#uihlein — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #uihlein, aggregated by home.social.
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Who’s Mailing the #Catholic Tribune? It’s Not the Church, It’s Partisan Media.
—ProPublica has traced these mass-mailed newspapers to a “pink slime” news network known for #misinformation and its ties to right-wing super PACs funded by the #billionaire founder of shipping supply giant #Uline.
#News #Rightwing #Media #Journalism #Uihlein #Election #Propaganda
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Who’s Mailing the #Catholic Tribune? It’s Not the Church, It’s Partisan Media.
—ProPublica has traced these mass-mailed newspapers to a “pink slime” news network known for #misinformation and its ties to right-wing super PACs funded by the #billionaire founder of shipping supply giant #Uline.
#News #Rightwing #Media #Journalism #Uihlein #Election #Propaganda
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♦️Edgar Uihlein Jr.’s second child, #Dick, born in 1945, grew up in the wealthy Chicago suburb of Lake Bluff and got the same sort of blue-blood education
(Phillips Andover, Stanford)
as his father (Hotchkiss, Princeton).Amid the social upheavals of the ’60s, #Dick #Uihlein didn’t waver:
He married Liz before graduating from college in 1967,
joined the family business and immersed himself in conservative politics.He worked on the 1969 Illinois congressional campaign of Phil Crane, who won a crowded Republican primary in an upset on a hardline anti-tax and anti-communist platform.
In one of the only interviews he’s ever given, Dick Uihlein told National Review in 2018 that he got his politics from his father,
who often went by Ed.At the family breakfast table growing up, Uihlein recalled,
“My father would talk about the importance of capitalism and the evils of socialism.”Dick said that same year that
“my father shared many of the same values that I have, conservative values.”Dick and Liz Uihlein continue to revere Edgar Jr., who died in 2005.
Dick Uihlein named the family foundation after his father, and it now sends♦️ tens of millions of dollars to right-wing institutions.
Among the recipients of the Ed Uihlein Family Foundation’s grants are the
♦️ #Federalist #Society and think tanks that have pushed misleading claims about the 2020 election, such as the #Conservative #Partnership #Institute
and the
#Foundation #for #Government #Accountability,
as the Daily Beast reported.Tucked in toward the back of the Uline catalog released this summer,
sent out to millions of homes and businesses,
was a long tribute to the “wise” Edgar Uihlein Jr.“Father Uihlein, the head of the family, had a towering presence, and we respected his values,” wrote Liz Uihlein under a picture of her husband and father-in-law,
recalling “frequent dinners at his house, where business, issues of the day, fishing muskies and, always, politics were discussed.”She ended on a note of nostalgia tinged with bitterness:
“Living your life and raising your kids were easier in an easier time.
There was no legalized marijuana, defund the police or social media.We, like so many families, were raised with a sharp moral compass.
The rules were the rules, but it was OK.”
The Uihleins’ political giving reflects these longings for a bygone era.
Dick Uihlein is a major funder of the #American #Principles #Project,
which runs ads attacking what it calls “#transgender #ideology,” #abortion and the teaching of “#critical #race #theory.”Last year, Uihlein weighed in on ♦️recalling four school board members in a small town north of Milwaukee because of their support for COVID-19 #safety #protocols and “#equity” training for teachers.
More recently, in his home state of Illinois, Uihlein has spent more than♦️ $50 million to back the Republican gubernatorial candidate #Darren #Bailey, who has drawn criticism for saying the #Holocaust “doesn’t even compare” to the toll of abortions and for accusing Democrats of “putting #perversion into our schools” for adopting a sex ed bill that includes information about gender identity and same-sex couples.
The Uihleins were huge beneficiaries of a tax provision promoted by Sen. #Ron #Johnson, R-Wisc., that was included in the Trump tax overhaul and are continuing to support the Wisconsin senator and fund attack ads against his opponent.
For all the Uihleins’ dismay at the disorder they see consuming the country, there is one domain where they can exert near total control.
Former employees of Uline told ProPublica the couple’s traditionalist politics govern the smallest details of how the company is run.
