Documents obtained by HuffPost show that Leo, a powerful figure who helped Donald Trump select Supreme Court justices, has funneled money to
Molly Redden at HuffPost:
A group at the center of conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo’s network funneled $750,000 to an influential new lobbying operation that pushes anti-LGBTQ+ legislation around the country, new tax records show. Do No Harm presents itself as a grassroots association of doctors against gender-affirming care and diversity efforts in the medical profession. The group, which was founded in 2022, does not disclose its donors. But newly disclosed tax filings provided to HuffPost by Accountable.US, a progressive watchdog, show that the Concord Fund, the funding arm of Leo’s network, donated $750,000 in 2022 to Do No Harm Action, the group’s official lobbying effort. Do No Harm also received more than $1.4 million from a nonprofit, the Project on Fair Representation, run by conservative activist Edward Blum, new records show. Blum, a conservative activist who helped engineer two Supreme Court cases that struck down affirmative action and major sections of the Voting Rights Act, is now a Do No Harm board member.
HuffPost previously revealed that Do No Harm received $1 million in seed funding from Joseph Edelman, a billionaire hedge fund CEO, and his wife, Suzy Edelman, who has said she considers “transgenderism” “a fiction designed to destroy.” Leo is best known as the kingpin of a decades-long effort to pack the federal judiciary with conservative judges. As the leader of the Federalist Society, Leo assembled a vast and secretive network of wealthy donors and nonprofits to amplify the power of the conservative legal movement, culminating in Leo handpicking the list of former President Donald Trump’s potential nominees to the Supreme Court. While some of his efforts are highly public, others, like the funding of Do No Harm, occur with little fanfare. The medley of conservative groups channeling money to Do No Harm underscores the growing belief on the right that attacking trans rights is “a political winner.”
[...] After Trump left office, Leo vastly expanded his efforts to target a wide spectrum of conservative policy goals and hobby horses. Powered in part by the largest known political donation in U.S. history — a $1.6 billion gift from a reclusive electronics mogul named Barre Seid — Leo’s network is now fueling political attacks on issues including abortion access, voting rights and critical race theory. Since 2022, the Concord Fund has received at least $55 million from the nonprofit that houses Seid’s gift, the Marble Trust. Do No Harm’s goals dovetail neatly with Leo’s expanded mission. The group has helped pay for activists and expert witnesses to travel the country, testifying in favor of bans on gender-affirming care for minors. On top of fighting to restrict transgender care, Do No Harm is suing Louisiana and Montana over modest efforts to diversify their state medical boards and trying to dismantle a Pfizer fellowship designed to put more Black, Latino and Native American medical professionals in leadership positions.
Concord Fund, the funding arm of right-wing megadonor Leonard Leo, is funding anti-trans and anti-DEI extremist group Do No Harm to push bans on gender-affirming healthcare for trans youths (and adults in some cases) and diversity initiatives in the medical profession.