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Brendan Fischer

@brendanfischer.bsky.social
646 followers 325 following 245 posts

Director, Strategic Investigations @CampaignLegal.org. Wisconsinite.

PostsRepliesMedia
Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
A foreign government is channeling money to a super PAC associated with a sitting U.S. Senator. Here’s how.
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
This is the latest example in nearly a decade of private prison company GEO Group giving big money to Trump’s super PAC around the same time that it scores massive taxpayer-funded contracts or other favorable policy. It’s still astonishing.
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
“Since returning to office, the president has brought the full weight of the federal government to the task of investigating voter fraud and noncitizen voting, making the administration’s inability to find a smoking gun all the more striking.” www.nytimes.com/2026/08/20/u...
nytimes.com
Homeland Security Made a Big Claim About Noncitizen Voting. Now It Can’t Prove It.
The Department of Homeland Security told Nevada election officials that it identified 185 “potential” noncitizens on the state’s voter rolls, not the nearly 16,000 it claimed last month.
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Excellent analysis that also refutes the ActBlue conspiracies pushed by James O’Keefe and embraced by Trump. It’s not ActBlue laundering foreign donations in the names of unwitting elderly donors. It’s Democratic operatives fleecing those donors with manipulative spam fundraising appeals.
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Reposted by Brendan Fischer
Campaign Legal Center @campaignlegal.org · 14/08/2026
No one should be able to buy a pardon. But the Trump administration has used the pardon power as a tool to reward donors and loyalists. A new bill would end this corruption.
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Reposted by Brendan Fischer
Campaign Legal Center @campaignlegal.org · 20/07/2026
"There is plenty of reason to be suspicious of the claims from the administration, and every reason for voters to have confidence in our elections," said @brendanfischer.bsky.social in @latimes.com.
latimes.com
Trump escalates election attacks, threatens California over voter data
Trump delivered a prime-time address on Thursday night about vulnerabilities in the election system, claims that largely were not backed up by the evidence he provided.
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Reposted by Brendan Fischer
Jonathan Diaz @jonathandiaz.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
If you missed the President's speech this evening, here's a recap:
static.klipy.com
Simpsons Old Man Yells at Cloud
Alt: Old Man Yells at Cloud
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Reposted by Brendan Fischer
Campaign Legal Center @campaignlegal.org · 07/07/2026
“The president’s conflicts of interest with the crypto industry are unprecedented. We have never seen a president have direct conflicts of interest with his financial holdings and the policies he supports, and it’s another example why we need widespread ethics reform now," says CLC's Kedric Payne.
wsj.com
Trump Made More Than $1 Billion on Crypto Deals, Part of 2025 Windfall
The president also brought in vast sums from licensing and legal settlements, according to his latest financial disclosure report.
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
What’s really striking is that this amounts to an anti-Trump politician helping pro-Trump billionaires and crypto corporations sanitize their message to elect candidates that the crypto industry believes will benefit their bottom line. 🧵
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Jonathan Diaz @jonathandiaz.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
A few weeks ago, @brendanfischer.bsky.social and I sat down with @moreperfectunion.bsky.social to talk about the Trump admin's attempt to take over our elections and restrict voting access, backed by a dark money network of election deniers. www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUHm...
youtube.com
The Shocking Billionaire Plot To Steal The Election
YouTube video by More Perfect Union
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
I spoke with @kenbensinger.bsky.social for this piece in the @nytimes.com on how political money is secretly flowing to pay-to-play influencers. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. 🧵 www.nytimes.com/2026/05/16/b...
nytimes.com
Political Money Is Flowing to Influencers. But From Whom?
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
The AI industry is pouring potentially hundreds of millions into the 2026 midterms through a network of super PACs called Leading the Future, backed by executives from OpenAI, a16Z, and Palantir. But these PACs are also hiding their spending – and likely violating the law. Here's how. 🧵
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
New reporting shows the election denial movement isn’t on the outside looking in anymore—it’s now embedded in the machinery of government. Over the past several years, billionaires + right-wing foundations poured tens of millions into building that infrastructure. www.propublica.org/article/trum...
propublica.org
Inside Trump’s Effort to “Take Over” the Midterm Elections
When Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election, the institutional guardrails of American democracy held. But if faced with the same tests today, those barriers — and people who held the line — would l...
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Campaign Legal Center @campaignlegal.org · 13/04/2026
"The election denial movement is now interwoven within the federal government...It’s not just last-minute slapdash attempts to overturn the results but more systematic efforts to influence how elections are run months ahead of time." -CLC's @brendanfischer.bsky.social
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
A Trump administration probe just shut down a key source of data on college voting. This is the result of a years-long campaign by election conspiracy theorists—some of whom are now inside government and wielding power, @hansilowang.bsky.social and @npr.org reports. 🧵 www.npr.org/2026/04/08/n...
npr.org
Colleges are trying to boost student voting. A Trump probe freezes data for that work
To figure out how to boost student voting, colleges have relied on a study about campus voter registration and turnout rates. A Trump administration investigation has cut schools off from new data.