For new staffers, it begins with the #dress #code in the employee handbook:
Women are not permitted to wear pants except as part of a pantsuit or on Fridays;
hose or stockings must be worn except during the warmer months;
dresses “that are too short” and corduroy of any kind are strictly prohibited.The handbook defines “tardy” as one minute past an employee’s scheduled start time.
Just four personal items are allowed on employees’ desks,
with maximum dimensions of 5 inches by 7 inches.One former staffer at Uline’s headquarters recalled a coworker who was forced to remove several drawings done by his young child.
“Liz would walk up and down the aisles, and if your desk looked off, you’d be written up,” he recalled.
#Uline #Dick #Liz #Uihlein #Doug #Mastriano #Jim #Marchant #election #falsehoods #antisemitic #speech #Edgar #John #Birch #Society #fluoridation #segregation #Edwin #Walker #George #Wallace -
♦️Edgar Uihlein Jr.’s second child, #Dick, born in 1945, grew up in the wealthy Chicago suburb of Lake Bluff and got the same sort of blue-blood education
(Phillips Andover, Stanford)
as his father (Hotchkiss, Princeton).Amid the social upheavals of the ’60s, #Dick #Uihlein didn’t waver:
He married Liz before graduating from college in 1967,
joined the family business and immersed himself in conservative politics.He worked on the 1969 Illinois congressional campaign of Phil Crane, who won a crowded Republican primary in an upset on a hardline anti-tax and anti-communist platform.
In one of the only interviews he’s ever given, Dick Uihlein told National Review in 2018 that he got his politics from his father,
who often went by Ed.At the family breakfast table growing up, Uihlein recalled,
“My father would talk about the importance of capitalism and the evils of socialism.”Dick said that same year that
“my father shared many of the same values that I have, conservative values.”Dick and Liz Uihlein continue to revere Edgar Jr., who died in 2005.
Dick Uihlein named the family foundation after his father, and it now sends♦️ tens of millions of dollars to right-wing institutions.
Among the recipients of the Ed Uihlein Family Foundation’s grants are the
♦️ #Federalist #Society and think tanks that have pushed misleading claims about the 2020 election, such as the #Conservative #Partnership #Institute
and the
#Foundation #for #Government #Accountability,
as the Daily Beast reported.Tucked in toward the back of the Uline catalog released this summer,
sent out to millions of homes and businesses,
was a long tribute to the “wise” Edgar Uihlein Jr.“Father Uihlein, the head of the family, had a towering presence, and we respected his values,” wrote Liz Uihlein under a picture of her husband and father-in-law,
recalling “frequent dinners at his house, where business, issues of the day, fishing muskies and, always, politics were discussed.”She ended on a note of nostalgia tinged with bitterness:
“Living your life and raising your kids were easier in an easier time.
There was no legalized marijuana, defund the police or social media.We, like so many families, were raised with a sharp moral compass.
The rules were the rules, but it was OK.”
The Uihleins’ political giving reflects these longings for a bygone era.
Dick Uihlein is a major funder of the #American #Principles #Project,
which runs ads attacking what it calls “#transgender #ideology,” #abortion and the teaching of “#critical #race #theory.”Last year, Uihlein weighed in on ♦️recalling four school board members in a small town north of Milwaukee because of their support for COVID-19 #safety #protocols and “#equity” training for teachers.
More recently, in his home state of Illinois, Uihlein has spent more than♦️ $50 million to back the Republican gubernatorial candidate #Darren #Bailey, who has drawn criticism for saying the #Holocaust “doesn’t even compare” to the toll of abortions and for accusing Democrats of “putting #perversion into our schools” for adopting a sex ed bill that includes information about gender identity and same-sex couples.
The Uihleins were huge beneficiaries of a tax provision promoted by Sen. #Ron #Johnson, R-Wisc., that was included in the Trump tax overhaul and are continuing to support the Wisconsin senator and fund attack ads against his opponent.
For all the Uihleins’ dismay at the disorder they see consuming the country, there is one domain where they can exert near total control.
Former employees of Uline told ProPublica the couple’s traditionalist politics govern the smallest details of how the company is run.
