What happens when an AG dares to investigate Leonard Leo's network

Allies of Leonard Leo have mounted a monthslong offensive against the man investigating the judicial activist’s network: Washington, D.C., Attorney General Brian Schwalb.

Since news of the probe broke last August, the GOP chairs of powerful congressional committees launched their own investigation of Schwalb’s investigation; conservative media wrote articles criticizing Schwalb on unrelated crime issues — based on a social media post from a top Leo lieutenant; and a group of his Republican law enforcement peers sent letters warning Schwalb to stand down.

Leo is the Federalist Society co-chair who has been called former President Donald Trump’s “court whisperer” for helping to choose and advocate for his Supreme Court nominees. His aligned network of tax-exempt nonprofits is also a major contributor to Project 2025, an initiative seeking to create a “government in waiting” for another Trump term.

The white-hot pressure campaign targeting Schwalb attests to the growing range of Leo’s influence. Beyond its work in promoting the conservative legal movement, his billion-dollar network of nonprofits has funded conservative media, Republican attorneys general and the campaign funds of leading congressional figures.

Leo, through his company spokesperson Adam Kennedy, declined to comment.

Schwalb has been probing Leo since he received a complaint about whether Leo-aligned groups violated tax laws governing nonprofit organizations, as POLITICO reported last August. Tax-exempt groups in Leo’s network have spent millions of dollars on his for-profit consulting business, CRC Advisors.

But since news of the probe became public, its legal basis has been challenged by 12 GOP attorneys general who are current or former members of the Republican Attorneys General Association. The Concord Fund, one of the Leo network’s primary nonprofits, and its predecessor, the Judicial Crisis Network, have long been RAGA’s biggest funder, directing $20 million to it since 2014, according to annual tax filings.

Meanwhile, GOP Reps. James Jordan, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and James Comer, who heads the House Oversight Committee, on Oct. 30 announced a probe of Schwalb’s Leo investigation, saying it was politically motivated. According to a federal disclosure form dated Oct. 20, the Concord Fund had hired a Virginia lobbying firm to handle issues related to “oversight” and “law enforcement,” matters over which Jordan and Comer have jurisdiction.

A Judiciary Committee spokesperson said there is no connection between the two: "The decision to launch a probe was not influenced by the lobbying firm. Any suggestion that it was is lazy, in bad faith, and completely ridiculous. It's well-known that this probe is part of a broader portfolio the congressmen are pursuing related to the weaponization of the federal government."

In December, the House chairs then threatened to subpoena Schwalb. One day later, Concord Fund made a $250,000 contribution — its first to a federal political action committee in nearly nine years — to a fundraising group allied with House GOP leadership, according to Federal Elections Commission disclosures.

Jordan and Comer’s intervention in a law-enforcement probe angered activist groups that have long scrutinized his network.

“Leonard Leo is working to implement policies with a vision that’s far too extreme for most Americans. Now, members of Congress have weaponized their government power against his critics,” said Caroline Ciccone, president of Accountable.US, a progressive watchdog group.

Project 2025’s manifesto promises to defund the Department of Justice, dismantle the FBI, break up the Department of Homeland Security and eliminate the Departments of Education and Commerce.

“Leo may consider himself to be beyond scrutiny, but he isn’t. He and his network must be held to the same standards as everyday Americans,” said Ciccone.

Recently, a round of articles in conservative media claimed that Schwalb angered D.C. residents at a city panel discussion about youth crime. The articles were pegged to a critical tweet. Its author was Carrie Severino, who leads the Concord Fund.

During the Jan. 30 panel of city officials and residents, Schwalb spoke at length about his frustration that many underage offenders aren’t being arrested, making it hard to prosecute. A day later, Severino sent a tweet of a Fox News spot including one of Schwalb’s comments later in the discussion: “We cannot prosecute and arrest our way out of it,” he said of crime problems.

A recording of the meeting shows Schwalb was responding to a specific question about which resources the city should offer to help rehabilitate minors who are not prosecuted. Since D.C. does not have statehood, Schwalb has jurisdiction only over juvenile prosecutions and some adult misdemeanors.

Nonetheless, Severino’s tweet was retweeted and quoted by numerous conservative accounts with large followings. Conservative media sites including The Washington Examiner and Fox News then wrote stories, relying on the same viral tweet.

“'Madness,’” read the Feb. 1 Fox News headline. The quote came from Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.), who was retweeting Severino. A couple of weeks after the January panel discussion, the Examiner followed up with a Feb. 12 article asserting that Schwalb’s approach to D.C.’s crime wave had drawn criticism “four times.” Once again, Severino’s Jan. 31 quote was its primary evidence.

Severino did not respond to a text seeking comment.

The Concord Fund is part of Leo’s constellation of tax-shielded groups registered as charities and social welfare organizations. The fund spent millions of dollars on media campaigns to support the confirmation of Trump’s Supreme Court picks, which were culled from a list authored by Leo, among others. The nonprofit is also a longstanding client of Leo’s for-profit consulting firm and paid the company, CRC Advisors, $3.8 million between July of 2021 and July of 2022.