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Danielle Lang @danilang-votes.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
President Trump isn’t sure how his executive order related to mail voting can be challenged. We have a few ideas. Starting with this: the President has no power over election rules. The Constitution gives those powers to states and Congress and no one else.
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Jen Fifield @jenafifield.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
UPDATE: The Arizona Senate has released the federal grand jury subpoena for the records related to the partisan audit of Maricopa County's 2020 election. Link to full record: www.documentcloud.org/documents/27...
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
The controversial, Cleta Mitchell-backed mass voter challenge project Eagle AI has rebranded, @janetimm.bsky.social reports. www.nbcnews.com/politics/ele... It is now going by "ELLY," pitched to activists and county election boards, and "PSEPHOS," pitched to states as an alternative to ERIC.
nbcnews.com
Conservative voter fraud hunters pitch new computer programs to state officials
A previous program designed to clean up voter rolls was criticized by election officials, experts and some of the activists who tried to use it.
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
NEW: Our investigation into Trump’s pardon playbook shows how clemency has been used to reward political loyalty, money, and influence. We analyzed a wave of controversial pardons and found three clear patterns.🧵 campaignlegal.org/update/insid...
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
🧵Some of the loudest promoters of election conspiracy theories are celebrating Trump’s pick of Sen. Markwayne Mullin to lead DHS. Why? They see Mullin as an ally, pointing to his role in arranging a 2024 Mar al Lago briefing about claimed Venezuelan election interference.
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Campaign Legal Center @campaignlegal.org · 02/03/2026
The same people who tried to overturn the 2020 election are now embedded in the machinery of government. "This creates substantial risk that the administration is laying the groundwork to improperly reshape elections...or even go against the will of the voters." -CLC's @brendanfischer.bsky.social
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
The same people who tried to overturn the 2020 election have only grown better organized and are now embedded in the machinery of government. It raises concern that the administration is laying the groundwork to improperly reshape elections or even overturn the will of voters.
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
I spoke to the @nytimes.com about how Elon Musk structured funding for America PAC in ways that obscured where tens of millions of dollars in spending supporting Donald Trump ultimately went. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/27/t...
nytimes.com
Elon Musk’s Secret Web of Companies in Texas
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
Notably, this donation came nearly 16 years to the day after SCOTUS opened the door to unlimited contributions in Citizens United, with the Court promising that such spending won’t be “given as a quid pro quo for improper commitments from the candidate"
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
Wow. New FEC reports show billionaire Matt Moroun gave Trump’s super PAC $1 million last month. A few weeks later, Moroun met with Trump officials, and the next day, the president came out publicly against a rival bridge project that would cut into Moroun’s profits. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/10/w...
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
@campaignlegal.org filed an FEC complaint alleging former Senator Kyrsten Sinema abused her donor money, spending at least $700,000 in leftover campaign funds on personal expenses--flights, high-end meals, luxury hotels, and even a vehicle--in the year after she left office.
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
Earlier megadonors framed their spending in neutral terms—like supporting free markets + deregulation generally (even if their true aims were more specific). Big Tech firms like Meta aren’t pretending: they're spending millions to elect politicians who’ll boost their bottom line.
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
Trump and his allies pledged to expose widespread noncitizen voting, poured huge resources into probes and a new database—and came up empty. Now they’re scrambling to manufacture the illusion of fraud and to intimidate voters from participating in future elections. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/u...
nytimes.com
Administration Targets Noncitizen Voting, Despite Finding It Rare
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
The current person in charge of ICE's procurement for detention is a GEO Group executive who ran the company's immigration detention portfolio. He was granted an "ethics waiver" from DHS allowing him to hand out contracts to GEO in his new role.
Washington Post.

The former private prison exec behind ICE’s immigrant detention surge
David Venturella, a veteran of private prison firm Geo Group, joined the Trump administration to help oversee an expansion of the immigrant detention system that’s benefiting his former employer.
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Trump pardoned a billionaire who had pledged to illegally route foreign money into U.S. elections as part of a scheme to bribe Puerto Rico’s governor — after the billionaire's daughter gave $3.5M to Trump's super PAC. But the facts point to another legal violation. campaignlegal.org/update/seeki...
campaignlegal.org
Seeking Pardon, Foreign Billionaire Allegedly Funneled Millions to Trump Super PAC
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
Oh, the billionaire megadonor who keeps notching victories under Trump is the guy on the right. It’s fair to ask: what else is Trump doing to serve his interests?