For new staffers, it begins with the #dress #code in the employee handbook:
Women are not permitted to wear pants except as part of a pantsuit or on Fridays;
hose or stockings must be worn except during the warmer months;
dresses “that are too short” and corduroy of any kind are strictly prohibited.The handbook defines “tardy” as one minute past an employee’s scheduled start time.
Just four personal items are allowed on employees’ desks,
with maximum dimensions of 5 inches by 7 inches.One former staffer at Uline’s headquarters recalled a coworker who was forced to remove several drawings done by his young child.
“Liz would walk up and down the aisles, and if your desk looked off, you’d be written up,” he recalled.
#Uline #Dick #Liz #Uihlein #Doug #Mastriano #Jim #Marchant #election #falsehoods #antisemitic #speech #Edgar #John #Birch #Society #fluoridation #segregation #Edwin #Walker #George #Wallace -
Much of the cardboard and paper goods strewn about our homes
— the mail-order boxes and grocery store bags
— are sold by a single private company, with its name, #Uline, stamped on the bottom.Few Americans know that a multibillion-dollar fortune made on those ubiquitous products is now
💥fueling election deniers and other far-right candidates across the country.#Dick and #Liz #Uihlein of Illinois are the largest contributors to Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate #Doug #Mastriano, who attended the Jan. 6 rally and was linked to a prominent antisemite, and have given to #Jim #Marchant, the Nevada Secretary of State nominee who says he opposed the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory in 2020.
They are major funders to groups spreading #election #falsehoods, including "Restoration of America", which, according to an internal document obtained by ProPublica, aims to “get on God’s side of the issues and stay there” and
👉 “punish leftists.”Flush with profits from their shipping supply company, the Uihleins have emerged as
⭐️the No. 1 federal campaign donors for Republicans ahead of the November elections, and
⭐️the No. 2 donors overall behind liberal financier George Soros.The couple has spent at least $121 million on state and federal politics in the last two years alone,
🔥fighting taxes, unions, abortion rights and marijuana legalization.The German-American clan made their original fortune in the 19th century as owners of the Milwaukee brewery Schlitz.
Family members were staples of the Chicago Tribune society pages.
In 1917, Dick’s grandfather was identified as a millionaire in a Chicago Tribune humor item about how the wealthy man had fired an unqualified chauffeur.
When Dick and Liz Uihlein donated millions in recent years to the pro-Trump super PAC "America First Action", they were following in a family tradition.
Edgar J. Uihlein of Chicago was among the handful of largest donors to the original "America First Committee", the aviator Charles Lindbergh’s group that opposed the United States’ entry into World War II.
(It’s unclear whether that was Edgar Sr., Dick’s grandfather, or Edgar Jr., his father, who had just graduated from college.)While "America First" drew supporters from across the political spectrum, it was most associated with rightists.
Uihlein’s donation was disclosed in 1941.
Later that year, Lindbergh gave an openly #antisemitic #speech assailing Jewish influence.
When Edgar Uihlein Sr. died in 1956, his estate was valued at $4.8 million
— more than $50 million in today’s dollars
— and the money was left in a trust for his heirs, newspapers reported at the time.Dick’s father, #Edgar Uihlein Jr., who had started a plastics company after serving in the Navy during World War II, established himself as 💥an important funder of far-right political groups in the 1960s.
A document from 1963 identifies Edgar Uihlein Jr. as on the ⚠️National Finance Committee of the #John #Birch #Society.
Founded a few years earlier, the group quickly became a significant force to the right of the Republican Party, known for its obsessively anti-communist politics.
The Birchers combined hostility to New Deal social programs with lurid conspiracies, famously campaigning against “the horrors of #fluoridation,” a supposed Red plot.
The group fiercely opposed civil rights.
An entry in one 1963 Birch newsletter railed against the upcoming March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where Martin Luther King would give his
“I Have a Dream” speech:
“the only good Americans who should have anything to do with this Communist-instigated mob in any way, or pay any attention to it in Washington, are the police required to maintain law and order.”Edgar Uihlein Jr. supported politicians who embraced #segregation.
In early 1962, he sponsored a speech that brought to Chicago a former U.S. Army general named #Edwin #Walker.
