Republican AG Group Cuts Ties with Leonard Leo, Brings in $10.1 Million in First Half of 2025 - EXPOSEDbyCMD (www.exposedbycmd.org)

submitted 11 months ago by AcidiclyBasicGlitch@sh.itjust.works to c/localfuckery@sh.itjust.works

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cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/47182601

Bisbee, a lieutenant in the Leo network, previously worked at the Federalist Society as Director of State Courts and Deputy Director of External Relations while Leo was an executive. Leo still co-chairs the board.

Bisbee launched two nonprofits out of Nashville in 2024: First Principles Foundation and First Principles Action. Both filed 990–N forms with the IRS in their first year, meaning they each brought in less than $50,000 in revenue. However, this year Bisbee funneled $1.1 million through First Principles Action to the campaign of Republican candidate Katherine Robertson, who is running for the open attorney general seat in Alabama next year and will face former state Supreme Court Justice Jay Mitchell in the Republican primary.

The source of the $1.1 million is unknown, but while Bisbee was in charge at RAGA Trump’s first term “judge whisperer” Leonard Leo was the top contributor to the group year after year, giving millions through his Concord Fund.

According to RAGA’s latest IRS filing, it received no contributions from Leo’s groups in the first half of this year, and his PR firm Creative Response Concepts (doing business as CRC Advisors) is no longer receiving payments of $7,500/month from the AG’s group for “consulting” — signaling a sudden split in the long relationship between Leo and RAGA. RAGA had paid Creative Response Concepts for consulting since 2020.

In a Truth Social rant in May after the U.S. Court of International Trade struck down his tariffs, President Trump suddenly turned on Leo and the Federalist Society, calling him a “sleazebag” who “probably hates America.” Trump “believes Leo tried to take too much credit for the judicial picks” of Federalist Society members Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, and Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court, The Wall Street Journal reported. Trump and Leo haven’t spoken in five years, the paper noted.

Trump and MAGA world are also likely aware that the Leo-funded right-wing litigation center New Civil Liberties Alliance is challenging the legality of his emergency tariffs.

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[-] AcidiclyBasicGlitch@sh.itjust.works 1 points 11 months ago

Trump has chosen two state attorneys general for high level positions in the Department of Justice (DOJ). U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi (R) was very involved with RAGA when she was AG in Florida from 2011–19, serving as chair of the executive committee in 2014–15. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey (R), a former RAGA member, stepped down from his position on September 8 to serve as deputy director of the FBI.

Republican governors Jeff Landry (LA), Mike DeWine (OH), Henry McMaster (SC), and Patrick Morrisey (WV) sent hundreds of national guard troops to Washington, D.C., last month to assist with Trump’s takeover of the city. All were members of RAGA when they served as state attorneys general.

Landry also offered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) use of Louisiana’s maximum-security Angola Prison (dubbed “Louisiana Lockup” and known for its harsh conditions) to house Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees, according to a DHS press release issued on September 3.

Documents obtained by CMD provide greater insight into the many other ways RAGA and its members are partnering with Trump.

Republican AGs, led by Jonathan Skrmetti of Tennessee and Austin Knudsen of Montana, have worked to try to strong-arm proxy advisory firms and asset managers from considering environmental, social and governance (ESG) and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) factors in their business practices as part of the right-wing’s manufactured campaign against “woke” capitalism.

What a coincidence, I was just reading about AG Skrmetti for the first time last night.

AG withdrew legal opinion in 2024 suggesting National Guard for TN policing unconstitutional

The opinion, written by former Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery, was withdrawn April 19, 2024, without much, if any, public notice.

At a Sept. 30 news conference, Tennessee Sen. Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville, said the withdrawn opinion suggests the upcoming deployment of National Guard troops to Memphis this week would be unconstitutional.

Skrmetti was emphatic the 2021 opinion was not withdrawn to pave the way for Trump’s policies a year-and-a-half later. “If the folks at the press conference are insinuating my office withdrew the opinion six months before the election to pave the way for Trump policies a year and a half later, they have bigger problems than this legal question,” Skrmetti wrote. “If I could see the future like that, I’d be neck deep in Bitcoin and Pokémon cards.”

this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2025

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