The conservative group
Donors Trust was the source of $500,000 of FACT's revenue in 2015 and $800,000 in 2016. As a 501(c)(3) organization, FACT is not required to disclose donors; however,
Charles Koch has acknowledged giving to DonorsTrust. FACT has largely focused on Hillary Clinton and the
email scandal, and other Democratic representatives such as Senator
Evan Bayh of Indiana, Representative Patrick E. Murphy of Florida and Representative
Ted Strickland of Ohio. FACT lobbied against the confirmation of one-time Supreme Court nominee
Merrick Garland, and filed an FEC complaint against Democratic voter data firm Catalist in 2015. During his tenure, Whitaker wrote opinion pieces that appeared in
USA Today and
The Washington Examiner, and appeared regularly on conservative talk-radio shows and cable news. In 2017, Whitaker (as executive director) wrote:The most disturbing aspect of Hillary Clinton’s continued blame game is that she still doesn’t think there was anything wrong with recklessly handling highly sensitive and classified information, intentionally instructing her staff to do the same and then lying to the entire world about it at the United Nations of all places.In addition, FACT filed a complaint in August 2017 with the
Federal Election Commission (FEC) against the
Democratic National Committee (DNC) and
Alexandra Chalupa, a consultant working for the DNC who had been investigating
Paul Manafort and
Donald Trump's ties to Russia. Whitaker made the complaint at the direction of the White House. FACT acted in close concert with Senator
Chuck Grassley, who also made a complaint with the DOJ. FACT's complaint was based on the claim that Chalupa had met with Ukrainian officials in an effort to expose ties among Trump, Manafort, and Russia. As of December 2018 the FEC had given no indication whether it would investigate the issue. Chalupa denied any wrongdoing. In 2016, Whitaker defended
ExxonMobil as the executive director of FACT when the Attorneys General United for Clean Power Coalition started their investigation into the firm for not disclosing climate change risks. Whitaker called the investigation "both unconstitutional and unethical". In 2018, FACT scrutinised a pro Rick Scott
Political action committee. FACT paid America Rising at least $500,000 for research from 2015 to 2017. FACT also had close working relationship with America Rising, sharing information and political communication strategy. The foundation last year paid $134,119 to
Creative Response Concepts, a conservative political public relations company and has paid a total of $500,000 to the agency. FACT has called for ethical investigations or filed complaints against over 46 individuals or organizations, the vast majority of whom are either Democrats or associated with Democratic causes. ==Personnel==