Walker toured the country attacking supposed communist conspiracies and civil rights, while celebrating the Southern defeat of Reconstruction, which he labeled “the tyranny within our own white race.”
The Anti-Defamation League,
which tracked far-right figures in the period,
has archives showing Edgar Uihlein Jr.’s involvement with several other groups and campaigns,
including a $1,000 contribution to the presidential campaign of segregationist #George #Wallace in 1968.It’s not clear when, if ever, Uihlein’s association with the John Birch Society ended.
As late as 1977, the founder of the group wrote a long letter to him asking for money.
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Timothy Mellon,
a wealthy banking heir and railroad magnate, has reached the stratosphere of American political influence as
the top supporter of Donald J. Trump, doling out millions to try to elect the former president and his allies.To his neighbors in a Rhode Island beachfront enclave, he is better known as the prime suspect in the Narragansett Runestone Affair.
A hulking boulder once positioned just offshore in Narragansett Bay, the runestone bears inscriptions that some believe were left by Viking explorers. It was the stuff of local lore and attracted visitors at low tide
— to the consternation of Mr. Mellon, the pedigreed businessman whose home looked out on the rock.And then one day it was gone.
A criminal investigation yielded a witness who had heard sounds of heavy machinery at night.
Mr. Mellon refused to talk and hired a former state attorney general as his lawyer.Nearly a year later, the matter was resolved quietly:
Mr. Mellon agreed to return the stone, and prosecutors agreed not to bring charges.
The episode was a rare glimpse into the private life and the public dealings of Mr. Mellon, 81, a reclusive heir and railroad magnate who has recently turned himself into a political force.
He has surprised even political insiders with the size of his contributions this year,
throwing♦️ $75 million behind Mr. Trump’s attempt to return to the White House
and an additional ♦️$25 million toward Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s independent presidential run,
making him both candidates’ single largest benefactor.All told, he has given♦️ $227 million in contributions to federal candidates and political committees since 2020,
nearly all to Republicans
— a sum that puts him in the top echelon of the party’s donors,
alongside far better-known megadonors like Miriam #Adelson and her husband, Sheldon, who died in 2021, and Liz and Dick #Uihlein.Yet for all his financial influence, Mr. Mellon and his interests
— and what exactly is motivating his largess — have remained largely a mystery.Interviews with his associates, along with a review of court documents and other public records, reveal
an ideologically driven conservative with a combative streak.Mr. Mellon spent most of his life leveraging his family fortune to create his own.
His freight railroad, a regional line that 🔸repeatedly ran afoul of worker and environmental protections,🔸 was recently sold for $600 million.Over time, Mr. Mellon’s politics shifted far to the right.
In the 1970s, his charitable giving supported feminist and ecological causes and Native Americans.By 2014, he was posting comments in an online chat room
🔹comparing climate-change scientists to ISIS 🔹and worrying that terrorists could attack America using “donkeys coming over our Southern border.”
Most recently, he became a significant donor to Mr. Kennedy’s 🔹anti-vaccine group, Children’s Health Defense.
In an interview, Mr. Kennedy said Mr. Mellon’s contribution had come during the height of the Covid pandemic and appeared to be motivated by a shared concern over government lockdowns and🔹 “suppressing constitutional rights.”Mr. Kennedy, who said he had met Mr. Mellon only twice, described him as “intensely curious, skeptical towards orthodoxies and passionate about personal freedoms.”
(He added that Mr. Mellon takes long cross-country drives alone “to talk to ordinary Americans” and has a fascination with Scandinavia.)Mr. Trump’s campaign did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Mr. Mellon rarely engages with the news media and did not respond to interview requests.
Even some of the candidates who accept his checks have little contact with him.The most detailed accounting of his life comes largely from two sources:
an autobiography Mr. Mellon first published in 2014 and the paper trail he has left in court.He has frequently become mired in disputes, some of them oddly small-bore and some just odd.
In May — the same month he made a $50 million donation to support Mr. Trump — he filed a lawsuit against a family-owned car dealership in Connecticut, complaining that he had spent $7,300 on a failed engine replacement for a 1995 Jeep Grand Cherokee.
