that recently gave $175K to a super PAC spending in an Ohio state legislative race. LZP made its contribution to the super PAC the day after it was formed:

.@CREWcrew filed a complaint yesterday against LZP, LLC and the super PAC it funded, Honor and Principles PAC, for engaging in “a prototypical example of a conduit contribution scheme” to hide the true source of the money funding the ads: s3.amazonaws.com/storage.citize…

.@elianayjohnson’s reporting on the new #darkmoney group, American Exceptionalism Institute, provides an indication of who Ryan may be working with to move anonymous money into politics. The spokesman she spoke to is Brian Kinnett, who has a history w/ secret money groups.

Kinnett is the treasurer of Americans United for Values, a federal super PAC that has been completely funded by opaque nonprofits. fec.gov/data/committee…

Kinnett is also listed as the president of A Public Voice, Inc.,. which is one of the nonprofits that has funded his super PAC. A Public Voice primarily funds other nonprofits that have a history of funneling secret money into elections: guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2…

Most recently, A Public Voice contributed $10K to Americans United for Values on March 28, 2018. The next day, the super PAC spent $6,802 on direct mail opposing Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) in his primary: docquery.fec.gov/pdf/633/201804…

Americans United for Values has spent about $23K more going after Jones since then. We won't know who funded those independent expenditures until the super PAC files its next full disclosure report in July. Odds are it will be a nonprofit that doesn't disclose its own donors.