Notorious Democrat election meddler Marc Elias, who was a key proponent of the Russia hoax conspiracy theory, has lost a bid to allow foreign interference to change the Kansas Constitution.
Elias sued the state of Kansas after legislators there enacted a law to stop foreigners from financing state ballot initiatives or opposition to ballot initiatives. His law firm represented Kansans for Constitutional Freedom (KCF), a pro-abortion group involved in drumming up opposition to the state’s 2022 ballot initiative affirming that killing unborn children was not a right found in the state’s constitution (contra a state Supreme Court ruling).
In the case, Elias and the abortion radicals essentially argued that they cannot find political success in Kansas unless their activities are funded by far-left foreigners who seek the destruction of the West.
That position appears to be in line with Elias’ past, as he commissioned the debunked “Steele dossier” from former British spy Christopher Steele in order to manufacture the lie that the Trump campaign was colluding with Russia to influence the 2016 election.
“Kansans for Constitutional Freedom is a self-admitted foreign-funded group that absolutely should not be financing ballot measure campaigns,” said Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of Americans for Public Trust, which filed a brief in support of the Kansas law. “Without this law, there is nothing stopping other foreign-funded groups — or foreign adversaries like Russia, China, and others — from exerting large-scale financial influence in Kansas.”
U.S. District Judge Daniel D. Crabtree, an appointee of former President Barack Obama serving in Kansas, agreed, citing state interest in keeping foreigners from mangling American state constitutions.
“The compelling interest analysis is straightforward. A state may limit the participation of foreign citizens in activities of American democratic self-government,” Crabtree wrote. “KCF contends that issue advocacy — which implicates ideas — needn’t be free of foreign influence because voters should be free to get information from diverse sources,” he wrote, adding, “ballot issues implicate democratic self-government even more directly than candidate advocacy.”
Crabtree’s decision denied KCF an injunction on the Kansas law.
The case arose from KCF’s desire to fight a ballot initiative changing how Kansas would choose its state Supreme Court members. The group, which spent more than $11 million to advocate abortion in 2022, claimed that the law banning foreign influence “ultimately operate[] as a complete ban on speech about constitutional amendments in Kansas for certain disfavored speakers.” It also said it was specifically “targeted” by the law, because it is a group that receives foreign funding.
To most observers, the Kansas law is not only entirely reasonable but sets a bare minimum expectation for how American political funding should function across the board: It imposes financial reporting requirements and makes it unlawful to accept contributions and expenditures from foreign nationals to support promoting or opposing amendments to the state constitution.
The law defines foreign nationals as foreign governments and political parties, as well as foreign entities, American entities that are majority-owned by foreign nationals, or any individual noncitizen in the United States.
“American elections should be free of foreign interference and states clearly have a right — and an obligation — to ban foreign nationals from influencing the democratic process,” Jason Snead, executive director of Honest Election Project, said in a press release. “Noncitizens aren’t allowed to vote, sit on juries, or contribute to candidates running for office. Ballot issue campaigns should be no different.”
KCF took in about $1.6 million in funding tied to foreigners during the 2022 abortion campaign, all of which came from the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which is based in Washington, D.C. Left-wing outlet The Atlantic called the organization the “indisputable heavyweight of Democratic dark money,” noting that it sent “roughly $61 million of effectively untraceable money to progressive causes.” It is supported by Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss, who has contributed around $280 million to the fund over multiple years.
Sixteen Thirty has its tentacles all over left-wing funding and is administered by Arabella Advisors, which is chief among the left-wing dark money distributors in American politics.