{"id":476869,"date":"2021-05-06T05:05:57","date_gmt":"2021-05-06T09:05:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=476869"},"modified":"2021-05-06T05:05:58","modified_gmt":"2021-05-06T09:05:58","slug":"swiss-billionaire-gave-millions-to-eric-holders-partisan-gerrymandering-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/swiss-billionaire-gave-millions-to-eric-holders-partisan-gerrymandering-group\/","title":{"rendered":"Swiss Billionaire Gave Millions to Eric Holder\u2019s Partisan Gerrymandering Group"},"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\">20<\/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%2Fswiss-billionaire-gave-millions-to-eric-holders-partisan-gerrymandering-group%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=476869&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--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-468296466-scaled-e1620231080808.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p>A liberal Swiss billionaire known for meddling in U.S. elections has funneled millions of dollars to former attorney general Eric Holder&#8217;s effort to redraw electoral maps in favor of Democrats, newly obtained documents reveal.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.influencewatch.org\/non-profit\/berger-action-fund\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Berger Action Fund<\/a>, the advocacy arm of Swiss megadonor Hansj\u00f6rg Wyss&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.influencewatch.org\/non-profit\/wyss-foundation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Wyss Foundation<\/a>, passed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.influencewatch.org\/non-profit\/berger-action-fund\/#grants-from-berger-action-fund\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$3 million<\/a> to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.influencewatch.org\/non-profit\/national-redistricting-action-fund\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">National Redistricting Action Fund<\/a> (NRAF) between 2018 and 2020. The NRAF is the 501(c)(4) lobbying arm of Holder\u2019s National Democratic Redistricting Committee, a <a href=\"https:\/\/democraticredistricting.com\/about\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">self-described<\/a> &#8220;centralized hub for executing a comprehensive redistricting strategy&#8221; to give Democrats an edge in congressional races.<\/p>\n<p>Holder, who chairs the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, launched the group in 2017 with the goal of electing Democratic majorities in state legislatures in order to control the 2021-2022 redistricting process. While Holder has claimed his group wants to create &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsobserver.com\/news\/politics-government\/article249368665.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fair maps<\/a>,&#8221; the committee&#8217;s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/s\/7ky2t5j4d33s0wg\/NDRC%20Form%208871%202016.pdf?dl=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">stated goal<\/a> in its IRS forms is &#8220;to build a comprehensive plan to favorably position Democrats for the redistricting process through 2022.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Holder has repeatedly decried the influence of foreign money in U.S.\u00a0politics, even\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.buzzfeednews.com\/article\/thomasfrank\/eric-holder-compares-russia-election-meddling-to-pearl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">comparing<\/a>\u00a0Russian interference in the 2016 election to Pearl Harbor and 9\/11. In a 2017 <em>Washington Post<\/em> op-ed about starting the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, Holder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/eric-holder-i-wont-run-but-i-will-fight-to-elect-the-right-democratic-president\/2019\/03\/02\/9aeeed56-3c47-11e9-aaae-69364b2ed137_story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wrote<\/a>, &#8220;There is nothing more fundamental to the well-being of our nation than the right to cast a ballot in fair elections, free from foreign interference.&#8221; And in October 2020 he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/videos\/2020-10-23\/former-ag-holder-not-surprised-by-election-interference-charges-video\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told<\/a> <em>Bloomberg<\/em> that &#8220;we need to be prepared&#8221; for foreign &#8220;attempts to interfere with our electoral system.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Wyss&#8217;s contributions reveal that the foreign billionaire supplied as much as <a href=\"https:\/\/apps.irs.gov\/pub\/epostcard\/cor\/820738281_201806_990O_2019080616548819.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">40 percent<\/a> of the NRAF&#8217;s total funding in 2017-2018 and <a href=\"https:\/\/apps.irs.gov\/pub\/epostcard\/cor\/820738281_201906_990O_2020090417282096.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">24 percent<\/a> in 2018-2019, making him one of the largest donors to the organization in those years. Wyss is a Swiss citizen who stated that he does not hold permanent U.S. residency in 2014 and recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/04\/13\/business\/media\/wyss-tribune-company-buyer.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">declined<\/a> to tell the <em>New York Times<\/em> if he is an American citizen.<\/p>\n<p>In 2016, the <em>Daily Caller<\/em> reported that Wyss had made <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2016\/02\/28\/exclusive-clintons-swiss-ally-gave-big-bucks-to-u-s-campaigns\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$41,000<\/a> in illegal contributions to Democratic political action committees in violation of the federal government&#8217;s strict ban on foreign support for U.S. political campaigns. Wyss&#8217;s substantial spending through his nonprofits, while legal, raises serious ethical concerns about the far-reaching impact of foreign &#8220;dark money&#8221; in American elections and redistricting processes.<\/p>\n<p>But Wyss has donated over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.influencewatch.org\/non-profit\/wyss-foundation\/#financial-overview\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$650 million<\/a> since 2002 to environmentalist and left-wing groups through the Wyss Foundation. The New Venture Fund, a dark money nonprofit managed by the consulting firm Arabella Advisors, has received roughly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/04\/13\/business\/media\/wyss-tribune-company-buyer.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$56.5 million<\/a> from the Wyss Foundation since 2007.<\/p>\n<p>Wyss&#8217;s Berger Action Fund has passed at least <a href=\"https:\/\/capitalresearch.org\/article\/inside-the-foreign-funded-hub-project-to-transform-america\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$12.4 million<\/a> to Arabella\u2019s Sixteen Thirty Fund since 2010. The donations help fund the group&#8217;s Hub Project, a campaign run by veteran Democratic Party operatives to help liberal groups with messaging strategy. The Hub Project is credited with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2020\/09\/experiment-wisconsin-might-reveal-key-defeating-trump\/616367\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">doing<\/a> &#8220;remarkable damage&#8221; to former president Donald Trump&#8217;s reputation among Wisconsin voters in the 2020 election and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2019\/11\/19\/dark-money-democrats-midterm-071725\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">helping<\/a> Democrats defeat Republicans on &#8220;health care, taxes and the economy&#8221; in the 2018 midterms.<\/p>\n<p>Wyss&#8217;s groups have also supported Democratic-aligned nonprofits such as Priorities USA, the League of Conservation Voters, and Planned Parenthood Action Fund. The Wyss Foundation boasted it gave <a href=\"https:\/\/philanthropynewsdigest.org\/news\/wyss-foundation-awards-1-million-for-civic-participation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$1 million<\/a> to leftist groups for &#8220;civic participation&#8221; just prior to the 2016 election.<\/p>\n<p>Wyss and the Wyss Foundation declined to comment to the <em>Washington Free Beacon<\/em> on his funding of partisan groups involved in U.S. elections, particularly as it concerns his opaque immigration status. The Berger Action Fund, which does not maintain a website, could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A liberal Swiss billionaire known for meddling in U.S. elections has funneled millions of dollars to former attorney general Eric Holder&#8217;s effort to redraw electoral maps in favor of Democrats, &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2277428,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-468296466-scaled-e1620231080808.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Swiss Billionaire Gave Millions to Eric Holder\u2019s Partisan Gerrymandering Group","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-476869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-468296466-scaled-e1620231080808.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Swiss Billionaire Gave Millions to Eric Holder\u2019s Partisan Gerrymandering Group","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476869","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2277428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}