#peter flaherty

Jacob Wendler at Politico:

A Trump administration effort to dial up scrutiny on philanthropies and other nonprofit organizations is creating a breakout moment for one of Washington’s many watchdog groups and think tanks. While President Donald Trump has directed his ire at state attorneys general, law firms and elected officials, a steady number of tax-exempt groups are also landing in legal trouble for alleged partisanship. The campaign has been a boon for the Capital Research Center, whose nondescript name fits neatly into the city’s cottage industry of policy analysis and opposition deep-dives.

But the conservative watchdog stands out for its particular specialty: studying nonprofits, particularly those it suspects of having connections with Democratic donors and advocacy networks. That alignment has positioned CRC to be a go-to source for information on nonprofits Republicans hope to investigate, a unique role even its competitors acknowledge. Some of CRC’s critics say its work is biased and superficial, and many of its targets, like the Southern Poverty Law Center, are well-worn bogeymen for the right. Yet its lengthy dossiers about pro-Palestinian groups and climate advocacy organizations have recently been cited in the footnotes of at least half a dozen congressional committee documents and a letter the Justice Department used in going after Democratic megadonor George Soros. “We’re the intel operation for the conservative movement as a whole,” CRC President Scott Walter, a former George W. Bush adviser, said in an interview. “This is not a sexy collusion story. We are simply educating them, and they decide what to do with our public research.”

Walter has increasingly become a sought-after witness for House Republicans, testifying before four congressional committees in the past year — and Senate Democrats asked the IRS in October to divulge whether it has used CRC’s research to identify “targets” for possible investigations. Some groups that do similar work aren’t surprised CRC is gaining traction. “I think their stuff is trusted” among the right, said Peter Flaherty, chair and CEO of conservative advocacy group National Legal and Policy Center, which focuses on government and corporate ethics. “People look to them when it comes down to the granular information about particular left-wing groups.”

Walter has been briefing Trump administration officials on the group’s research about specific nonprofits with suspected ties to the Democratic Party for months, as The New York Times first reported. He told POLITICO he’s met with senior officials from the White House and federal agencies as recently as last month and said he has distributed materials on ActBlue and the Southern Poverty Law Center — two groups that have attracted renewed attention from Republicans. Conservatives have long expressed interest in targeting left-leaning groups and donors, but vows to investigate prominent organizations and individuals took on new fervor after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk last summer. A range of administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance, promised to “go after” groups like Open Society Foundations and the Ford Foundation that they accused, without evidence, of helping foment violence.

A spokesperson for the Ford Foundation did not respond to requests for comment. A week after Kirk’s killing, CRC staffer Ryan Mauro said the group’s research into Open Society, the nonprofit funded by Soros’ family, was designed to “equip the Trump administration with what they need in order to take action.” Days after his comments, a senior Justice Department official reportedly directed a group of federal prosecutors to investigate Soros, linking to CRC’s report in their letter.

[...]

One group of mutual interest is ActBlue, the fundraising platform for Democratic candidates. Three Republican House committee chairs issued subpoenas to the organization in April, while House Administration Committee Republicans grilled its CEO, Regina Wallace-Jones, last week about how the platform vets for foreign donations.

Spokespeople for House Administration and Oversight committees did not respond to requests for comment. The House Judiciary Committee didn’t comment on whether CRC played a role in its probes of nonprofits, including ActBlue, which have Democrats threatening to investigate its GOP counterpart, WinRed. ActBlue declined to comment on the record. “Republicans in Congress keep relying on this organization for ‘expert’ advice and testimony, but CRC’s record of spreading lies in service of the Trump Justice Department’s retribution campaign should disqualify them from being treated as anything more than a partisan disinformation shop,” said Kyle Herrig, senior adviser at the Congressional Integrity Project, one of many watchdog groups that’s landed on CRC’s InfluenceWatch. Another longtime target of CRC’s is voter registration groups it accuses of abusing their tax-exempt status. The administration has taken note.

Just days after Walter suggested to POLITICO that those groups were likely to attract scrutiny for presenting themselves as nonpartisan organizations, one in Ohio said their offices were raided by the FBI as part of an active fraud-related investigation. The Ohio Organizing Collaborative — which called the raid a “a full-out assault” on civil rights groups — has attracted scrutiny for its ties to the Voter Registration Project, a nonprofit group focused on mobilizing under-represented voters. OOC has denied any wrongdoing. A group of Republican lawmakers from Michigan specifically cited CRC’s research into groups like VRP in a March letter to then-Attorney General Pam Bondi asking the DOJ to investigate VRP and similar groups for potential tax fraud. The FBI, OOC and VRP did not respond to requests for comment about the raid.

Like many of the nonprofits it criticizes, CRC doesn’t disclose its donors. But publicly available documents show the group has received money through DonorsTrust and the Bradley Foundation, two funds that help clients direct charitable giving to conservative causes. Walter said he’s consistently opposed mandatory donor disclosure, arguing it would chill free speech by opening donors to harassment.