Leonard Leo, who helped to choose Trump's judicial nominees, got a historic $1.6 billion gift for his conservative legal network via an introduction through the Federalist Society, whose tax status forbids political activism.
The arrangement in which Leonard Leo met his top donor through the Federalist Society suggests closer ties between the society and Leo’s activist network than previously known. | Carolyn Kaster/AP PhotoLeonard Leo, who helped to choose judicial nominees for former President Donald Trump, obtained a historic $1.6 billion gift for his conservative legal network via an introduction through the Federalist Society, whose tax status forbids political activism.
Interviews with people familiar with the internal workings of the Federalist Society, including two board members, paint a picture of a symbiotic relationship in which Leo uses his connection to the vast network of scholars in the society to earn credibility with donors, who then contribute to dark money operations that engage in the kind of partisanship the society officially eschews.
The society must decide whether Leo’s “personal activities” have become detrimental enough to its image that he should leave, he said. Calabresi and Meyer did not respond to requests for comment. In a sign of the close professional relationship between the Federalist Society and Leo’s for-profit businesses, a spokesperson at Leo’s new for-profit company, CRC Advisors, sent POLITICO a statement on behalf of Meyer. “Leonard Leo did an outstanding job at the Federalist Society for 20 years and we are enormously grateful for his faithful service,” Meyer said in the emailed statement.
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