John,

The New York Times just reported that a right-wing billionaire has made the largest-ever single contribution to a conservative political group run by, in Justice Clarence Thomas’ words, “the No. 3 most powerful person in the world.”

Here’s just how this shady deal happened:

Barre Seid, a conservative donor and billionaire, donated 100 percent of the shares of a company he owned to a conservative nonprofit known as the Marble Freedom Trust — just before an international conglomerate bought the company for a $1.65 billion sum.

By transferring his shares to the nonprofit, Seid avoided paying taxes on the proceeds, and the entire $1.65 billion went to the Marble Freedom Trust.

The “No. 3 most powerful person in the world” running the trust is Leonard Leo, a conservative activist long associated with the Federalist Society and campaigns to confirm Thomas, John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.

Now, this $1.6 billion is available to finance Leo’s fights against voting rights, climate action, and abortion rights. And that’s bad news. Very bad news.

John, legal loopholes and outrageous political contributions like this have done so much damage to our country — that’s why I introduced a Constitutional Amendment this year to overturn Citizens United.

But the truth is, in order to make that kind of progress even possible, we must keep our Democratic majorities this November — no matter what efforts conservatives like Leonard Leo undertake. So I’m asking:

As a repudiation of the right-wing attempts to buy our democracy that this $1.6 billion donation represents, will you make a contribution of $10 to our campaign today to help me defend our House and Senate majorities from the Republican Party and conservative activists, and billionaire mega-donors and their Super PACs?

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The reason that conservative billionaires contribute such vast sums of money to political causes is that they know they will reap the returns on their investment if the Republican Party is able to take back power and legislate massive tax breaks for the extremely wealthy.

We can stop them if we work together. Thanks for standing with me against yet another obscene right-wing attempt to influence the outcome of our elections.

— Adam