The WSJ reported Elon Musk gave $50 million to a Stephen Miller-linked nonprofit in 2022 and filings show they spent $90 million on media contractors
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that before the 2022 midterm elections Elon Musk provided over $50 million in funding to Citizens for Sanity, a non-profit run by executives at Stephen Miller’s America First Legal Foundation, and that the money flowed through organizations affiliated with former DeSantis campaign staff.
Tax filings show that Citizens for Sanity spent over $90 million on five contractors for ‘Advertising and promotion’ services – raising a question about whether or not Musk’s nonprofit donation was partly funneled through these media contractors back to X.com as the site was struggling to build advertising revenue. There is no public documentation showing that Musk’s donation was used to buy ad space on X.com or any indication that this is illegal. However, it is likely that some of the funds were spent on his site based on the track record of the media contractors to buy ad space on X for their clients – and if that is case at least part of Musk’s donation may have helped support his own business.
The flow of money among nonprofits run by Stephen Miller and former DeSantis campaign advisors is a tangled web. As new reporting below reveals, the money from Musk was funneled to Stephen Miller’s nonprofit by two executives who run a company that happens to employ Miller’s wife.
Elon Musk gave tens of millions to support Republican causes starting as early as 2022
In the fall of 2022 Elon Musk spent more than $50 million to fund a nonprofit called Citizens for Sanity that is linked directly to Stephen Miller, according to a recent report from the Wall Street Journal.
The money from Musk was donated before the 2022 midterm elections and funded ad campaigns in battleground states that attacked Democrats on issues such as medical care for transgender children and illegal immigration.
A recent New Yorker piece provided detail on these ads and how the amount of spending eclipsed the Conservative Partnership Institute (C.P.I.) – which helped launch Stephen Miller’s nonprofits – and America First Legal, the nonprofit run by Miller.
In the last six months of 2022, Citizens for Sanity spent more than ninety million dollars on ads, including one that ran during the World Series. It laid the blame for crime, high inflation, and low wages on illegal immigration and warned viewers that Biden was leading the country toward “World War Three.” Other ads have decried “the woke left’s war on girls’ sports” and the “woke war on our children.” The group’s spending eclipsed that of both C.P.I. (which spent twenty-three million dollars in 2022) and America First Legal (which spent thirty-four million dollars).
The following year, Musk gave $10 million to support Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s presidential bid.
Elon Musk’s financial support for Republican causes has been much more extensive and started earlier than previously known. The Tesla CEO quietly gave tens of millions of dollars to groups with ties to Trump aide Stephen Miller and supporters of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s presidential bid, according to people familiar with the matter.
The president of Citizens for Sanity is Gene Hamilton, who is also the executive director of America First Legal Foundation, a nonprofit founded by Stephen Miller in 2021 to challenge initiatives supported by the Biden administration. The secretary and treasurer of Citizens for Sanity also work at America First Legal. And a review of the America First Legal 990 shows that it lists Citizens for Sanity as a related and controlled entity.
Citizens for Sanity paid $90 million to their top five contractors for advertising and promotion with most paid to FlexPoint Media
The 2022 990 filing for Citizens for Sanity shows that the top five independent contractors that were paid $90 million for ‘Advertising and promotion’ with over $62 million paid to FlexPoint Media Inc, a firm founded in 2017 by Kegan Beran and Tim Cameron. (As a side note, I have looked at a lot of nonprofit 990 filings and this is a huge amount of money for one nonprofit to spend on a single contractor.)
In 2022 FlexPoint Media Inc. was also paid $174 million by the Congressional Leadership Fund PAC run by Dan Conston.
The Daily Beast reported that during the same 2022 period Stephen Miller’s nonprofit America First Legal Foundation spent the majority of their expenses on ads and paid FlexPoint as well.
The America First Legal 2022 990 filing shows that around $30 million was paid to PG Placements, Jamestown Associates and FlexPoint Media for ‘Advertising and Promotion’.
