While advising Trump on judges, Conway sold her business to a firm with ties to judicial activist Leonard Leo - POLITICO

It’s the latest illustration of however Leo has utilized his web to unafraid and support allies astatine the highest levels of authorities to successfully beforehand his decadeslong docket of shifting the Supreme Court rightward for the adjacent generation. Conway was among a tiny ellipse of advisers with outsized power implicit a recently elected president whose committedness to overturning large precedents similar the close to termination was successful uncertainty by immoderate societal conservatives. While erstwhile President Donald Trump — a onetime protagonist of termination rights and erstwhile registered Democrat — was considered unpredictable by immoderate societal conservatives, Conway proved from the earliest days of Trump’s presidency to beryllium an outspoken advocator for Leo’s database of handpicked candidates.

If Leo helped facilitate the transaction, it could interruption morals laws designed to forestall enforcement subdivision employees from obtaining benefits from radical with whom they interact successful their authoritative capacities, said Bruce Freed, president of the nonpartisan Center for Political Accountability, which tracks firm spending successful politics. Federal morals laws prohibit enforcement subdivision employees from utilizing their positions for backstage idiosyncratic summation and from accepting gifts.

“It truly shows Kellyanne arsenic a conveyance for Leo, the starring relation Leo has played and however Trump became his instrument,” said Freed, aft reviewing the documents.

On the same time of the sale, connected Sept. 21, 2017, a lawyer filed liens with Virginia regulators listing collateral for 2 loans: 1 for the purchaser and the different for a acheronian wealth radical controlled by Leo, BH Fund. The liens were filed wrong 5 minutes of each other.

Government morals and concern experts accidental the timing and the similarity of the 2 transactions suggest that BH Fund, too, whitethorn person been progressive successful the acquisition of Conway’s firm.

Leo, done spokesperson Adam Kennedy with CRC, declined repeated requests implicit the span of respective weeks opening successful precocious October to remark connected whether Leo played a relation successful facilitating the purchase. Conway did not respond to repeated emails and substance messages requesting comment, though she acknowledged having received an email. CRC Vice President Keith Appell besides declined to comment.

“Unfortunately, I don’t deliberation we volition beryllium responding to questions astir the acquisition of the polling company,” Kennedy wrote successful an Oct. 31 email.

The Conways and Leo person longstanding ties. At the clip of the merchantability of Conway’s company, Leo was enforcement vice president of the Federalist Society, the blimpish ineligible radical for which galore of Trump’s judicial appointees were members. Conway’s husband, George, was a longtime person of Leo’s and one of the Federalist Society’s earliest members. George Conway besides did not respond to a petition for comment.

The ties betwixt BH Fund and CRC are substantial. Leo is present a partner and chairman astatine CRC. The different BH Fund manager listed successful their firm filings, Jonathan Bunch, besides joined CRC astir the aforesaid clip arsenic president. At the clip of the merchantability successful 2017, groups tied to Leo were simply large customers: In total, CRC took successful much than $52 cardinal from groups successful Leo’s web from 2016 to 2020 — arsenic it was conducting a media run to instal justices considered reliable votes to overturn precedents including the national close to abortion, according to a reappraisal for POLITICO conducted by nonpartisan enactment OpenSecrets.

The fiscal woody betwixt Conway and CRC adds to an emerging representation of the grade to which groups associated with Leo — who now controls much than $1.6 billion successful blimpish donor funds — interacted with cardinal players successful the blimpish movement’s efforts to reshape the judiciary. The New York Times first reported the windfall donation to a Leo-controlled group, among the largest azygous contributions ever to a governmental nonprofit.

Leo served connected the board of a radical led by Virginia Thomas, the woman of Supreme Court justness Clarence Thomas, and helium and the Thomases person maintained a longstanding friendship. Leo’s web has been among the astir prolific forces down the caller blimpish majority, successfully advocating to corroborate Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett arsenic good arsenic to artifact erstwhile President Barack Obama’s nominee Merrick Garland.

Ed Whelan, a blimpish law instrumentality adept and erstwhile clerk to the precocious Justice Antonin Scalia, downplayed the power Conway whitethorn person had implicit the then-new president astatine a clip erstwhile societal conservatives were acrophobic whether Trump — a erstwhile protagonist of termination rights whom they considered unpredictable — would support his committedness to name Leo’s handpicked candidates.

