Name: Trump allies among top CPAC sponsors
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Trump allies among top CPAC sponsors

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is no longer a sitting president but his allies are still playing an outsize role in this year’s annual Conservative Political Action Conference, widely known as CPAC.&nbsp;The convening organized by the culminates Sunday in a by the former president himself, Trump’s since leaving White House.&nbsp;Donald Trump Jr. and campaign fundraiser Kimberly Guilfoyle are Thursday, while various other campaign aides and administration officials are peppered throughout the convention lineup.&nbsp;A Friday panel on “” features former Trump campaign official and National Diversity Coalition for Trump CEO Darrell Scott. The pastor is for his role in allegedly usng a now-defunct pro-Trump “dark money” group called the Urban Revitilization Coalition to solicit money from foreign nationals. In 2020, the IRS revoked the 501(c)(4) nonprofit’s after it gained notoriety for .&nbsp;The presence of Trump’s allies is evident throughout CPAC’s sponsors as well.&nbsp;, Trump’s for campaign paraphernalia, is listed as a supporting sponsor of CPAC. The firm was paid $16.1 million by Trump’s 2020 campaign and $35.3 million by the campaign’s joint fundraising committee with the Republican Party for rally signs, hats and other swag.A nonprofit created by former Trump for President campaign staffers, Look Ahead America, is another CPAC sponsor. Created as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, the group’s mission included using data and to target inactive voters. But the IRS revoked Look Ahead America’s tax exempt status in 2020 after the group failed to disclose financial information for three consecutive years. Representatives of the group told OpenSecrets that they have reapplied and are waiting to hear back. Look Ahead America appears to have “tax-deductible contributions” through its website.&nbsp;The group’s president, former Trump campaign staffer Matt Braynard, raised around $675,000 for his set up days after the 2020 election. There is no apparent evidence Braynard pocketed donor funds but he was paid to serve as a witness in multiple cases contesting election results, according to . Braynard’s voter fraud testimony was strongly criticized by , and .Three groups at the helm of efforts pushing largely unfounded and disproven claims of voter fraud around the 2020 election, the Public Interest Legal Foundation, the Heritage Foundation and Judicial Watch, are all listed as sponsors of this year’s CPAC convening. According to an , the three nonprofits share a small circle of wealthy conservative donors with a revolving door of staff and consultants. Heritage Action for America, the political arm of the Heritage Foundation, is also a sponsor of CPAC.&nbsp;A panel on “protecting elections” titled “They Told Ya So: The Signs Were Always” features J. Christian Adams of the Public Interest Legal Foundation and Hans Von Spakovsky of the Heritage Foundation, two of the in “shaping restrictive voting laws and helping the myth of voter fraud proliferate.”Another panel in CPAC’s series on “protecting elections” features Jenny Beth Martin of Tea Party Patriots, another group that helped shortly before the U.S. Capitol riots. She is slated to speak alongside Cleta Mitchell, a conservative attorney and longtime “dark money” operative. Mitchell recently with her longtime law firm Foley Lardner after controversy over her participation in a call where former President Trump pushed Georgia’s secretary of state to find 11,780 votes to help overturn Biden’s win., a nonprofit conservative student group that under the Trump administration, is listed as a supporting sponsor. Turning Point USA’s 501(c)(4) nonprofit arm, , is one of the groups that helped in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6.&nbsp;Conservative media outlets are also among some of CPAC’s biggest sponsors.&nbsp;Fox Nation is playing a much more sizable role in the convention’s funding than in previous years. Fox Nation paid at least $250,000 to be listed among CPAC’s of 2021, a significant jump from the .&nbsp; Unlike 2020 when the only other major media outlet listed among CPAC’s sponsors was the Washington Times, Fox faces competition from a number of burgeoning conservative and ring-wing news outlets seemingly following in in vying to use the convention as a jumping off point to become the “next Fox News.”Among the contributing sponsors are Real America’s Voice, a recently-rebranded operated through Performance One Media LLC that distributes Steve Bannon’s War Rooms show, and a conservative online media network called Right Side Broadcasting Network known for . The Washington Times, a stalwart of conservative media, is also listed as a partnering sponsor of CPAC.