Organizations tied to a Democratic-aligned dark money network are behind an effort to connect economic experts sympathetic to the Biden administration with the press, according to a new report published by the Capital Research Center (CRC).
Economic Speakers Bureau (ESB), a group that connects left-of-center economic experts with the media, is a fiscally sponsored project of the Groundwork Collaborative, which is itself a fiscally sponsored project of the New Venture Fund, one arm of a sprawling left-wing dark money network, the CRC report found. Fiscal sponsorship is an arrangement that allows an established nonprofit, like the New Venture Fund, to process tax-deductible donations for an allied group without that organization registering with the Internal Revenue Service, according to the American Bar Association.
The New Venture Fund is part of a network managed by the consulting firm Arabella Advisors that pours millions of dollars every year into efforts aimed at electing Democrats or otherwise pushing left-of-center priorities. (RELATED: Biden’s Former ‘Disinformation’ Czar Teams Up With Liberal Operatives For New Gig)
“For those trying to keep track, that means the ESB is an Arabella front group created by another Arabella front group,” the CRC report reads.
“Fiscally sponsored projects creating their own fiscally sponsored projects is a relatively new level of financial shell games in the world of dark money, but one that the Arabella network is already starting to play very well,” Parker Thayer, the investigative researcher who authored the CRC report, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The Groundwork Collaborative has already created several other pop-up groups despite the fact that, in the eyes of the IRS, the Groundwork Collaborative doesn’t actually exist.”
Expert @KittyRichardsDC joined @SquawkCNBC yesterday to discuss how it’s time for Congress to correct the GOP tax scam of the past that favored the wealthy & invest in crucial areas, such as housing, education & clean energy. pic.twitter.com/EACrjv2R9h
— Economic Speakers Bureau (@econspeakers) June 21, 2024
Though ESB characterizes itself as a middleman between a “diverse national network of economic policy experts” and the media, many of the experts affiliated with it are alumni of the Biden administration. The assortment of experts “is neither diverse nor national,” according to the CRC report.
ESB’s experts have provided numerous favorable comments about the Biden administration’s policies to the press, according to the CRC report.
Sabeel Rahman, who led the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs between 2021 and 2023, is one of ESB’s experts and has given several quotes to outlets like the Huffington Post, Boston Review and Politico praising President Joe Biden’s economic agenda, according to the CRC report. Other ESB experts, like former National Economic Council members Jennifer Harris and Bharat Ramamurti, have also praised Biden’s policies in the media.
When booking ESB’s experts, members of the press are routed through SKDK, one of the top Democratic consulting firms in the country, according to CRC. SKDK provides consulting services to the Biden campaign and several other Democratic candidates.
“Having a fiscally sponsored pop-up group create its own pop-up, let’s call it sponsorship-squared, doesn’t really offer any additional concealment, convenience or benefit from an organizational standpoint,” Thayer told the DCNF.
“This sponsorship-squared arrangement seems to serve the same purpose as a puffer fish’s unique anatomy; it allows the Left’s activists machine to look larger and more intimidating,” he continued “The professional Left, particularly the Arabella network, does this all the time, creating a roster of pop-up groups, even pop-ups within pop-ups, to give the appearance of broad public support when there is really one or two mega-donors behind the whole operation.”
New Venture Fund, ESB and Groundwork Collaborative did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.
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