Trump had already made a “clear and high-profile commitment” to the database months earlier helium assumed office, said Whelan. “It seems bizarre to deliberation that immoderate imaginable lobbying by Kellyanne Conway would person added to the unit of that committedness oregon to the power that Mitch McConnell and Don McGahn had already wielded,” helium said, referring to the Republican person successful the Senate and Trump’s erstwhile White House counsel.

Yet she lobbied wrong the White House for the circumstantial blimpish justices Leo preferred arsenic portion of his decadeslong agenda of shifting the equilibrium of the tribunal sharply rightward, according to news reports, her caller memoir and different nationalist records.

They included Gorsuch and Barrett. Conway joined with legislative manager Marc Short and property caput Sarah Huckabee Sanders successful a propulsion for Barrett up of Kavanaugh, whom Leo initially had reservations about, according to the publication “Supreme Ambition: Brett Kavanaugh and the Conservative Takeover,” by Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus. Leo was “never a large Brett fan,” Marcus wrote.

During the aforesaid clip framework Conway was a elder advisor to Trump, she was nether unit to merchantability The Polling Company. In a May 9 statement, then-House Oversight Committee Chair Elijah Cummings, a Democrat from Maryland, said the White House had not produced grounds of a certificate of divestiture. The merchantability to CRC a fewer months aboriginal reduced governmental unit connected her.

Ethics specialists pointed to the imaginable engagement of BH Fund arsenic a cardinal question looming implicit the sale.

The financing documents filed by the aforesaid lawyer and slope wrong minutes of each different registered, separately, debts of CRC and BH Fund, including a request that BH Fund support $2.5 cardinal successful an relationship arsenic collateral. BH Fund is simply a radical Leo has utilized to direct millions of dollars to organizations boosting the nominations of Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett. As a nonprofit, it is not required by the IRS to disclose its donors but Leo was listed arsenic president successful 2017.

Notably, a hunt of Virginia’s filing strategy yielded nary different BH Fund liens different than the 1 posted connected the day Conway’s institution was sold.

After reviewing the 2017 Virginia statements, Timothy Hughes, managing shareholder of Bean, Kinney & Korman, the instrumentality steadfast listed connected them, said successful an email that helium was “not successful a position” to comment. He did not respond to consequent email questions astir whether the filings were portion of a azygous transaction.

Brett Kappel, a lobbying and authorities morals counsel astatine the Harmon Curran instrumentality steadfast successful Washington who besides reviewed the documents astatine POLITICO’s request, said the transactions look to beryllium connected.

“Based connected the disposable documentation and the timing of the filings, it surely appears arsenic though these transactions are related,” said Kappel, who has represented candidates and governmental committees connected some sides of the aisle. Still, Kappel cautioned it whitethorn beryllium connected whether Conway was advising the president connected tribunal nominations astatine the aforesaid infinitesimal she sold to represent a wide usurpation of morals rules.

Kyle Herrig, president of Accountable.US, a non-partisan progressive radical that investigates firm power successful authorities and alerted POLITICO to the fiscal records and timestamps, said it was acrophobic astir whether the Leo-affiliated groups rewarded Conway for her advocacy by purchasing her concern astatine a clip erstwhile its worth was unclear.

It besides raises “serious concerns” astir however Leo volition usage his new, “no-strings-attached” $1.6 cardinal windfall, arranged done a bid of transactions that look to person avoided taxation liabilities, to power the White House, Congress and the Supreme Court, said Herrig.

This would beryllium peculiarly problematic if the steadfast wouldn’t person different been purchased oregon wasn’t purchased astatine just marketplace value, said Melanie Sloan, a erstwhile House Judiciary Committee counsel for Democrats who is present elder advisor to American Oversight, a authorities morals watchdog that filed a bid of lawsuits against the erstwhile Trump administration.

“We don’t cognize if she received just marketplace worth for the company, and that’s an important question. It besides seems she was having occupation selling it, and that unsocial is simply a acquisition if you’re buying thing cipher other wants to buy,” said Sloan, aft having reviewed the documents. “If you’re conscionable absorbing the employees, you could conscionable prosecute them. So, what were they buying?” she said.

Conway was mostly its sanction brand. The Polling Company’s then-chief executive, Brett Loyd, continued to consult for the Trump medication but was fto spell successful 2019 and present runs The Bullfinch Group. Contacted by POLITICO, helium declined to remark successful accordance with a non-disclosure statement helium signed.

Leo near his station arsenic Federalist Society enforcement vice president successful 2020 to go president of a recently rebranded CRC Advisors, but helium remains co-chairman of the Federalist Society board. He has subsequently devoted himself to cultivating his donor network. The New York Times recently reported that since 2016, “grant-making hubs successful Leo’s web and the recipients of their wealth person paid much than $30 cardinal to the firms owned astatine slightest partially by Mr. Leo, CRC and BH Group.”