It turns out that PG Placements is a pseudonym for FlexPoint Media, which means the two affiliated organizations were paid nearly $18 million by Miller’s America First Legal.
FlexPoint was paid approximately $80 million in total by Stephen Miller’s America First Legal and Citizens for Sanity in 2022.
Was Elon Musk’s $50 million donation to Stephen Miller’s nonprofit used to fund advertising revenue for Musk’s X?
The FCC provides information on FlexPoint Media broadcast spending, however, I was not able to find public documentation of money spent by FlexPoint Media on online social media websites. Various media quotes (below) by FlexPoint leadership indicate that X is an important ad platform for their clients. This begs the question: How much of Elon Musk’s $50 million donation was used to pay media contractors which spent that money on ads on his platform?
This 2022 Washington Examiner article described how conservatives were eager to see the return of political ads on Twitter under Musk, after they had been banned in 2019. The piece has a quote from FlexPoint about the importance of Twitter for their clients.
“Given how prominent political ads are and how many dollars there are to spend, this could make Twitter an instant force in the political messaging industry,” said Steve Johnston, a Republican strategist with FlexPoint Media, a GOP consulting firm.
In this WSJ article FlexPoint described how Twitter provided cheaper reach than other platforms.
“Whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, some of your most ardent supporters are on Twitter, and you can more than likely reach them cheaper there than you can on Facebook or Google,” said Tim Cameron, chief executive of political ad firm FlexPoint Media
Another article described how FlexPoint clients had asked questions about how X (formerly Twitter) Community Notes worked so they could avoid public disputes. FlexPoint chief executive Tim Cameron noted their clients did not plan to stop spending on X.
Musk funneled $50 million to Miller’s nonprofit through Building America’s Future, which is linked to former DeSantis campaign team Generra Peck and Phil Cox, who run Musk’s America PAC
According to the Wall Street Journal Elon Musk’s donation was routed through another nonprofit – Building America’s Future – which paid $43 million to Citizens for Sanity in 2022. An offshoot of Building America’s Future called Freedom’s Future Fund paid $28.7 million to Citizens for Sanity, before dissolving.
The 2021 filing for Building America’s Future lists Generra Peck as President through November 2021, and then Catherine Linkul became president. Linkul has worked for firms run by Generra Peck and Phil Cox, and she was the Director of the Office of the First Lady for Gov. DeSantis. (In a strange tangent, Catherine Linkul is the sister of Sheena Greitens who accused her ex-husband and former Missouri Governor Eric Greitens of sexual assault, and Eric Greitens claimed his wife had conspired against him with his political enemies Karl Rove and Mitch McConnell.)
The 2022 and 2021 filings show that Building America’s Future paid contractor P2 Pathway Public Affairs $210,000 in 2022 and in 2021 paid $240,000 to similarly named Pathway Public Affairs (at the same address as P2). P2 Pathway Public Affairs is run by Generra Peck and Phil Cox.
Researcher MountainsStars identified that Stephen Miller’s wife Katie Miller is a Principal at P2 Pathway Public Affairs.
In addition to the Building America’s Future nonprofit there is also a Building America’s Future PAC and this filing shows that the PAC is run by Katherine Neal and Generra Peck.
Researcher MountainsStars found that Building America’s Future PAC paid $1 million to Stand for US PAC in 2024, which in turn paid $65,000 to P2 run by Generra Peck. The PAC also paid $130,000 to IMGE, run by Peck’s business partner Phil Cox.
Generra Peck and Phil Cox run Musk’s America PAC which is paying key vendors run by Phil Cox
In July I reported on Elon Musk’s America PAC and detailed its initial donors (which did not list Musk) and provided background on their two primary contractors at the time – Raconteur Media and In Field Strategies.
