The American Right’s Slush Fund Just Received a $1.6 Billion Infusion
A billionaire just gave the largest known donation to a political advocacy group in US history — to fund the architect of the Right’s Supreme Court takeover to carry out more right-wing attacks on democracy, workers, and the planet.
Leonard Leo speaks at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC, on April 23, 2019. (Michael Robinson Chavez / Washington Post via Getty Images)
An elderly, ultrasecretive Chicago businessman has given the largest known donation to a political advocacy group in US history — worth $1.6 billion — and the recipient is one of the prime architects of conservatives’ efforts to reshape the American judicial system, including the Supreme Court.
Through a series of opaque transactions over the past two years, Barre Seid, a ninety-year-old manufacturing magnate, gave the massive sum to a nonprofit run by Leonard Leo, who cochairs the conservative legal group the Federalist Society.
The donation was first reported by the New York Times on Monday. The Lever and ProPublica confirmed the information from documents received independently by the news organizations.
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