Supreme Court ‘transparency’ group hammered by Judiciary GOP over IRS donor blunder
Gabe Kaminsky
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Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans have rebuked an advocacy group pushing for Supreme Court “transparency” after it unwittingly leaked its donors to the Washington Examiner and panicked.
A charity called Fix the Court, which used to be a project of the New Venture Fund, a major nonprofit group managed by the left-wing dark money giant and for-profit company Arabella Advisors, went into disarray after accidentally providing the Washington Examiner on Wednesday with its 2021 and 2022 donors. Senate Republicans have since pointed out purported hypocrisy in connection to the situation since Fix the Court is one of several entities taking aim at Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas over not disclosing certain gifts.
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“The ‘dark money’ group unfairly attacking Justice Thomas just got caught with its pants down,” Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) tweeted on Wednesday evening.
https://twitter.com/BasedMikeLee/status/1659002990122893312
Lee was referring to how Gabe Roth, executive director of Fix the Court and a former vice president at the Democratic consulting firm SKDK, went on a rant to the Washington Examiner about how he is a “klutz” and is worried he won’t be able to fundraise after accidentally sending over Fix the Court’s donors. In 2021, Fix the Court received roughly $111,000 from the New Venture Fund and $175,000 from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. These grants are public on 2021 tax forms for both the fund and the foundation.
Separately, Fix the Court’s 2022 tax forms revealed that it took $50,000 from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, $35,000 from the Lebowitz-Aberly Family Foundation, and $100,000 from a Pennsylvania-based group called the Weinberg McCann Foundation. These donations will all be publicly available soon on tax forms for the three entities.
“I mean, basically, I’ve tried to donate money; I have failed,” Roth had said. “I tried to raise money; I have failed. I have only two foundations that give me money, and if their names become public, they’re never going to talk to me again, and Fix the Court is over. My screwup this morning probably cost me my job.”
Roth added, “I really just don’t know what to do here” and that he “just f***ed up in a minute” after the group had been operating for nearly a decade.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) responded to Roth’s comments on Thursday, tweeting, “This guy is just mad that now we know the identities of some of the people who are trying to delegitimize the Supreme Court and are funding parts of the smear campaign against Justice Thomas.”
https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/1659229624017010689
Fix the Court has slammed Thomas after reports surfaced on him not disclosing taking flights on the jets of Texas billionaire and real estate mogul Harlan Crow in previous years. At the same time, however, the Supreme Court only tightened requirements for gift disclosures on March 14, 2023, long after the flights occurred that were at the center of an April ProPublica report that cited security records obtained by Fix the Court.
“The integrity of the Supreme Court is of upmost importance,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) told the Washington Examiner. “It is disheartening that there are individuals seeking to attack and defame Justices committed to upholding the Constitution.”
The Washington Examiner obtained Fix the Court’s federal disclosures after asking the organization where it could find them. It had previously filed in 2021 something called a Form 990-N postcard, which is for groups that pulled in $50,000 or less in a given year, according to the IRS tax-exempt database.
Roth had said that he “misunderstood the filing instructions” for the IRS and mailed 990 Forms to the agency on Wednesday. Fix the Court posted over $485,600 in revenue in 2021 and 2022 combined. Roth was paid almost $242,000 during those years from Fix the Court, while other board members received no pay, tax forms show.
Speaking to C-SPAN in April 2022, Roth said Fix the Court is “funded by average Americans just giving us funds, who think that we’re doing a good job” and is “nonpartisan.” Matt Whitlock, a Republican political consultant, posted this clip on Twitter on Wednesday, noting, “Turns out [Fix the Court is] funded by a small group of billionaires out to destroy Clarence Thomas.”
https://twitter.com/mattdizwhitlock/status/1658948314350354434
In 2021, Fix the Court became independent after being sponsored by the New Venture Fund and launching in 2014. The New Venture Fund sponsors major left-leaning groups, which, in turn, do not have to file tax forms with the IRS. This arrangement has led watchdogs to label Arabella Advisors, which also manages the Sixteen Thirty Fund, Windward Fund, Hopewell Fund, and North Fund, as a “dark money” behemoth.
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Arabella’s nonprofit groups received a staggering $1.5 billion from anonymous donors in 2021, documents show. Roth had previously told the Washington Examiner that he hasn’t spoken to the New Venture Fund “in years” and “was lucky enough to get a grant from them” upon launching.
Fix the Court’s board president in 2021 and 2022, Joshua Cohen, did not return a request for comment.