The Concord Fund is among the nonprofits named in a complaint sent to Schwalb’s office and the Internal Revenue Service from a progressive watchdog group that claims that a handful of Leo-aligned groups violated nonprofit tax laws by paying CRC for communications services.

Schwalb is probing the network following a complaint that nonprofit groups associated with the judicial activist violated a tax law that bars charitable groups from being used for personal enrichment. Through his spokesperson, Gabe Shoglow-Rubenstein, Schwalb declined to comment.

It’s the latest in a pressure campaign that includes Schwalb’s peers in a dozen GOP-led states. In a Sept. 20 letter to Schwalb, they insisted he doesn’t have the authority to probe Leo’s empire, asked him to reconsider and suggested that conservative AGs might come under pressure to investigate progressive-oriented nonprofits if Schwalb doesn’t back down. All of the law enforcement signatories are or have been members of the Republican Attorneys General Association. RAGA and the Virginia Attorney General’s office did not respond to three emails seeking comment.

Gene Takagi, a California lawyer who’s represented hundreds of nonprofits, called the letter “very unusual.”

“I have not seen a group of attorneys general target a fellow attorney general before,” said Takagi, who is also a publisher of the Nonprofit Law Blog. Attorneys general, however, are increasingly clashing along party lines over issues such as gun safety, he said.

Karen Gano, a former assistant attorney general in Connecticut, agreed. “I have never seen a group of attorneys general attacking an attorney general in that way, particularly with a targeted political viewpoint and threat. I’ve never seen it in any context,” said Gano, also former president of the National Association of State Charity Officials.

The AGs’ letter challenged Schwalb’s jurisdiction to investigate Leo’s nonprofits, a claim which has been disputed by some charitable tax experts, including officers in other states. It said Schwalb’s actions could oblige other state AGs to investigate political groups across the political spectrum, according to a copy obtained by POLITICO.

“Once the dam breaks, we and our successors will be under intense pressure to investigate the inner workings of every abortion advocacy group, every immigration advocacy group, every environmental advocacy group,” the Republican attorneys general warned. “We can only stop it if each of us conscientiously stays in his or her lane.”

The Wall Street Journal editorial board picked up the letter in warning of “Hobbesian” lawfare that “threatens state sovereignty” if Schwalb does not stand down.

In a separate Sept. 12 letter, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, a Republican, had warned Schwalb that the entities Schwalb was targeting are “subject to the exclusive oversight of my office.” The Concord Fund was incorporated in Virginia. Another Leo-affiliated group cited in the complaint to Schwalb is The 85 Fund, which was originally known as the Judicial Education Project.

While it was incorporated in Virginia in 2004, The 85 Fund and its predecessor had maintained its principal office address in D.C. for at least a decade, as POLITICO previously reported. The group moved its mailing address to a UPS store in a Texas strip mall amid Schwalb’s investigation. Spokespersons for Miyares and RAGA did not respond to three emails.

Gano, the former head of the Connecticut attorney general’s charitable unit, said that where a charity was incorporated isn’t the only criteria that determines jurisdiction.

“It has to do with what activity they engage in in that state,” she said. Miyares’ letter contained detailed legal language making his case and requested a staff meeting to resolve the matter.

The letter began by suggesting that Schwalb should instead be focused on a “violent crime” wave in D.C., including carjackings, according to a copy.

Miyares also has personal ties to Leo’s inner circle.

In 2013, Miyares started a consulting firm called Madison Strategies with Gary Marx, who was part of a small group that founded Severino’s Concord Fund, then called the Judicial Crisis Network. Marx was, for a time, its executive director. He is also part of the leadership team of The 85 Fund, previously the Judicial Education Project, according to the latest IRS filings.

Leo’s lawyer has said he is not cooperating with Schwalb’s probe. Leo joined the firm as chair in 2020, and his aligned nonprofits are longstanding CRC clients.

Prior to Leo’s tenure the firm had significant experience running politically focused public relations campaigns. It is best known for its work with the Swift Boat Veterans in 2004, which criticized former presidential candidate John Kerry, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, for his actions in that war. More recently it worked on behalf of then Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in the wake of Christine Blasey Ford’s claim in his 2018 confirmation hearings that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her when both were in high school.

While Schwalb’s office has not confirmed the existence of its probe, POLITICO broke the news on Aug. 22 that Leo was under investigation. A few days later, a group called CatholicVote.org, which received $1.75 million from Concord Fund from 2021 to 2022, wrote an article that Schwalb was targeting Leo for his role “in setting the stage for the overturning of Roe v. Wade.”

In a recent interview, Leo emphasized the critical role that shaping public opinion plays in the network’s next frontier of advocacy. He spoke of the need for more conservative allies in C-Suites and boardrooms and spoke about the need for conservatives to “build talent pipelines in the media and entertainment industry.”