After that story was published, the New York Times reported that Musk’s America PAC was being led by two former aides for Ron DeSantis – Generra Peck and Phil Cox. The Wall Street Journal reported on America PAC’s work to win 800,000 votes for Trump and new vendors they were paying that are tied directly to Phil Cox.
America PAC has replaced In Field strategies with firms that include Blitz Canvassing, which is part of communications and public affairs company GP3 Partners, according to people familiar with the move. Push Digital, based in Charleston, S.C., and IMGE, also part of GP3 Partners, took over from Raconteur Media, said the people. Cox is the founder of GP3 Partners and chairman of IMGE, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Stephen Miller’s America First Legal Foundation nonprofit and related nonprofits and corporate entities
With the new Wall Street Journal report that Elon Musk funded over $50 million to Stephen Miller’s nonprofit in 2022 – it’s important to provide transparency on the various entities Miller runs, the people who work there and the money flowing through them.
The 2022 990 filing for America First Legal Foundation lists Stephen Miller as President and Executive Director and Gene Hamilton as VP, General Counsel and Secretary. Other key executives include lawyers Reed Rubinstein, Andrew Block, Michael Ding and Ian Prior. Directors include Matt Whitaker, Ed Corrigan and Blake Masters and Russ Vought is the Treasurer.
Matt Whitaker had served as Trump’s acting U.S. Attorney General, after Jeff Sessions resigned, from November 2018 to February 2019.
Blake Masters is a Peter Thiel protege. Masters first met Thiel in law school, then went to work for him, and in 2022 Thiel funded an unsuccessful bid by Masters to win a senate seat (another Thiel protege J.D. Vance was more successful). I wrote this piece on the network supporting J.D. Vance, including Thiel and Blake Masters.
Ed Corrigan and Russ Vought were both key executives who launched the Center for Renewing America and The Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI) founded by Jim DeMint. CPI helped launch Miller’s America First Legal Foundation and several other nonprofits (see more on CPI below).
Stephen Miller’s America First Legal Foundation nonprofit lists four tax-exempt organizations that have ‘yes’ in the controlled entity section:
American Accountability Foundation – 501(c)(3) Primary activity is Public Policy
Center for Renewing America Inc – 501(c)(3) Primary activity is Public Policy
Citizens for Renewing America Inc – 501(c)(4) Primary activity is Social Welfare
Citizens for Sanity – 501(c)(4) Primary activity is Social Welfare
In addition, the filing lists two related organizations that are taxable as a corporation or Trust:
Compass Professional Inc – Primary activity ‘Shared services’ – Controlled entity: Yes
American Voting Rights Foundation – Primary activity ‘Shared services’ – Controlled entity: No
Stephen Miller’s nonprofits and business entities are part of a larger network that was created by the Conservative Partnership Institute set up in 2017 by Jim DeMint – who previously ran the Heritage Foundation. Below is an overview of CPI that shows a broader network of interlinked organizations that are all working in alignment to elect Donald Trump and staff and run his administration.
An overview of the Center for Renewing America and the Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI) right-wing network
A recent New Yorker piece by Jonathan Blitzer provides an excellent deep-dive into the The Center for Renewing America and the Conservative Partnership Institute (C.P.I.), which was founded by Jim DeMint, a former South Carolina senator. Jim DeMint had a reputation for being so combative that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called him “an innovator in Republican-on-Republican violence.” DeMint led the Heritage Foundation for several years and helped staff Trump’s senior administration by helping to recommend Betsy DeVos, Scott Pruitt, and Rick Perry.
When DeMint was fired by the Heritage board over “significant and worsening management issues” he set up the Conservative Partnership Institute in May 2017 to build new coalitions and to help staff more positions in Trump’s administration. Cleta Mitchell became CPIs lawyer and had a central role in organizing 2020 election deniers and electoral challenges. Other C.P.I. executives include President Ed Corrigan, Chief Operating Officer Wesley Denton and Senior Partner Mark Meadows.
