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Brendan Fischer

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

Director, Strategic Investigations @CampaignLegal.org. Wisconsinite.

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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Foreign nationals are barred from donating to U.S. PACs or campaigns. But there’s an apparent loophole for revenue-generating commercial transactions between PACs and foreign entities—which, to my knowledge, has really not been tested until now. (End)
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
@quincyinst.bsky.social uncovered that Israel is running ads on Cruz’s superPAC’s podcast as part of a $7m campaign—which means that, under the iHeart licensing agreement, a foreign government’s money is ending up in a U.S. super PAC’s coffers. responsiblestatecraft.org/ted-cruz-isr...
responsiblestatecraft.org
Israel is sponsoring ads on Ted Cruz's podcast. Is that legal?
Under an unusual deal with iHeartMedia, revenue from the show goes to a pro-Cruz super PAC
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Ted Cruz’s podcast, The Verdict, is a project of the Truth and Courage super PAC. iHeartRadio now manages the podcast’s production and marketing, and channels a portion of ad revenue to the PAC. That ad revenue is now one of the PAC’s largest sources of income.
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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
GEO claims it found a loophole: it gives to super PACs through a subsidiary, rather than the entity that holds contracts. But there’s no real distinction between the entities. So the risk of corruption—which the contractor ban was designed to prevent—is essentially the same.
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
For decades, federal law has barred contractors from donating even a penny to political committees, to prevent pay-to-play in the contracting process. Courts have upheld that contractor contribution ban even after Citizens United.
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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
It is a cynical strategy: fund contradictory messages with the same money, tailor each message to a different audience, and obscure the interests that stand to benefit. And here, a sitting member of Congress is lending their credibility to that effort.
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
The Fairshake network is running ads like this one praising a Democratic candidate for standing up to “MAGA Republicans,” while simultaneously running ads praising a Republican candidate for “fighting for the Trump agenda.” www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
How crypto billionaires are trying to buy a Senate seat in Alabama
The country's richest industry super PAC is spending big in a deep-red state.
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Protect Progress is part of the FairShake network of super PACs whose goal is to elect or defeat candidates from both parties based on their willingness to advance the crypto industry’s interests, but whose messages to voters often make no mention of crypto at all. thehill.com/homenews/cam...
thehill.com
Pro-crypto super PAC plans to spend $1.5M opposing Al Green
A pro-crypto super PAC said Thursday that it plans to spend $1.5 million opposing Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) in the Democratic primary race. Protect Progress, which is affiliated with the industry&#82…
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
The PAC funding this ad, Protect Progress, directly and indirectly gets almost all of its funding from Ripple, Coinbase, and the billionaire co-founders of a16z — each of which have also spent millions backing Trump’s political operation and trying to elect Trump allies.
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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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Reposted by Brendan Fischer
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
As a result, in federal elections: • campaigns + PACs obscure who they are paying • influencers don’t disclose who is paying them • voters are left in the dark about paid political content. CA at least requires a paper trail. The FEC doesn't even require that.
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Second, the FEC created an influencer carve-out in 2024, concluding that they need not need include “paid for by” disclaimers on posts paid for by campaigns or PACs. Last year, CLC asked the FEC to reconsider, but the agency has not acted. campaignlegal.org/sites/defaul...
campaignlegal.org
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
(Some PACs have gone further, like the AI-industry-backed super PACs routing 100% of their spending through newly- created shell companies, obscuring where the money went—which could hide payments to influencers, among other things. bsky.app/profile/bren...)
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
First, the FEC allows campaigns and PACs to only report payments to an intermediary—like an influencer marketing firm—without identifying the vendors or influencers who actually get paid. CLC + Duke's CSTP asked the FEC to close this loophole in 2021. It hasn't. campaignlegal.org/press-releas...
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
In California, the Steyer campaign disclosed payments to influencers, so watchdogs could spot that some influencers failed to include required “paid for by” disclaimers. washingtonpost.com/technology/2... That transparency is largely absent federally. Here's why.
washingtonpost.com
California gubernatorial candidate under investigation over payments to influencers
Tom Steyer’s California gubernatorial campaign has paid thousands of dollars to influencers, some of whom did not disclose the payouts. State election regulators are investigating.
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
There are two transparency issues here: 1) Whether campaigns and PACs disclose on campaign finance reports who they are paying (including influencers); 2) Whether influencers disclose to their audience that they were paid.
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Watchdogs and journalists could identify that Tom Steyer paid influencers—and that the influencers didn’t tell their audience—because CA law requires that campaigns report those payments. Federal elections are certainly awash in similar secret payments — we just can’t see them.
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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
In any case, the law requires that PACs disclose their spending so we don’t have to guess where the money is going. Read the complaint: campaignlegal.org/document/ai-...