Years ago, he sued a group of explorers he had helped finance,
claiming they had deliberately overlooked the wreckage of #Amelia #Earhart’s long-lost plane so they could keep raising money for their expeditions.Mr. Mellon was convinced he had seen Earhart’s head on the seafloor in a cellophane bag.
He lost the case, appealed, and lost again.
Testifying in a 2014 civil case, he estimated he had undergone depositions “15 to 20” times in his life and could not recall how many lawsuits he was involved in.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/28/us/politics/donald-trump-2024-campaign-timothy-mellon.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare -
Timothy Mellon,
a wealthy banking heir and railroad magnate, has reached the stratosphere of American political influence as
the top supporter of Donald J. Trump, doling out millions to try to elect the former president and his allies.To his neighbors in a Rhode Island beachfront enclave, he is better known as the prime suspect in the Narragansett Runestone Affair.
A hulking boulder once positioned just offshore in Narragansett Bay, the runestone bears inscriptions that some believe were left by Viking explorers. It was the stuff of local lore and attracted visitors at low tide
— to the consternation of Mr. Mellon, the pedigreed businessman whose home looked out on the rock.And then one day it was gone.
A criminal investigation yielded a witness who had heard sounds of heavy machinery at night.
Mr. Mellon refused to talk and hired a former state attorney general as his lawyer.Nearly a year later, the matter was resolved quietly:
Mr. Mellon agreed to return the stone, and prosecutors agreed not to bring charges.
The episode was a rare glimpse into the private life and the public dealings of Mr. Mellon, 81, a reclusive heir and railroad magnate who has recently turned himself into a political force.
He has surprised even political insiders with the size of his contributions this year,
throwing♦️ $75 million behind Mr. Trump’s attempt to return to the White House
and an additional ♦️$25 million toward Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s independent presidential run,
making him both candidates’ single largest benefactor.All told, he has given♦️ $227 million in contributions to federal candidates and political committees since 2020,
nearly all to Republicans
— a sum that puts him in the top echelon of the party’s donors,
alongside far better-known megadonors like Miriam #Adelson and her husband, Sheldon, who died in 2021, and Liz and Dick #Uihlein.Yet for all his financial influence, Mr. Mellon and his interests
— and what exactly is motivating his largess — have remained largely a mystery.Interviews with his associates, along with a review of court documents and other public records, reveal
an ideologically driven conservative with a combative streak.Mr. Mellon spent most of his life leveraging his family fortune to create his own.
His freight railroad, a regional line that 🔸repeatedly ran afoul of worker and environmental protections,🔸 was recently sold for $600 million.Over time, Mr. Mellon’s politics shifted far to the right.
In the 1970s, his charitable giving supported feminist and ecological causes and Native Americans.By 2014, he was posting comments in an online chat room
🔹comparing climate-change scientists to ISIS 🔹and worrying that terrorists could attack America using “donkeys coming over our Southern border.”
Most recently, he became a significant donor to Mr. Kennedy’s 🔹anti-vaccine group, Children’s Health Defense.
In an interview, Mr. Kennedy said Mr. Mellon’s contribution had come during the height of the Covid pandemic and appeared to be motivated by a shared concern over government lockdowns and🔹 “suppressing constitutional rights.”Mr. Kennedy, who said he had met Mr. Mellon only twice, described him as “intensely curious, skeptical towards orthodoxies and passionate about personal freedoms.”
(He added that Mr. Mellon takes long cross-country drives alone “to talk to ordinary Americans” and has a fascination with Scandinavia.)Mr. Trump’s campaign did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Mr. Mellon rarely engages with the news media and did not respond to interview requests.
Even some of the candidates who accept his checks have little contact with him.The most detailed accounting of his life comes largely from two sources:
an autobiography Mr. Mellon first published in 2014 and the paper trail he has left in court.He has frequently become mired in disputes, some of them oddly small-bore and some just odd.
In May — the same month he made a $50 million donation to support Mr. Trump — he filed a lawsuit against a family-owned car dealership in Connecticut, complaining that he had spent $7,300 on a failed engine replacement for a 1995 Jeep Grand Cherokee.
