Swiftboat 2016: Why Buy The Ad When You Can Get The Press For Free?

Anyone know these guys?

Today's news is full of speculation about what the Government Accountability Institute has dredged up on Hillary Clinton, the Clinton Foundation, and donors from foreign countries who gave to different initiatives promoted by the Clinton Foundation. You can read all about that here, here, or here.

Who funds the Government Accountability Institute?

Answers to those questions aren't all that difficult to find if one looks in the usual places. Since it is a 501(c)(3) public charity, donations are tax-deductible, and they're required to file the usual tax reports with the IRS. As it turns out, so are some of their funders, so the IRS reports give a pretty clear look at who's footing the bill for all of this "government accountability."

The three largest donors to the GAI are Donors' Trust, the Koch-founded and operated political slush fund through which donations are laundered and sent to various organizations connected with them, Franklin Center, and the Mercer Family Foundation in New York.

The Mercer Family Foundation is a private foundation established by right-wing hedge fund mogul Robert Mercer. The trustee of the foundation is Rebekah Mercer, who also happens to sit on on the GAI board, alongside Citizens United board member Ron Robinson, former Wall Streeter Hunter Lewis, and Heritage Foundation Fellow Owen T. Smith.  READ MORE