Two weeks ago, attorney and legal commentator Preston Moore posted a video saying he was offered (but did not accept) hundreds of dollars from a group to attack Donald Trump and “Trump Republicans.” The group that solicited Moore is called the “Good Information Foundation,” and presumably, if Moore is telling the truth, this is common practice for them.
Moore told Breitbart News, “They wanted me to use fear to manipulate people into voting blue, or into voting not Trump… And when they’re giving examples of the things they wanted me to say — don’t say ‘Trump and his allies,’ say ‘Trump Republicans’ — it became really clear that this was about putting out information… to impact midterms.”
“To impact midterms.”
It’s that brazen, apparently.
This appears to be a violation of federal law that prohibits 501(c)(3) organizations from “directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign.” This case seems like such blatant abuse of our tax code, I was personally compelled to file a complaint with the IRS about the group.
The Good Information Foundation is, according to its website, the non-profit arm of Good Information Inc., which describes itself as “a public benefit corporation committed to restoring social trust and strengthening democracy by investing in solutions that counter disinformation and increase the flow of good information online.”
Screen image of the “about” page on the Good Information Foundation’s website. (goodinfofoundation.org)
It is not readily apparent from their website who is running the organization; they do not list board members, leadership, or key staff. Tom Fitton told me on our radio show, Breitbart News Daily, that the shadowy nature of this non-profit is not illegal, but it is “murky” and “unusual.” What’s more, they were founded recently so there is minimal publicly available financial information.
What has been reported, however, is that Good Information Inc. is not only backed by far-left billionaire activist George Soros, but also LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman.
Hoffman is a 55-year-old billionaire who helped launch PayPal before co-founding LinkedIn in 2002.
He has since fashioned himself into a Democratic mega-donor, though his activities are largely hidden from public view. He is one of the key framers of the modern political infrastructure that is contouring the current American landscape by allowing the super-wealthy to use nonprofits and lenient disclosure laws to make large political contributions in relative obscurity. Tactically, he embraces both the disingenuous and the censorious – as well as the Chinese Communist Party. He’s one part Soros, one part Michael Bloomberg, and one part Laurene Powell Jobs.
Reid Hoffman, chairman and co-founder of LinkedIn Corp., on June 12, 2014. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
LinkedIn Chairman and Co-Founder Reid Hoffman, second from left, and LinkedIn CEO Jeffrey Weiner, center, applaud during the opening bell ceremony at the New York Stock Exchange on May 19, 2011. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
When it comes to spending on so-called “dark money,” the Democrats dominate Republicans, and Hoffman has emerged as a major donor in this world. Like Laurene Powell Jobs, Hoffman backs a partisan behemoth that is devouring media: ACRONYM and Courier Newsroom. As I wrote in my bestselling book, Breaking the News, “Courier has avoided restrictions on online political advertising by couching pro-DNC content as news. For example, Courier produces laudatory pieces and videos on Democrat causes and candidates with factory-like regularity.”
Courier Newsroom is one of the most brazen left-wing endeavors funded by Jobs. Journalist Joshua Green described Courier as “the Left’s plan to slip vote-swaying news into Facebook.”
(L-R) Jenna Wortham, The New York Times Magazine staff writer, Reid Hoffman, co-founder and executive chairman of LinkedIn, and Joichi Ito, director of the MIT Media Lab, speak onstage at The New York Times New Work Summit on March 1, 2016, in Half Moon Bay, California. (Kimberly White/Getty Images for New York Times)
(L-R) Greylock partner Reid Hoffman, “Westworld” executive producers Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan, and writer Maureen Dowd speak onstage during Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit on October 4, 2017, in Beverly Hills, CA. (Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)
But Hoffman’s shady political activity doesn’t end there. He also funded a series of pro-Doug Jones ads in Alabama that were modeled on the much-decried Russian propaganda peddled on Facebook and Twitter in 2016. The project’s operatives posed as conservative Alabamians on Facebook and tried to use the platform to divide Republicans, pushing them toward a write-in candidate and away from Roy Moore, the GOP’s nominee for Senate. They also ran a scheme, according to the New York Times, “to link the Moore campaign to thousands of R