&nbsp;&nbsp;CPAC’s 2021 sponsors reflect its shift from embracing big tech sponsors such as to more alternative social media platforms.&nbsp;Our Freedom Media Group, part of an alternative social media network including as purported alternatives to Facebook and Youtube, is listed as a supporting sponsor of CPAC. CloutHub, is another sponsoring CPAC that has attracted in recent weeks. It attracted a stream of new members after was removed from Apple, Google and Amazon due to its alleged use in organizing &nbsp;As in prior years, interests tied to Asian countries are playing an increasingly significant role in the American conservative conference.KCPAC Korea, one of the American Conservative Unions’ recent of its hallmark event, is listed as a $125,000 presenting sponsor.Liberty Ecosystem, a run by Japanese Conservative Union co-founder “Jay” Aeba, is listed as a $60,000 partnering sponsor. Aeba is slated to speak on a CPAC panel about “China’s neighbors.” He founded the “Happiness Realization Party,” the political arm of a controversial religious group called “Happy Science.” The group gained notoriety for and claiming a “” with a price-tag of hundreds of dollars could cure coronavirus.Other “” protests in Taiwan that drew a reported 8,000 people supporting Trump after his loss in the 2020 election were backed by Epoch Media Group, publisher of the Epoch Times, which is also a CPAC 2021 supporting sponsor. The Epoch Times has previously been criticized for taking a editorial stance and has ties to of the Falun Gong, a Chinese spiritual movement by China’s ruling Communist Party.Some major sponsors do not have apparent Trump ties but are not without their own controversies.&nbsp;Medical bill sharing organization is one of three top-tier sponsors of CPAC giving at least $250,000 to the convention alongside Fox Nation and the ACU. The organization has been subject to hundreds of from members claiming they have experienced problems with their credit and have been forced into collections because of Liberty HealthShare’s failure to pay bills in a timely fashion, an thrust into the spotlight during the coronavirus pandemic.Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit the Center for Responsive Politics. For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center:Support Accountability JournalismAt OpenSecrets.org we offer in-depth, money-in-politics stories in the public interest. Whether you’re reading about 2020 presidential fundraising, conflicts of interest or “dark money” influence, we produce this content with a small, but dedicated team. Every donation we receive from users like you goes directly into promoting high-quality data analysis and investigative journalism that you can trust. Please support our work and keep this resource free. Thank you.OpenSecrets is a 501(c)(3) non-profit. Your donation is tax-exempt.Anna first joined the Center for Responsive Politics in September 2015. She works with CRP's foreign influence and FARA data as part of the Foreign Lobby Watch Project, tracks FCC and digital political ad data, and is responsible for CRP's politically active nonprofit and nondisclosing "dark money" group data. She holds degrees in political science and psychology from North Carolina State University and a J.D. from the University of the District of Columbia School of Law.Want first access to OpenSecrets' investigations and data features? .Select an amount to make a donation.Sign up for our newsletter to track money’s influence on U.S. elections and public policy.The Center for Responsive PoliticsA 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, charitable organization,Except for the Revolving Door section, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License by OpenSecrets.org. To request permission for commercial use, .

is no longer a sitting president but his allies are still playing an outsize role in this year’s annual Conservative Political Action Conference, widely known as CPAC.&nbsp;The convening organized by the culminates Sunday in a by the former president himself, Trump’s since leaving White House.&nbsp;Donald Trump Jr. and campaign fundraiser Kimberly Guilfoyle are Thursday, while various other campaign aides and administration officials are peppered throughout the convention lineup.&nbsp;A Friday panel on “” features former Trump campaign official and National Diversity Coalition for Trump CEO...

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Anna Massoglia

The most comprehensive, nonpartisan money-in-politics resource around. Formerly the Center for Responsive Politics & the National Institute on Money in Politics

Trump allies among top CPAC sponsors

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