There’s something so ugly to me about the rising efforts to ban gender-affirming care for trans children. It’s taking the most vulnerable people in society, at a time when they are their most vulnerable and just turning the knife. So of course it’s connected to the Federalist Society’s Leonard Leo.
Leo is the man most responsible for the current federal judiciary. While for years Leo peddled his influence in relative obscurity, known only by legal nerds, his role has received increased attention. And with that focus has come headlines about dark money, billionaires, and Leo’s ballooning personal wealth. But Huffington Post’s Molly Redden reports on the work of Accountable.US, showing there’s an even darker side to all that dark money.
Do No Harm is the advocacy group behind the push to have states ban gender-affirming care for minors (as well as leading opposition to effort to diversify the medical profession). They’ve even drafted legislation that states have used as a model. Redden reports Leo, through his Concord Fund, donated $750,000 to Do No Harm Action, the lobbying arm of the group.
But that’s not the only connection between Do No Harm and Leo.
In addition to receiving $750,000 from Leo’s network, Do No Harm paid Leo’s consulting firm $231,185 for “public affairs” services. The consulting firm, CRC Advisors, and other for-profit firms in which Leo has a financial stake have been paid millions of dollars over the years by various nonprofits in Leo’s orbit, resulting in a liberal watchdog calling on the IRS to investigate whether the payments violate rules on charitable giving.
Last year, Brian Schwalb, the attorney general of the District of Columbia, opened an investigation into Leo and his nonprofit network. The scope has not been made public.
Other notable contributors to Do No Harm include the Project on Fair Representation — an Edward Blum joint, and billionaire hedge fund CEO Joseph Edelman.
A spokesperson at CRC Advisors made the following statement about their connection to Do No Harm: “CRC Advisors employs nearly 100 best-in-class professionals that put its clients’ money to work more effectively than any other enterprise of its sort, and the repeated baseless attacks by groups linked to Arabella Advisors [Accountable.US is linked to Arabella] show the left agrees. CRC’s results speak for themselves, and we are blessed to be able to have this kind of impact in our country.”
Caroline Ciccone, president of Accountable.US, had some harsh words for the work of Leo, “It’s no surprise that Leonard Leo is using his vast dark money network to bankroll far-right groups working to roll back LGBTQ Americans’ rights. This is how Leonard Leo works. He leverages his web of nonprofits — bolstered by a massive $1.6 billion windfall — to carry out his radical, unpopular agenda because he knows it will never win at the ballot box.”
Yesterday, the Supreme Court announced they would hear arguments on Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care. We’ll have to wait and see if Leo’s efforts to cultivate his dream Court will pay off for his anti-trans agenda.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.