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Sludge

Investigative journalism on money in politics

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Trump Convenes White House Crypto Meeting With His Own Business Partners

Many of the companies at today’s White House meeting are in business with the president's or his son's crypto ventures, and have donated millions to Trump’s political committees.

Dark Money Group Sends Staffers to Tech and Pharma HQs to Kick Off August Recess

Center Forward, funded in part by the companies it sent congressional staffers to visit, paired the tours with policy briefings for aides who sit on the committees the companies lobby.

Health Insurers Are Paying Third Way as It Targets the Left

A health insurance industry group run by Republican consultants made its only disclosed 2024 donation to the centrist Third Way, according to a tax filing by the group.

AIPAC Tops $100 Million in Election Spending for Second Straight Cycle

The pro-Israel group's PAC and super PAC have poured $104.3 million into the midterms, including more than $30.6 million in Michigan's Democratic Senate primary, the most it has ever spent on a single race.

Lobbying Filings Reveal What Companies Paid for Trump's Freedom 250

Freedom 250 isn't required to disclose what its corporate sponsors paid, but new lobbying filings reveal the first documented contribution amounts for some of its biggest backers.

Cleta Mitchell's Voter Suppression Charity Tripled Its Spending Ahead of the Midterms

The FAIR Elections Fund's latest tax filing shows the charity bankrolled ads warning Latino voters that casting a ballot could get them deported, and paid the consulting firm of an ally who now oversees election policy at the Department of Homeland Security.

Democrats' Fundraisers Are Also Running AI's Congressional Access Operation

Consultants paid by Rep. Haley Stevens and other Democratic Senate campaigns are also managing a nonprofit that gives Google, Meta, Palantir, and other AI companies direct access to the congressional staff who regulate them.

Carville's War on the Democratic Left Is Funded by Centrist Billionaires

James Carville's firm has been paid by American Bridge, a super PAC funded by billionaires who also bankroll groups fighting progressives in primaries—and he advised a lobbying shop the crypto industry paid more than half a million dollars.

Former Trump Officials Are Lobbying the Agencies They Just Left

A Sludge review of Q2 lobbying disclosures found multiple revolving-door hires from the Trump White House are already lobbying the very agencies they just left, after President Trump declined to issue an ethics pledge.

Dark Money Group Led by Corporate Lobbyists Funds Pro-Stevens Super PAC

A new FEC filing show nearly all of the $13 million spent so far by the pro-Haley Stevens super PAC A Stronger Michigan came from Center Forward, a dark money group led by lobbyists for Northrop Grumman and funded in part by PhRMA.