The attorney general of Washington DC is investigating Leonard Leo, the rightwing activist who has driven efforts to install judges on federal courts including the US supreme court, which he helped tip 6-3 in conservatives’ favour, Politico reported.
Citing a source with direct knowledge, the site said the scope of the investigation mounted by the Democratic attorney general, Brian Schwalb, was unclear.
Leo is the driving force behind the Federalist Society, which the Harvard law professor Noah Feldman has called “a club for conservative and libertarian lawyers … focused on promoting conservative legal thought and filling the American judiciary with like-minded allies”. All six conservatives on the supreme court (three appointed under Donald Trump, with Leo’s active involvement), are current or former members.
Leo’s name has cropped up in reports alleging serious ethics violations by justices prominently including Clarence Thomas, the senior conservative on the court.
Leo’s ballooning personal wealth and hugely successful fundraising has also been widely reported. Earlier this year, he made headlines with receipt of a $1.6bn giftfrom a single donor, believed to be the largest such gift on record.
In April, the Campaign for Accountability, a progressive watchdog, filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service, alleging Leo “caused” recently formed non-profits “to pay him (directly or indirectly) more than $73m over a six-year period from 2016 through 2021”.
Groups offering consulting, research or public relations services, the complaint said, “may either not have provided those services at all or may have provided services at a level not commensurate with the payments received”.
The Campaign for Accountability also wrote to the DC attorney general, requesting an investigation.
Leo said then: “We put our clients’ money to work more effectively than any other enterprise of its sort, as the media has confirmed numerous times.” He also said the Campaign for Accountability’s own funding should be investigated.
David B Rivkin Jr, a lawyer for groups linked to Leo, told Politico the complaint was “sloppy, deceptive and legally flawed”.
The DC attorney general, Schwalb, has a background in tax law. A spokesperson did not comment to Politico. An IRS spokesperson declined comment too.
Progressive groups welcomed news of the investigation.
Lizzy Price, of Accountable.US, said Leo was “a man who believes that unless he writes the rules, they don’t apply to him.
“While his handpicked justices are stripping Americans of their rights and brazenly violating ethics rules, Leo is cashing in on his activism. Whether it’s the American judiciary or his own network of conservative organisations, Leo’s disdain for ethics is constant.”
Skye Perryman, of the advocacy group Democracy Forward, said: “The vast majority of the American people believe … that our laws and our courts should be used for justice – not for regressive activity that seeks to marginalise people and communities. Leonard Leo has been a center of seeking to roll back rights of people, creating harm in communities and courts throughout the country.”
