#severino — Public Fediverse posts

Lovullo hopes to lighten Perdomo’s load https://www.rawchili.com/mlb/221561/ #Arizona #ArizonaDiamondbacks #ArizonaDiamondbacks #Baseball #Brandon #BrandonPfaadt #Communications #Cox #CoxCommunications #darvish #Diamondbacks #Eduardo #EduardoRodriguez #Gallen #geraldo #GeraldoPerdomo #Luis #LuisSeverino #MLB #Neutral #news #Overall #OverallNeutral #Perdomo #Pfaadt #Rodríguez #Severino #Sports #SportsNews #yu #YuDarvish #zac #ZacGallen

Lovullo hopes to lighten Perdomo’s load https://www.rawchili.com/mlb/221561/ #Arizona #ArizonaDiamondbacks #ArizonaDiamondbacks #Baseball #Brandon #BrandonPfaadt #Communications #Cox #CoxCommunications #darvish #Diamondbacks #Eduardo #EduardoRodriguez #Gallen #geraldo #GeraldoPerdomo #Luis #LuisSeverino #MLB #Neutral #news #Overall #OverallNeutral #Perdomo #Pfaadt #Rodríguez #Severino #Sports #SportsNews #yu #YuDarvish #zac #ZacGallen

@skykiss

Mark Paoletta: Flacking for the Thomases

#Mark #Paoletta is one of the most aggressive defenders of U.S. Supreme Court Justice #Clarence #Thomas

He has assailed Senators and reporters who raise concerns about the serious ethical issues raised by the actions of Thomas and his wife, Ginni. 

When Paoletta worked in the George H.W. Bush administration he worked on the confirmation of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court.

#Leonard #Leo also worked on that confirmation battle. 

In 1991, Anita Hill testified under oath that Thomas had engaged in gross sexual overtures toward her when she worked with him in the Reagan administration.

Thomas denied her claims, and his GOP allies attacked her character. 

Since then, Paoletta has repeatedly defended Thomas, and since at least 2016 he has been part of the PR effort to buttress Thomas.   

In 2022, for example, the Federalist, a far right-wing blog site funded by #Dick #Uihlein, published a piece by Mark Paoletta attacking an investigation by Jane Mayer in the New Yorker about #Ginni Thomas’ close ties to right-wing groups, including some that file briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court. 

The Federalist’s piece resulted in a correction of how it tried to defend the Thomases with a comparison that effectively mischaracterized the recusal practices of another federal judge and her spouse. 

Paoletta has penned other pieces defending Thomas in that blog, such as
💥calling Anita Hill a liar.💥

This past July the Washington Post revealedthat Leo steered at least $1.8M into a PR and online astroturf campaign to attack a 2016 HBO film about the Clarence Thomas’ nomination.

Paoletta was the face of the campaign and, it turns out, was paid $300,000 by Leo’s Judicial Education Project, according to other disclosures. 

When asked by the Post, Paoletta confirmed, “my good friend Leonard Leo’s group provided funding for this work,” including the Thomas film.

Paoletta also represented Ginni Thomas before the January 6th committee after the Washington Post reported that she repeatedly texted Trump’s Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, to stop the Electoral College votes from being counted after the 2020 election and urged numerous state legislators to overturn Biden’s election too. 

Paoletta also provided a statement to the Washington Post on Ginni’s behalf, after it was revealed that her group,
🌟“Crowdsourcers for Culture and Liberty,” 🌟received $600,000 in anonymous contributions funneled through ♦️Capital Research Center♦️ (CRC) to engage in culture war battles.

Around the time of this contribution, CRC signed onto a brief petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case on emission regulations.

In 2021, during the Ketanji Brown Jackson confirmation Paoletta was also listed as the contact, along with Judicial Crisis Network’s (JCN) #Carrie #Severino, on a memoir about Thomas.

JCN spent $1.5 million on an ad buy ostensibly about KBJ but that was mostly a promo of a vanity biopic about Thomas.

The ad buy was tied to Leo’s for-profit PR firm CRC Advisors.

That ad campaign touting Thomas came as news was breaking about Ginni’s role in repeatedly texting Meadows to try to stop Americans’ votes for Biden from being counted.   

That JCN ad led True North to examine all the funders of that video where Thomas claimed to love hanging out in his RV at Walmart more than going to the beach,
and one of those funders was the long-time benefactors of the Thomases’ luxury lifestyle: #Harlan #Crow.

