A nonprofit foundation with ties to prominent Trump allies bankrolled a coordinated effort to spread misleading claims about election certification during the 2024 campaign, newly revealed documents show.
The Fair Elections Fund, incorporated in Delaware in 2023, funneled $300,000 to the American Principles Project Foundation, which paid for advertisements in swing states suggesting that local election officials could choose not to certify results. The ads, which featured the logo of a group called Follow the Law, contradicted election law: certification is mandatory once proper challenge procedures are completed.
Two prominent election deniers sit as directors of the Fair Elections Fund. Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer who worked to overturn the 2020 election results on behalf of Donald Trump, holds the position alongside Heather Honey, a researcher known for producing misleading analyses of election data.
Honey's profile has risen significantly in recent months. She now works in the Department of Homeland Security in an elections-focused role, a placement that alarmed voting rights advocates who view her as an election denier in a position of government authority. Before joining DHS, Honey cited false statistics to undermine confidence in the 2020 election, including a discredited claim that Pennsylvania had more votes than voters.
The Fair Elections Fund itself received the bulk of its funding from the Conservative Partnership Institute, a Washington hub for Trump loyalists. CPI contributed more than $6 million to the fund in 2024, tax documents reviewed by the Guardian reveal. Mitchell serves as a senior legal fellow at CPI.
Beyond the election certification ads, the foundation's spending extended deeper into the election denial infrastructure. It distributed $1.875 million to the Article III Foundation, which aired Spanish-language advertisements falsely warning that noncitizen voting carried deportation consequences. Another $285,000 went to Urban Legend Media, a firm that connects wealthy funders with social media influencers to promote causes aligned with right-wing priorities.
Much of that influencer spending supported the Save Act, a voting restriction bill that stalled in Congress. Mitchell launched the Only Citizens Vote coalition in 2024, a network of over 80 conservative groups pushing for proof-of-citizenship voting requirements at the federal level.
The fund also steered nearly $200,000 toward Verity Vote, another group where Honey held a leadership role, and $200,000 to the Election Research Institute where she previously served as president.
Since its Delaware incorporation, the Fair Elections Fund has raised over $7.7 million. Campaign Legal Center, a government watchdog, characterized the funding stream as part of a broader ecosystem designed to amplify baseless election fraud claims and undermine voting access.
"Cleta Mitchell and Heather Honey are not only leading figures in the election denial movement, they are also helping channel millions of dollars to an ecosystem of groups that seek to undermine the freedom to vote and mainstream fringe election claims," said Brendan Fischer, director of strategic investigations at the watchdog group.
Neither Mitchell nor Honey responded to requests for comment. The American Principles Project Foundation also declined to comment.
The coordination between these groups resembles what analysts describe as Trump's election takeover playbook: mass production and distribution of election fraud conspiracy theories, followed by pressure on lawmakers to restrict voting access. Senate Majority Leader John Thune acknowledged earlier this year that some pressure he faced to pass voting restriction bills came from what he called a "paid influencer ecosystem."
Author James Rodriguez: "The maze of nonprofits, influencers, and Trump allies all moving money in the same direction tells a clear story about how election denial became an industry with staying power."
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