campaignlegal.org
AI Industry-Funded Super PACs Unlawfully Evaded Transparency Rules, CLC Alleges
On May 5, 2026, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging that the super PACs “American Mission” and “Think Big” have unlawfully evaded federal ...
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
This scheme could also obscure the PAC's payments to influencers (which are already very difficult to track). Leading the Future’s dark money arm, for example, is quietly paying influencers to push pro-AI messages. www.wired.com/story/super-...
wired.com
A Dark-Money Campaign Is Paying Influencers to Frame Chinese AI as a Threat
Build American AI, a nonprofit linked to a super PAC bankrolled by executives at OpenAI and Andreessen Horowitz, is funding a campaign to spread pro-AI messaging and stoke fears about China.
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
So what are the PACs hiding? We don’t know. Such secrecy can hide a range of potential spending: evidence of unlawful coordination with candidates, payments to foreign vendors, or payments to Democratic firms crafting ads in Republican races (and vice versa).
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
@CampaignLegal filed a complaint alleging that the Leading the Future PACs violated the law through this scheme. campaignlegal.org/sites/defaul...
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
This is known as the "subvendor loophole"--designed to obscure who PACs are actually paying. PACs are required to report their direct vendors. But if that vendor is a shell LLC that then pays the real vendors? Those names are never disclosed.
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
And Think Big, and Leading the Future.
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Here's what hasn't been reported: all three PACs are routing almost all of their spending through their own dedicated shell LLCs. Each PAC, its own LLC. Each LLC created right around the same time as the PAC. None have received payments from any other political committee. Here's American Mission:
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
These PACs have already drawn scrutiny for their tactics, like attacking a candidate for ties to Palantir while being funded by Palantir's own co-founder. nytimes.com/2026/04/21/o... But the cynicism doesn't stop at the messaging. It extends to the money itself.
nytimes.com
Opinion | Why Are Palantir and OpenAI Scared of Alex Bores?
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Leading the Future sits at the top of the structure. It channels money to two other PACs: Think Big (focused on Democratic races) and American Mission (focused on Republican races). The goal? Neutralize political opposition in both parties to rapid, unregulated AI adoption.
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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
Looking ahead, we’re less likely to see “last-minute slapdash attempts to overturn the results” like in 2020—but instead, “more systematic efforts to influence how elections are run months ahead of time.” Read more: 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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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Honey has maintained close ties to Cleta Mitchell and other election deniers. propublica.org/article/elec... And she is now leading an increasingly aggressive push to investigate alleged noncitizen voting—despite no evidence it’s a widespread problem.
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
The merger of election denial networks with the federal government is also having more subtle effects. For example, Heather Honey helped shut down a nonpartisan program studying college voter participation and turnout, as @hansilowang.bsky.social reported for @npr.org. bsky.app/profile/bren...
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
ProPublica revealed that Olsen personally pressed the head of the FBI’s Atlanta field office to investigate Fulton County’s role in the 2020 election—and the agent was then forced out after concluding there was no basis for a probe.
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
The consequences are already being felt. For example, the FBI’s Fulton County raid was based on a referral from Kurt Olsen, a lawyer who sought to overturn the 2020 election, and claims from Clay Parikh, who has repeatedly promoted debunked allegations. Both are now “Special Government Employees.”
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
As I told @propublica.org: “The election denial movement is now interwoven within the federal government, and they are working together toward a shared goal of reshaping elections” in ways that undermine the freedom to vote.
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
These political appointees have gone beyond just giving lip service to election conspiracy theories. At least 10 were directly involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election. 11 have close ties to Cleta Mitchell’s Election Integrity Network.
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
A new investigation from @propublica.org's @dougbockclark.bsky.social + @jenafifield.bsky.social finds that at least 75 career staff previously involved in protecting elections are gone. In their place: dozens of political appointees with roots in the election denial movement.
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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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Reposted by Brendan Fischer
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
Before, these campaigns came from the outside. Now, the same networks are inside government—turning conspiracy theories into investigations, policy, and real-world consequences. (end)
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
This is the same playbook we saw with earlier attacks on ERIC and the Biden voter access order—nonpartisan programs get recast as partisan threats, then targeted until they’re weakened or shut down. npr.org/2024/06/30/n...
npr.org
Republicans are turning Biden’s voter registration order into a partisan flash point
Three years after President Biden issued an executive order for boosting voter registration, GOP officials are ramping up efforts to turn it into a partisan flash point before this fall’s election.
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Brendan Fischer @brendanfischer.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
Importantly, these programs weren’t about helping one political party: they helped colleges understand who votes, and how to get more young people to participate. Now that work just got harder.
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