That painting,
which was called just five guys discussing the law by the artist,
includes Paoletta with Crow, Leonard Leo, Clarence Thomas, and another litigator, #Bo #Rutledge.

Paoletta is the one sitting between Leo and Thomas.

Ansev Demirhan, a researcher with True North, is the one who found that painting that has now been seen around the world.

https://truenorthresearch.org/2023/11/who-is-mark-paoletta-he-is-one-of-the-biggest-defenders-of-clarence-and-ginni-thomas-in-the-scandals-their-actions-have-created/

Leonard Leo’s ambitions extend beyond the courts.

Organizations within his network have reportedly funded at least 40 groups advising Project 2025, per NBC News. 

Leo is also linked to
💥Project 2025 💥co-author #Roger #Severino
—VP of 💥Domestic Policy at Heritage💥
—who served as the Director of the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under Trump.

Severino began his career at the💥 “Becket Fund for Religious Liberty” 💥where Leo sits on the board of directors.

Severino is one half of a “Catholic Right” power couple.
The other half is Leonard Leo protégé Carrie Severino, who previously clerked for Becket and #Clarence #Thomas.  

It was Roger Severino who wrote the section of Project 2025 outlining a ⭐️plan to withdraw the FDA’s approval of the abortion pill ⭐️(mifepristone),
which is also under attack in a case pending before the Supreme Court.

If the religious right fails to convince the Supreme Court, Project 2025 is their “Plan B” (pun intended). 

Leo and his network are also linked to #Kevin #Roberts,
a rabidly partisan fundamentalist Catholic activist,
who has served as president of Heritage since 2021. 

In 2020, Roberts had been featured on the Resources page of “WhereYouAre,” which calls itself a “collaboration of people in touch with … centers of Opus Dei in Texas.”

#Opus #Dei is a “small but powerful”  group “within the Catholic Church” whose members “abide by strict conservative teachings''
and “believe they are called to serve God” not only in their personal lives, but also in their professions, per the Australian Broadcasing Center.

Many of Opus Deis’ members keep their membership a secret. 

Leo reportedly belongs to Opus Dei. 

Leo also sits on the 💥Napa Legal Institute’s 💥board of directors,
a faith based organization whose chairman of the board is #Timothy #Busch,
one of Leo’s closest allies.

Bush co-founded Napa Legal’s sister organization, the 💥Napa Institute💥, whose annual conference in July 2022 included Kevin Roberts as a speaker. Leo is a Napa Institute donor. 

In December that year, Busch announced that the Napa Institute would open an office near the U.S. Capitol within the headquarters of the 💥Eternal World Television Network  💥(EWTN),
a global Catholic-themed television and radio network. 

The month before, Kevin Roberts had been interviewed during an EWTN broadcast where he called himself an abortion “purist”
and said that he wanted “not a single abortion happening in this country.”

Roberts reconnected with Leo’s network in 2023 when he spoke during⭐️ “A Duty to God and Country,” ⭐️
an event organized by the 💥Catholic Information Center 💥(CIC) and Napa Institute.

As noted, Leo sits on CIC’s board of directors. 

Meanwhile, Project 2025 (Heritage) Director #Paul #Dans belongs to the New York chapter of the 💥Federalist Society, 💥which is co-chaired by Leo at the national level,
while #Steve #Bannon, Project 2025’s unofficial media partner, has served with Leo on the board of directors of 💥Reclaim New York 💥(founded by #Rebekah #Mercer). 

Bannon, you may recall, has closely aligned himself with proponents of the so-called “rad trad” (radical traditional) Catholicism movement
and specifically said that he wants to destroy the administrative state,
an express goal of Project 2025.

As observed by Media Matters, Bannon has repeatedly used his War Room perch to normalize Project 2025’s radical agenda. 

https://crownewsletter.substack.com/p/christian-right-observer-weekly-volume-fd1

The majority of payments to Leo's Virginia-based #CRC Advisors — a political consulting firm that was created in 2020 and for which he is chairman — came through The #85Fund, a rebranded #DarkMoney group that Leo has said he plans to use to fund conservative causes nationwide.

Corkery and his wife, Ann, founded and ran the nonprofit under a different name for more than a decade, during which time Leo directed funds toward it.

Such nonprofits are exempt from #taxes and not required to #disclose donors.

The 85 Fund is now run by Carrie #Severino, a former law clerk to Justice #Clarence #Thomas.