Free Republic

n less than a month, two “ICE watchers” have been shot and killed by immigration enforcement agents in Minneapolis. On January 24, a federal agent shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti, a Veterans Affairs ICU nurse. His death follows that of Renée Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, who was killed on January 7. Both Pretti and Good participated in “ICE watching,” an anti-immigration-enforcement tactic that can involve tracking ICE agents, filming arrests, and alerting other activists of enforcement actions. While participants frame ICE watching as a “community safety” measure, these tactics often place untrained civilians in direct, high-stakes confrontation...

A complaint filed with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) alleges that the founder of the largest Democratic dark money network in the country is using its operations for his own financial benefit. Fox News reports that the complaint was filed on Tuesday by Americans for Public Trust (APT), and targets any entities that are affiliated with Arabella Advisors, a consulting firm based out of Washington D.C. which manages numerous nonprofits serving as fiscal sponsors for left-wing dark money groups. Arabella was founded by Eric Kessler, a former appointee in the Clinton Administration. It has since brought in hundreds of millions...

Top Democratic attorney Marc Elias has been using a dark money network to fund lawsuits geared toward advancing progressive causes, from fighting voter ID laws to enshrining universal mail-in voting, according to the watchdog group Americans for Public Trust. Elias, who previously helped push the “Russia collusion” hoax after serving as Hillary Clinton’s top campaign lawyer, recently parted ways from the Perkins Coie law firm to start the Elias Law Group – a firm dedicated to advancing the Democratic Party’s agenda in the name of “voting rights.” “Elias Law Group is a new law firm headquartered in Washington, D.C., with...

Executive Summary The political Left often criticizes—and the mainstream media frequently report on—the network of center-right nonprofits funded by billionaire entrepreneurs Charles and David Koch. But few politicos know of a left-wing leviathan in Washington, D.C., with a reach rivaling that of the Koch network. This study by the Capital Research Center documents a shadowy web into which nearly $600 million flowed in 2017, the most recent year for which data are available. Operating under the aegis of “philanthropy,” this network is housed in and staffed by a for-profit, privately held consultancy called Arabella Advisors, LLC. Arabella manages four nonprofit...

An expansive network of “shadowy” dark money donors has grown to rival the influence of the conservative Koch brothers -- pumping millions into left-wing causes ranging from health care to climate change to abortion -- all while flying well under the radar of public scrutiny, according to an explosive new report obtained by Fox News. The report, by conservative watchdog Capital Research Center, describes a band of nonprofits operating under the banner of Washington-based philanthropy company Arabella Advisors. Those “pop up groups” are housed in four Arabella-controlled “sister” nonprofits, according to the report: the New Venture Fund, Sixteen Thirty Fund,...