C.P.I. is an incubator and activist hub that funds and launches other organizations – like Stephen Miller’s nonprofits. C.P.I. helped to set up eight inter-connected nonprofits that raised nearly $200 million in 2022. Thanks to the Wall Street Journal‘s recent reporting, we now know that around one quarter of that came from Elon Musk alone.
C.P.I., which has spent years placing conservative job seekers in congressional offices, is now vetting potential staffers for a second Trump term. One of its groups, the American Accountability Foundation, has been investigating the personal profiles and social-media posts of federal employees to determine who might lack fealty to Trump.
C.P.I. also helped set-up several for profits such as Compass Legal and Compass Professional, which provided accounting services. The New Yorker piece captured more on this convoluted network:
The structure of these groups could seem both byzantine and incestuous to an outsider, but the idea, Denton told me, was “to insure mission alignment.” Stephen Miller formed America First Legal, a public-interest law group that has primarily targeted “woke corporations,” school districts, and the Biden Administration. Vought started the Center for Renewing America, which generated policy proposals as though the Trump Administration had never ended. Corrigan and Denton were on the board of Vought’s group; Vought, Corrigan, and Denton sat on the board of Miller’s group. As more organizations joined the fold, their boards increasingly overlapped, and the roster of ideologues and Trump loyalists grew. Gene Hamilton and Matthew Whitaker, key figures from the Trump D.O.J., worked at America First Legal. Ken Cuccinelli, from the Department of Homeland Security; Mark Paoletta, from the Office of Management and Budget; and Kash Patel, from the Department of Defense, became fellows at Vought’s group.
And the story noted an important question – whether or not the nonprofits had crossed a line into lobbying.
C.P.I.’s association with the Freedom Caucus raises questions about whether the organization can credibly claim to be a nonprofit that steers clear of actual lobbying.
C.P.I. says that the groups it has launched are independent, and the New Yorker story described a legal back door that impacts Stephen Miller’s nonprofits:
America First Legal, like C.P.I., is a nonprofit. But it has a related entity called Citizens for Sanity, which can spend money on political advertising with minimal restrictions.
The largest early C.P.I. donor was Mike Rydin and recent donors include Tim Dunn and Elon Musk
In 2023 the Daily Beast reported on the secret megadonor behind the MAGA movement’s ‘nerve center’ also known as the Conservative Partnership Institute. Mike Rydin, a retired Houston software developer was identified as CPI’s largest donor. After Rydin retired and sold his company he gave CPI more than $25 million in 2021 after the January 6th Capital attack.
The New Yorker described other donors as well:
Among C.P.I.’s most recent donors are the Servant Foundation, a fund backed by David Green, the founder of Hobby Lobby; Donors Trust, a fund associated with Leonard Leo and the Koch family; the Bradley Impact Fund, an offshoot of a Wisconsin-based philanthropy where Cleta Mitchell serves as a board secretary; and the Ohio food-packing magnate Dave Frecka and his wife, Brenda, who have a conference room named after them at 300 Independence Avenue.
Texas oil billionaire Tim Dunn has been a major donor to C.P.I. and was reportedly tapped to fund the legal-defense efforts. I wrote this piece on Tim Dunn and his work with former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale.
We now know that Elon Musk is by far the largest donor supporting Stephen Miller and the C.P.I. network and that Musk is one of the largest donors supporting Donald Trump for president.
Regardless of the outcome of the presidential election in a few weeks, it is important to continue providing transparency on the network of entities run by Stephen Miller, the C.P.I. and others and to track funding provided by Elon Musk and other large GOP donors – especially when their mission is the opposite of ‘Citizens for Sanity’ and more like ‘Oppress all Citizens’.
Tunnel rats, all of them. As long as Investigative Journals and Journalists drag them into the searing light, their deceptions could be short-lived, but their works and connections need to be called out. Miller and Musk remind me of the phrase “polymorphously perverse.”
Just effing appalling, all of them.