Leonard Leo Built the Conservative Court. Now He’s Funneling Dark Money Into Law Schools.

With a donation of as much as $25 million, he wanted Cornell Law to establish the Center for the Study of the Structural Constitution — the biggest effort yet by the conservative megadonor to reshape academia in his right-wing image.

The Intercept followed the money trail to reveal how the man known primarily as the Trump administration’s “court whisperer” has secretly funneled part of his billion-dollar war chest to the law school at Texas A&M University.

To many Cornell Law professors, however, a Leo-sponsored center devoted to the “structural Constitution” registered as a potential launchpad for right-wing legal theories at an elite, generally liberal institution.

The center would have its own physical space, staff, programming, visiting professors, and fellows-in-residence, making it “a locus of activity for the structuralist movement, with a sort of gravitational pull attracting the very best of those at its heart.”

Each year, his groups send millions through DonorsTrust, which markets itself as a “principled philanthropic partner for conservative and libertarian donors” and a means to anonymously fund “sensitive or controversial issues.”

In April 2021, Catholic University announced it had received $4.25 million from an “anonymous trust” for a three-year program, with the possibility of expanding “into a larger constitutional law center” after that, based on a joint assessment by the “supporting donor” and the school.

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