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ProPublica reports how Leo plans to use conservative influence group Teneo to enact MAGA agenda

WASHINGTON, DC – New reporting from ProPublica and Documented reveals that Leonard Leo, the driving force behind the MAGA agenda to strip Americans of their rights, erode democracy, and reward special interests, is now chairman of “private and confidential” conservative influence group Teneo. The group is part of Leo’s dark money network, receiving the bulk of its funding from Leo-linked DonorsTrust. Its members include Sen. Josh Hawley, Rep. Elise Stefanik, and the heads of the Republican Attorneys General Association, Republican State Leadership Committee, and Turning Point USA, among other influential conservatives.

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Yet again, ultra-conservative kingpin Leonard Leo is manipulating his dark money network to undermine Americans’ rights and democracy.

Leo supports right-wing attorneys general that challenge laws he doesn’t like, funds far-right organizations to make the legal arguments to overturn laws he doesn’t like, and then he stacks the courts with uber-conservative judges who rule the way he likes. Now, he’s become the driving force behind a secret organization to push his MAGA ideology on a national scale. It’s just the latest in Leo’s decades-long ploy to use his dark money network to advance his own radical agenda.”

Accountable.US President Kyle Herrig.

ProPublica highlights:

Leo wants to influence more than just the courts. “Now, Leo declared in a slick but private video to potential donors, he planned to “crush liberal dominance” across American life. The country was plagued by “woke-ism” in corporations and education, “one-sided journalism” and “entertainment that’s really corrupting our youth,” said Leo amid snippets of cheery music and shots of sunsets and American flags…Sitting tucked into a couch, with wire-rimmed glasses and hair gone to gray, Leo conveyed his inspiration and intentions: “I just said to myself, ‘Well, if this can work for law, why can’t it work for lots of other areas of American culture and American life where things are really messed up right now?’”

Leo wants to deploy his network to push his radical agenda in the long-term. ““Leo’s own statements about Teneo suggest that his plan for the group extends well beyond achieving near-term political victories…When you’re fighting a battle for the heart and soul of our culture, you want to know you’re in the trenches with someone you can trust, someone you know, and someone who will have your back,” Teneo’s “Community Vision” report quotes Leo as saying. “We don’t win unless we build friendship and fellowship with other people — and that’s what you’re doing here with Teneo.”

This week, nonpartisan government watchdog Accountable.US launched its “Mr. MAGA” campaign, exposing Leonard Leo’s foundational role in the MAGA movement — from his time in Trump’s inner circle to his efforts to undermine democracy and his personal role in overturning Roe v. Wade. Learn more about Leo’s MAGA agenda and the Mr. MAGA campaign at LeonardLeo.org.

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