Brendan Fischer
@brendanfischer.bsky.social
Director, Strategic Investigations @CampaignLegal.org. Wisconsinite.
"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.
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.
latimes.com
If you missed the President's speech this evening, here's a recap:
Simpsons Old Man Yells at Cloud
Alt: Old Man Yells at Cloud
static.klipy.com
“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.
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.
wsj.com
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. 🧵
Andrew Perez@andrewperez.bsky.social · 2mo agoA new wrinkle to crypto's election buying: Jasmine Crockett taped an ad for a crypto super PAC to help the industry take out her Dem colleague Al Green. “I can’t think of another instance of a sitting lawmaker appearing in an industry-funded super PAC ad," says @brendanfischer.bsky.social
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...
The Shocking Billionaire Plot To Steal The Election
YouTube video by More Perfect Union
youtube.com
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...
Political Money Is Flowing to Influencers. But From Whom?
nytimes.com
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. 🧵
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...
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...
propublica.org
"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
ProPublica@propublica.org · 4mo agoNEW: 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 largely be missing. By @dougbockclark.bsky.social @jenafifield.bsky.social
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...
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.
npr.org
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.
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...
Jen Fifield@jenafifield.bsky.social · 5mo agoOn Saturday morning, an agent took more than three dozen hard drives and servers containing data from a partisan audit of the 2020 vote in Maricopa County, according to the receipt (link in update in top of story) www.propublica.org/article/mari...
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.
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.
nbcnews.com
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...
🧵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.
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
ProPublica@propublica.org · 5mo agoNEW: Several high-ranking federal election officials attended a summit last week at which prominent activists who worked to overturn Trump’s loss in the 2020 election pressed for the president to declare a national emergency to take over the midterms.
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.
Charles Ornstein@charlesornstein.bsky.social · 5mo agoDon’t look away: High-ranking federal election officials attended a summit last week at which prominent figures who worked to overturn Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election pressed the president to declare a national emergency to take over this year’s midterms. @dougbockclark.bsky.social
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...
Elon Musk’s Secret Web of Companies in Texas
nytimes.com
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"
Brendan Fischer@brendanfischer.bsky.social · 6mo agoWow. 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...
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...
@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.
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.
Teddy Schleifer@teddyschleifer.bsky.social · 6mo agoNEWS: Meta is about to start a $65 million midterms push — its biggest political effort in its 20 years in business. Meta is standing up two super PACs that this week will drop money in races in Texas and Illinois to push A.I. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/t...
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...
Administration Targets Noncitizen Voting, Despite Finding It Rare
nytimes.com
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.
Olivia Messer@oliviamesser.bsky.social · 6mo agoI can’t help thinking there’s so much money changing hands wrt ICE detention that there aren’t even enough investigative reporters to track www.michiganpublic.org/criminal-jus...
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...
Seeking Pardon, Foreign Billionaire Allegedly Funneled Millions to Trump Super PAC
campaignlegal.org
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?
Brendan Fischer@brendanfischer.bsky.social · last yr.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. 🧵
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. 🧵
“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: 🧵
NOTUS@notus.com · last yr.Kyrsten Sinema’s Campaign Committee Spent Big on Flights, Wine Shops and Skiing NEW via @davelevinthal.com www.notus.org/money/kyrste...
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...
I.R.S. Says Churches Can Endorse Candidates From the Pulpit
nytimes.com
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/
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · last yr.BENNY JOHNSON: Tell me about a brand new Trump device, made here in the USA. St. Louis! Why did you pick St. Louis? DON JR: Well, listen, uh, we're gonna be, ahhh, having call centers for Trump mobile in St. Louis. So we're keeping our data on shore.