Let’s talk about Leo

If Democrats are serious about dealing with this outrageous judicial power grab, it’s long past time that they went nuclear on the people who have been facilitating it. This twitter thread by election law expert Rick Hasen, which points to a couple of excellent articles on the subject, tells the tale of a corrupt behind-the-scenes puppet master who has fundamentally changed American life in ways that will reverberate for generations:

I’ve been calling on my conservative friends to condemn Leonard Leo, one of the key players in building the Federalist Society and promoting Trump’s judges to the federal courts, for backing a group trying to suppress the vote. But now there’s evidence of Leo’s self-dealing.

Here’s the piece @Dahlialithwick and I wrote @Slate in May on how same people pushing conservative judges for the court were spawning more voter fraud myths through the “Honest Elections Project” backed by Leo to defend laws making it harder to vote.

Then @Dahlialithwick and I followed up in this @Slate piece showing same people providing financial backing to get three former Bush lawyers from Bush v. Gore on Supreme Court are pushing legal theories going to SCOTUS aimed at suppressing the vote.

Leo’s activities with Honest Elections Project are despicable. His group is advancing crackpot theories which could be used to try to get the courts, which he helped to stack with conservatives, to accept sham voter fraud arguments which could affect voting outcomes.

And now comes this expose from @CREWcrew @RobertMaguire_ which shows that in addition to Leo’s despicable political conduct, it looks like Leo and a lot of people are getting rich while obscuring that through a series of organizations and corporations.

Some of my conservative friends have condemned others, like Kris Kobach, for advancing false, unsupported and dangerous theories of massive voter fraud used to try to suppress the vote and sway elections. But crickets about Leo, even after I’ve called it to their attention.

Why the silence? I hope it is not because Leo runs a very powerful network that puts conservatives on courts and in high positions, and it is fear of what opportunities might disappear if Leo were called out.

But his work should be condemned by all principled conservatives.

P.S. Don’t be telling me Leo has “stepped away” from @FedSoc. So what? He’s created this network and has unparalleled influence in this world, making his advancing spurious voter fraud arguments in courts stacked with his judges particularly dangerous. 8/7

I took people at their word when they said that Leo had “stepped away” from the Federalist Society. But he’s still listed here as their co-chairman!

https://fedsoc.org/board-of-directors

Originally tweeted by Rick Hasen (@rickhasen) on October 23, 2020.

Leonard Leo is as close to being a rightwing superhero as there is. In legal circles he is a demi-god. And it turns out that he’s also personally corrupt and just as criminally devious and hackish as all the rest. I don’t know that anyone can count on “principled conservatives” to say anything against him.