In further grounds suggesting BH Fund was progressive successful CRC’s acquisition of Conway’s business, 2 days anterior to the sale, the Virginia regulating authorization issued certificates of bully lasting for some entities wrong 3 minutes of each other.

It’s not the archetypal clip Leo’s BH Fund, seeded by an anonymous $24 cardinal donation, has been the absorption of attraction for helping to further the interests of the blimpish ineligible question done affluent donors. It archetypal gained attraction for “being liable for enforcing a donation statement betwixt a concealed $20 cardinal donor and the Antonin Scalia Law School astatine George Mason University, whose president came nether scrutiny for allegedly allowing donors to dictate world and hiring conditions successful instrumentality for fiscal gifts,” the nonprofit Center for Responsible Politics and MapLight reported.

Leo’s outsized relation successful promoting blimpish candidates for judgeships has travel nether scrutiny arsenic polls amusement nationalist confidence successful the integrity of the tribunal plummeting. The caller blimpish bulk upended 50 years of precedent connected termination rights and is slated to perceive likewise consequential decisions connected voting rights, guns and the situation successful the coming months.

During the 2016 statesmanlike campaign, Leo crafted a database of imaginable Supreme Court nominees for Trump to assistance quell concerns among societal conservatives astir the candidate, who had repeatedly changed enactment affiliation and, arsenic precocious arsenic 2004, said “in galore cases, I astir apt place much arsenic Democrat.” Indeed, successful the publication “The Hill to Die On,” by erstwhile POLITICO reporters Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer, it was reported that Trump adjacent privately raised the imaginable astatine respective points of appointing Garland, Obama’s ill-fated Supreme Court nominee, to the spot present held by Gorsuch.

In her ain memoir, Conway recounts being successful a tiny Oval Office gathering with Senate enactment conscionable 2 days into the caller medication to sermon the spot Republicans had kept unfastened by blocking Garland.

In the meeting, Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, suggested that Trump renominate Garland to “heal the nation.” Trump “skeptically” asked Conway what she thought.

“I don’t deliberation overmuch of it, sir,” she recalled saying.

Days aft Trump was elected, Leo was among the archetypal radical fixed a idiosyncratic gathering with the caller president-elect. Conway welcomed Leo to Trump Tower successful Manhattan with a buss connected the feature and past escorted him to lobby media cameras aft what she described arsenic a “fabulous” meeting, according to a POLITICO reappraisal of C-SPAN footage.

She introduced Leo to the media aft the Nov. 16 gathering by putting to remainder speculation Trump mightiness prime a campaigner to capable a Supreme Court vacancy different than 1 from Leo’s handpicked database of 21 names.

To beryllium sure, Conway was a predominant presence astatine Trump Tower successful the days aft the predetermination and appeared successful the lobby to escort different important guests specified arsenic Rep. Raúl Labrador, who was being considered for a station wrong the Justice Department, according to a reappraisal of C-SPAN livestream footage.

Yet filling the Supreme Court vacancy Republicans had held unfastened by blocking Obama’s information of Garland was 1 of the astir consequential decisions facing the recently elected president.

Private payouts to apical White House officials person drawn ethical reprimands successful the past. In 2016, ProPublica reported that Obama’s main economical advisor Gene Sperling had borrowed hundreds of thousands of dollars from a apical Washington lawyer astatine below-market rates. It appeared to interruption national rules meant to forestall conflicts of interest, morals experts said.

Among the questions CRC did not code from POLITICO astir The Polling Company is whether it continues to service large clients. CRC does not database “polling” among its services on its homepage. According to a reappraisal of Federal Elections Commission filings by OpenSecrets, nary national governmental committee has paid CRC for polling services since Conway sold the company, with the objection of a $27,000 disbursement connected Feb. 4 of this year. It besides recovered astatine slightest $60,000 successful 2020 successful payments from the Republican Attorneys General Association.

A statement astatine the clip of the purchase from CRC president Greg Mueller regarding the merchantability said The Polling Company would support a D.C. hub. Its existent website present lists the aforesaid code arsenic CRC successful Alexandria, Va.

The main fig connected The Polling Company’s web page goes to voicemail. A connection near determination was not returned. Its leafage besides lists 2017 connected the footer of its main page. There is nary denotation Conway returned to her institution aft leaving the White House successful August of 2020.