A firm tied to conservative dark money kingpin Leonard Leo, the former Trump judicial nomination chief and current culture warrior, continues to rake in tens of millions of dollars off an array of right-wing dark money groups—with the vast majority of money coming from groups Leo himself is affiliated with. In the period roughly covering 2023—the latest period for which this data is available—Leo’s firm CRC Advisors brought in more than $33 million, according to an analysis of new tax documents by CREW. Nearly 80 percent of that total—more than $26 million—came from organizations tied to Leo himself. 

Last November, CREW detailed the extraordinary amounts of money going to firms affiliated with Leo since 2016, when he first appears to have dipped his toe in the private sector. The vast majority of the $102 million that flowed to Leo’s firms was coming from groups closely affiliated with Leo—$90 million in all. Since then, more than a dozen groups filed new tax returns showing another flood of new payments.  

Lately, Leo has taken to using his vast war chest to fund major film and TV projects as a part of his broader effort to reshape American culture in his own conservative image. But at the same time, his vast influence in Washington appears to be in question. After spending the years of the first Trump administration dutifully guiding President Trump’s judicial nomination process, he has recently come under attack for the very influence he wielded the last time around. Acknowledging that he gave The Federalist Society—where Leo remains co-chairman—a role in selecting his judicial nominations, Trump lamented the organization was “under the thumb of a real ‘sleazebag’ named Leonard Leo, a bad person who, in his own way, probably hates America, and obviously has his own separate ambitions.” Trump went on to say that Leo “openly brags how he controls Judges, and even Justices of the United States Supreme Court.”

Leo appears to have begun his transition from the nonprofit side of the influence business to the corporate side in 2016—first creating a firm called the BH Group, and then taking over a firm called CRC Advisors in 2020. In the seven years up to roughly 2023—the latest period for which the data is available—firms tied to Leo have brought in more than $135 million from allied groups, over $116 million of which came from groups closely affiliated with Leo personally.

As the cash has started to roll in, Leo appears to have started living a life of luxury: paying off a mortgage decades before it was due, buying an 11-bedroom house in Maine for $3.3 million, purchasing a wine locker at Morton’s Steakhouse and hiring the chief steward from the then-Trump International Hotel to be his personal wine buyer.

Nonprofit organizations operate under strict conflict of interest rules barring people tied to the organization from using them as vehicles for personal enrichment. Leo has faced accusations that payments to his firms over the years may have violated the law, in the public and in the form of formal inquiries, all of which Leo has repeatedly denied. In 2023, D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb opened an investigation into the payments to Leo’s firms, but Leo refused to cooperate, and his allies in Congress helped to undermine the investigation. Yet, when Leo has been asked in the press to describe the services his firms provide, he has refused to detail what they are. Even if payments to Leo’s firms didn’t violate the letter of the law, it appears they violate the spirit of laws that aim to give supporters, donors and the broader public confidence that tax-exempt nonprofits are working for the public and the communities they serve, and not the personal financial interests of the people running them.

 

Of the 16 new payments that CREW has identified since first reporting on Leo’s dark money profiteering last November, the top two came from groups tied to Leo, The 85 Fund and the Federalist Society, with one, The 85 Fund, making up fully $24.9 million, or more than 75 percent, of the payments. The filing containing the transaction makes no mention of Leo, but it does include a note explaining that: 

The 85 Fund has achieved extraordinary results through its relationship with CRC Advisors, which has dedicated dozens of best in class professionals who provide a broad range of services with an unsurpassed level of professionalism and excellence. 

The note goes on to justify The 85 Fund’s compensation arrangement with CRC Advisors, citing Treasury regulations and noting that it retained a national consulting firm for compensation analysis and obtained “regular reviews from national accounting and legal firms.”

This appears to be the first time The 85 Fund has included such a note since Leo took over CRC in 2020. The 85 Fund has been making payments to CRC Advisors and its predecessor since at least 2012 to a combined total of more than $88 million—nearly all of which, $80 million, came since Leo took over the company in 2020.

Given The 85 Fund’s high praise of CRC Advisors’ “best in class” professionals, it would seem the company would want to advertise to prospective clients on its website, yet the page is as barebones as they come—simply playing a brief animation of the company’s logo, and some short introductory language with a contact button. There is no information about whom they employ, the work they’ve done, the focus of their expertise, or the praise they’ve received for their work. Buried in the website’s code is a “services” page that is empty.

Many of the other groups in the list are among some of the most identifiable activist groups on the right—from anti-abortion groups like the Susan B. Anthony List to the longtime media critics at the Media Research Center to Heritage Action for America, the 501(c)(4) arm of the Heritage Foundation, home of the Project 2025 initiative. It’s not clear exactly what services they’re getting for their money, but as the New York Times reported in 2022, some conservative operatives believe that payments to CRC are a precondition for getting money from Leo’s dark money network and access to the donors who fund it. 

Leonard Leo photo via C-SPAN.

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