Years ago, he sued a group of explorers he had helped finance,
claiming they had deliberately overlooked the wreckage of #Amelia #Earhart’s long-lost plane so they could keep raising money for their expeditions.Mr. Mellon was convinced he had seen Earhart’s head on the seafloor in a cellophane bag.
He lost the case, appealed, and lost again.
Testifying in a 2014 civil case, he estimated he had undergone depositions “15 to 20” times in his life and could not recall how many lawsuits he was involved in.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/28/us/politics/donald-trump-2024-campaign-timothy-mellon.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare -
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.
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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.
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An anti-Trump group backed by billionaires Reid Hoffman, Seth Klarman and John Pritzker is launching a $50 million ad campaign featuring disaffected Trump voters—while some conservative billionaires coalesce behind the former president as it’s become clear he’ll secure the GOP nomination.
🔸Republican Voters Against Trump🔸, which is funded by the 🔹Republican Accountability PAC, 🔹aims to raise $30 million, in addition to the $20 million it’s already raised, for an advertising campaign featuring 👉videos of former Trump voters explaining why they won’t cast their ballots for him again this year, its founder #Sarah #Longwell told the New York Times.
#Reid #Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and a prolific Democratic donor, is one of the Republican Accountability PAC’s biggest backers, donating $2 million in both January and June last year, according to Federal Election Commission filings that show his $4 million accounts for half of what the group raised last year.
#Seth #Klarman, who runs the Boston-based Baupost hedge fund and is a vocal Trump critic who has donated to both parties, gave $1 million to the group in May last year.
#John #Pritzker, of the billionaire family that founded Hyatt hotels, gave a total of $1 million to the group through two $500,000 donations in June and November last year.
Founded during the 2020 campaign, Republican Voters Against Trump is ramping up its anti-Trump efforts as the former president is now the de facto Republican nominee.
♦️Meanwhile, conservative billionaires are lining up behind Trump ♦️, including shipping and packing company founders #Liz and #Dick #Uihlein, the Financial Times reported this weekend,
and aerospace billionaire #Robert #Bigelow, according to Politico—all previous donors to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ failed presidential campaign. -
An anti-Trump group backed by billionaires Reid Hoffman, Seth Klarman and John Pritzker is launching a $50 million ad campaign featuring disaffected Trump voters—while some conservative billionaires coalesce behind the former president as it’s become clear he’ll secure the GOP nomination.
🔸Republican Voters Against Trump🔸, which is funded by the 🔹Republican Accountability PAC, 🔹aims to raise $30 million, in addition to the $20 million it’s already raised, for an advertising campaign featuring 👉videos of former Trump voters explaining why they won’t cast their ballots for him again this year, its founder #Sarah #Longwell told the New York Times.
#Reid #Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and a prolific Democratic donor, is one of the Republican Accountability PAC’s biggest backers, donating $2 million in both January and June last year, according to Federal Election Commission filings that show his $4 million accounts for half of what the group raised last year.
#Seth #Klarman, who runs the Boston-based Baupost hedge fund and is a vocal Trump critic who has donated to both parties, gave $1 million to the group in May last year.
#John #Pritzker, of the billionaire family that founded Hyatt hotels, gave a total of $1 million to the group through two $500,000 donations in June and November last year.
Founded during the 2020 campaign, Republican Voters Against Trump is ramping up its anti-Trump efforts as the former president is now the de facto Republican nominee.
♦️Meanwhile, conservative billionaires are lining up behind Trump ♦️, including shipping and packing company founders #Liz and #Dick #Uihlein, the Financial Times reported this weekend,
and aerospace billionaire #Robert #Bigelow, according to Politico—all previous donors to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ failed presidential campaign. -
An anti-Trump group backed by billionaires Reid Hoffman, Seth Klarman and John Pritzker is launching a $50 million ad campaign featuring disaffected Trump voters—while some conservative billionaires coalesce behind the former president as it’s become clear he’ll secure the GOP nomination.
🔸Republican Voters Against Trump🔸, which is funded by the 🔹Republican Accountability PAC, 🔹aims to raise $30 million, in addition to the $20 million it’s already raised, for an advertising campaign featuring 👉videos of former Trump voters explaining why they won’t cast their ballots for him again this year, its founder #Sarah #Longwell told the New York Times.
