Supreme Court Puppetmaster Tries to Buy Protection in Congress

For months now, Leonard Leo — a conservative legal activist with a billion-dollar slush fund and an influential hand in the workings of the Supreme Court — has been refusing to comply with a Senate subpoena regarding his financial relationship with Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. 

Senate Democrats sent the subpoena six months ago, but they haven’t moved to enforce it. Doing so would require 60 votes under the Senate’s filibuster rules, and Republicans have no intent of helping Democrats scrutinize the activities of one of their most important allies. 

The stakes of this year’s congressional races are high for Leo. According to federal and state campaign finance records reviewed by Rolling Stone, Leo has been quietly dumping millions of dollars into competitive down-ballot races which — if Republicans manage to take control of Congress — could provide him with legal protection from congressional oversight. 

Leo has been a staple in Republican judicial politics for decades. He’s served as a top executive at the Federalist Society for more than 25 years, and masterminds a network of conservative dark money groups — including the Concord Fund — dedicated to influencing judicial appointments and the cases that judges hear. As Donald Trump’s judicial adviser, Leo was heavily involved in securing the appointments of Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. 

According to ProPublica, Leo helped arrange for Alito’s seat on a private jet to Alaska in 2008. The flight was reportedly paid for by a billionaire hedge fund chief and donor to Leo’s dark money network who had business before the Supreme Court. The Washington Post separately reported that Leo had secretly steered consulting payments to Thomas’ wife.  

In April, the Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenaed Leo, demanding he provide a full accounting of any gifts and payments he has directed to Supreme Court justices and their spouses. 

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“Mr. Leo has played a central role in the ethics crisis plaguing the Supreme Court and, unlike the other recipients of information requests in this matter, he has done nothing but stonewall the committee,” wrote Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who chairs the judiciary committee. 

Leo outright refused to comply with the subpoena, calling it “unlawful” and the “left’s dark-money effort to silence and cancel political opposition.” He’s spent the months since pouring cash into competitive races. 

Campaign records reviewed by Rolling Stone show that Leo’s Concord Fund has contributed $2.5 million into Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Texas) Truth and Courage PAC. Cruz is facing a tight race to keep his Senate seat against Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas). The election could help decide whether Democrats hold onto the Senate. 

The Concord Fund has also donated $750,000 to the Congressional Leadership Fund, the House GOP’s Super PAC, as well as $750,000 to a Super PAC backing Austin Theriault, a Republican candidate attempting to oust Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) from the state’s second district, where Leo has established a home base.

“This underscores again how Leonard Leo has sought to capture levers of power, and we know that officials who have gained power as a result of Leo’s spending have sought to stop the legitimate investigations into his activities,” said Lisa Graves, the managing director of the watchdog group Court Accountability and the director of True North Research. 

Whether the GOP holds onto the House could be particularly important for Leo. As Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a member of the judiciary committee, explained in an interview with Rolling Stone this summer, it’s virtually impossible for Senate Democrats to hold Leo accountable and enforce their subpoena, due to Senate filibuster rules. The House, on the other hand, operates on a simple majority vote.

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“That’s why I think November matters so much,” Whitehouse said. “The House does not operate [with] that disability, a House subpoena can be enforced by the House without a supermajority having to agree. And so they can proceed.” 

“I think it’s probably pretty likely that [in the case of] a House subpoena, they may quarrel and they may litigate, but ultimately it will be honored,” he added. “Unless, of course, Leonard Leo exited the country to put himself beyond the jurisdiction of the subpoena in order to protect all of his secrets — which are many and profound.”