{"id":1395222,"date":"2022-03-23T00:14:43","date_gmt":"2022-03-23T04:14:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1395222"},"modified":"2022-03-23T00:14:48","modified_gmt":"2022-03-23T04:14:48","slug":"sheldon-whitehouse-leftist-dark-money-group-rooting-for-jackson-is-different-than-right-wing-dark-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/sheldon-whitehouse-leftist-dark-money-group-rooting-for-jackson-is-different-than-right-wing-dark-money\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheldon Whitehouse: Leftist Dark Money Group \u2018Rooting for\u2019 Jackson Is Different than \u2018Right-Wing Dark Money\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsheldon-whitehouse-leftist-dark-money-group-rooting-for-jackson-is-different-than-right-wing-dark-money%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1395222&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"subheading\">Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) used a third of his time allotted for questioning Judge Kentanji Brown Jackson on Tuesday to instead speak about \u201cdark money\u201d groups influencing Supreme Court nominations.<\/p>\n<p>Whitehouse spent more than ten minutes during the Senate Judiciary Committee\u2019s confirmation hearing for Jackson attempting to differentiate between \u201ca dark money interest rooting for\u201d a particular Supreme Court nominee and \u201cright-wing dark money interests having a role in actually picking\u201d nominees.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>Dark money, a term Whitehouse mentioned a dozen times during his remarks, refers to political funding that cannot be traced back to specific donors.<\/p>\n<p>Dark money organizations predominately include 501(c) groups, which, as Open Secrets <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/dark-money\/basics\">details<\/a>, are not required to disclose their donors\u2019 names or other sources of money. Some 501(c) groups can therefore donate to political candidates or causes without the public knowing who is behind the funding of the groups.<\/p>\n<p>Whitehouse, who himself is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2021\/02\/25\/democrat-sheldon-whitehouse-biggest-hypocrite-in-politics-on-dark-money\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">beneficiary<\/a> of dark money, began by saying, \u201cI\u2019ll be the first to concede that there is dark money on both sides, and I hope very much we can get rid of it on both sides shortly by legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>The Rhode Island Democrat added, \u201cBut there is a difference, I believe, between a dark money interest rooting for someone and right-wing dark money interests having a role in actually picking the last three Supreme Court justices.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Whitehouse used a series of floor charts to illustrate conservative-aligned nonprofits\u2019 influence over former President Donald Trump\u2019s three Supreme Court nominee choices, citing the well-funded groups: Donors Trust, the Federalist Society, and the Judicial Crisis Network, as well as several other related groups.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_20328788\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/media.breitbart.com\/media\/2022\/03\/GettyImages-1387114051.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse questions Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson during her Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing, March 22, 2022, in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Whitehouse explained with a diagram how he believed the groups were all linked, saying,\u00a0\u201cI showed this all because it shows considerable effort when somebody goes to that much trouble to create that many organizations to hide how much money they\u2019ve spent to control the nomination process to the court.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>Whitehouse then suggested that dollar amount \u2014 presumably to \u201ccontrol the nomination process to the court\u201d \u2014 was $400 million.<\/p>\n<p>To reach that number, Whitehouse first referenced a <em>Washington Post<\/em> report that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/graphics\/2019\/investigations\/leonard-leo-federalists-society-courts\/?utm_term=.1d2008ed2d75\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">found<\/a> conservative-aligned nonprofits raised $250 million from 2014 to 2017 to help \u201cpromote conservative judges and causes,\u201d per the <em>Post<\/em> report. Two of Trump\u2019s three Supreme Court picks had not yet been nominated during that timeframe. Whitehouse then said \u201cfurther research led to testimony\u201d in the Judiciary Committee\u2019s subcommittee on federal courts, of which he is chairman, \u201cthat the number was actually $400 million.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During his dark money presentation, Whitehouse did not mention Demand Justice, a Democrat-aligned dark money group with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2022\/03\/21\/leftist-dark-money-backing-ketanji-brown-jackson-supreme-court\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">projected<\/a> multimillion-dollar budget in 2022. Demand Justice announced a $1 million ad campaign to promote Jackson in the immediate aftermath of her nomination. It had also previously included Jackson on its shortlist of desired justices, even as early as just prior to the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg\u2019s death in September 2020, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/19thnews.org\/2020\/09\/biden-supreme-court-demand-justice-shortlist\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The 19th<\/a>. Demand Justice also heavily lobbied for retiring Justice Stephen Breyer to step down.<\/p>\n<p>In terms of Democrats\u2019 broader success using dark money, a\u00a0<em>New York Times<\/em>\u00a0report titled \u201cDemocrats Decried Dark Money. Then They Won With It in 2020\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2022\/01\/30\/nyt-democrats-dark-money-outspent-republicans-by-66-in-2020-election\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">found<\/a> that Democrat-aligned dark money groups outspent Republican-aligned dark money groups $1.5 billion to $900 million in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Whitehouse said he was prompted to discuss dark money on Tuesday after Republicans, including former Judiciary chair Sen. Lindsey Graham, broached the topic a day earlier during committee members\u2019 opening statements on Jackson.<\/p>\n<p><em>Write to Ashley Oliver at <a href=\"mailto:aoliver@breitbart.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">aoliver@breitbart.com<\/a>. Follow her on Twitter at <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/asholiver\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@asholiver<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) used a third of his time allotted for questioning Judge Kentanji Brown Jackson on Tuesday to instead speak about \u201cdark money\u201d groups influencing Supreme Court nominations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1395222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1395222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1395222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1395222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1395222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1395222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1395222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}