#Reid #Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and a prolific Democratic donor, is one of the Republican Accountability PAC’s biggest backers, donating $2 million in both January and June last year, according to Federal Election Commission filings that show his $4 million accounts for half of what the group raised last year.
#Seth #Klarman, who runs the Boston-based Baupost hedge fund and is a vocal Trump critic who has donated to both parties, gave $1 million to the group in May last year.
#John #Pritzker, of the billionaire family that founded Hyatt hotels, gave a total of $1 million to the group through two $500,000 donations in June and November last year.
Founded during the 2020 campaign, Republican Voters Against Trump is ramping up its anti-Trump efforts as the former president is now the de facto Republican nominee.
♦️Meanwhile, conservative billionaires are lining up behind Trump ♦️, including shipping and packing company founders #Liz and #Dick #Uihlein, the Financial Times reported this weekend,
and aerospace billionaire #Robert #Bigelow, according to Politico—all previous donors to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ failed presidential campaign. -
An anti-Trump group backed by billionaires Reid Hoffman, Seth Klarman and John Pritzker is launching a $50 million ad campaign featuring disaffected Trump voters—while some conservative billionaires coalesce behind the former president as it’s become clear he’ll secure the GOP nomination.
🔸Republican Voters Against Trump🔸, which is funded by the 🔹Republican Accountability PAC, 🔹aims to raise $30 million, in addition to the $20 million it’s already raised, for an advertising campaign featuring 👉videos of former Trump voters explaining why they won’t cast their ballots for him again this year, its founder #Sarah #Longwell told the New York Times.
#Reid #Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and a prolific Democratic donor, is one of the Republican Accountability PAC’s biggest backers, donating $2 million in both January and June last year, according to Federal Election Commission filings that show his $4 million accounts for half of what the group raised last year.
#Seth #Klarman, who runs the Boston-based Baupost hedge fund and is a vocal Trump critic who has donated to both parties, gave $1 million to the group in May last year.
#John #Pritzker, of the billionaire family that founded Hyatt hotels, gave a total of $1 million to the group through two $500,000 donations in June and November last year.
Founded during the 2020 campaign, Republican Voters Against Trump is ramping up its anti-Trump efforts as the former president is now the de facto Republican nominee.
♦️Meanwhile, conservative billionaires are lining up behind Trump ♦️, including shipping and packing company founders #Liz and #Dick #Uihlein, the Financial Times reported this weekend,
and aerospace billionaire #Robert #Bigelow, according to Politico—all previous donors to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ failed presidential campaign. -
An anti-Trump group backed by billionaires Reid Hoffman, Seth Klarman and John Pritzker is launching a $50 million ad campaign featuring disaffected Trump voters—while some conservative billionaires coalesce behind the former president as it’s become clear he’ll secure the GOP nomination.
🔸Republican Voters Against Trump🔸, which is funded by the 🔹Republican Accountability PAC, 🔹aims to raise $30 million, in addition to the $20 million it’s already raised, for an advertising campaign featuring 👉videos of former Trump voters explaining why they won’t cast their ballots for him again this year, its founder #Sarah #Longwell told the New York Times.
#Reid #Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and a prolific Democratic donor, is one of the Republican Accountability PAC’s biggest backers, donating $2 million in both January and June last year, according to Federal Election Commission filings that show his $4 million accounts for half of what the group raised last year.
#Seth #Klarman, who runs the Boston-based Baupost hedge fund and is a vocal Trump critic who has donated to both parties, gave $1 million to the group in May last year.
#John #Pritzker, of the billionaire family that founded Hyatt hotels, gave a total of $1 million to the group through two $500,000 donations in June and November last year.
Founded during the 2020 campaign, Republican Voters Against Trump is ramping up its anti-Trump efforts as the former president is now the de facto Republican nominee.
♦️Meanwhile, conservative billionaires are lining up behind Trump ♦️, including shipping and packing company founders #Liz and #Dick #Uihlein, the Financial Times reported this weekend,
and aerospace billionaire #Robert #Bigelow, according to Politico—all previous donors to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ failed presidential campaign.
