Leonard Leo is the personification of IOKIYAR. Many of us remember when “activist judges” was sneered at by conservatives; now those same people assert the wholesale dismissal of legal precedents by conservative jurists is the virtuous way to right the wrongs decided by, y’know, voters. The Deep State is dangerous, but the Unitary Executive (cough, cough… autocrat) is cool with them. Oh, and we can dictate what laws you follow, but they don’t apply to me.
Politico reports Leo, the man behind many a conservative Supreme Court nominee and the people who fund them, is refusing to cooperating with a tax probe into his myriad organizations by the DC Attorney General, who suspects Leo has used the network of non-profits, political action groups, and for-profit firms to manipulate tax law to filter donations to his personal accounts at a lower tax rate. Leo’s groups have also been known to filter money through other organizations and into the pockets of people like Ginni Thomas and Kellianne Conway.
Washington D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb alleges Leo uses his for-profit consulting firms, Arabella Advisors and CRC Advisors, to fund his tax-free non-profit “advocacy groups” through tax-deductible donations, which would then be used to pay Leo’s salary at the non-profit. Other groups, including one that was affiliated with Arabella, claim Leo is using the funds to finance an extravagant lifestyle—a lifestyle, they assert, that got extremely more extravagant after Leo gained a modicum of renown when Trump made him an unpaid advisor to his campaign to craft a list of potential Supreme Court nominees.