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
Trump’s push for Coca-Cola to use cane sugar could be a windfall for one of his billionaire megadonors. Jose “Pepe” Fanjul and his sugar empire, Florida Crystals, have poured millions into Trump’s campaigns — and have been racking up wins since Trump's return to office. 🧵
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
“It is hard to see how Sinema can credibly argue that luxury hotels, meal expenses, and extensive air travel are connected to her candidacy or officeholder duties, given that she is no longer a candidate or officeholder,” I told @NOTUSreports. A few thoughts: 🧵
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
The Trump admin’s move to let churches engage in partisan politics is part of a broader strategy to loosen the rules when it benefits MAGA allies, and tighten them when it hurts the opposition. 🧵 1/ www.nytimes.com/2025/07/07/u...
nytimes.com
I.R.S. Says Churches Can Endorse Candidates From the Pulpit
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
If the Trump family is serious about building these phones in the US, then President Trump now has a personal financial stake in tariff and trade negotiations. It also means that China has a potentially new source of leverage over the president. Both raise major conflict of interests. 1/
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
One implication of Trump’s plan to sell green cards for $5 million is that it would allow foreign billionaires and oligarchs to start legally pouring money into U.S. elections (including into Trump’s political operation).
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
The White House now says that Elon Musk’s policy views are shaped by his financial interests. So…where was that concern when they gave Musk sweeping influence over government policies that directly impacted his bottom line?
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
The Elon Musk-backed, Trump-aligned dark money group Building America’s Future is behind the multi-million dollar “Make America Affordable Again” ad campaign pushing "lawsuit reform," FCC records show.
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
A few thoughts. 🧵 First, after spending $290M+ getting Trump elected, Musk may not need to spend more, since he got what he wanted: a key role in the administration, top allies in important positions, investigations into his companies dropped, and potentially billions in new federal contracts.
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
Huh. As Trump pushes Rep. Lawler to "forget SALT" and vote for the GOP bill, Trump's latest fundraising appeals quietly route money to Lawler's campaign. secure.winred.com/trump-nation... secure.winred.com/trump-nation...
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Dan Kaufman @dankaufman70.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
I wrote a piece about tomorrow's crucial #Wisconsin Supreme Court election for @newyorker.com. Deepest thanks to all the people who shared their insights with me and to the phenomenal editorial staff at the magazine. www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...
newyorker.com
Why Is Elon Musk Trying to Buy a Wisconsin Supreme Court Seat?
Tuesday’s election, as the only statewide race in the country before November, is a crucial test for the growing backlash against the Trump Administration’s agenda.
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
Musk backtracked on this legally-dubious plan, deleting his tweet and changing the terms of eligibility to comply with the law www.nytimes.com/2025/03/28/u...
nytimes.com
Elon Musk Backtracks on Plan to Give $2 Million Checks to Wisconsin Voters
Experts had said that his pledge to hand out two $1 million checks to people who had already voted in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race seemed to run afoul of state law.
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Politico @politico.com · 28/03/2025
Elon Musk said he would give $1 million checks to Wisconsin voters. Then he deleted the post.
politico.com
Elon Musk said he would give $1 million checks to Wisconsin voters. Then he deleted the post.
Election law experts are skeptical about the billionaire's latest move.
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
Conditioning entry to this event and eligibility for the $1 million payout on whether someone has voted may violate Wisconsin law. The law prohibits offering or giving anything of value to induce a person to vote. Wis Stat 12.11.
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
The deluge of unaccountable big money flooding the Wisconsin Supreme Court election is actually higher than has been reported, with potential implications for impartial justice. 🧵
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
It is hardly the most consequential provision, but Trump’s new Executive Order directs DOJ to step-up enforcement of the ban on foreign political contributions…just after Trump’s DOJ dropped charges against Eric Adams for allegedly soliciting and accepting foreign political contributions.
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
rollingstone.com
Blame the Supreme Court for Elon Musk's Power in Trump's Administration
Elon Musk’s outsized influence with Donald Trump is a direct result of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which turns 15 this week.
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
Elon Musk spent over $250 million helping elect Trump and his allies, and now stands to receive billions in new taxpayer-funded contracts from Trump's administration. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/23/u...
nytimes.com
Musk’s SpaceX Could Secure Billions in New Contracts Under Trump
The boost in federal spending for SpaceX will come in part as a result of actions by President Trump and Elon Musk’s allies and employees who hold government positions. Supporters say he has the best ...
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
Elon Musk's super PAC re-upping its cash-for-registration tactic to obtain new voter data to influence the WI Supreme Court race. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/20/u... But its paid canvassers are almost certainly drawing from the data Musk's PAC controversially (and arguably illegally) gathered in 2024.
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
“Participating in a classified briefing on the China threat with some of the most senior Pentagon and U.S. military officials would be a tremendously valuable opportunity for any defense contractor seeking to sell services to the military.” www.nytimes.com/2025/03/20/u...
nytimes.com
Musk Set to Get Access to Top-Secret U.S. Plan for Potential War With China
Giving Elon Musk access to some of the nation’s most closely guarded military secrets is a major expansion of his role as an adviser to President Trump and highlights his conflicts of interest.
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