Judicial Crisis Network

The Judicial Crisis Network was incorporated in December 2004 as the Judicial Confirmation Network, a Virginia organization exempt under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code with the employer identification number 20-2303252. It ran television advertising for and against nominations to the Supreme Court of the United States and, in its later returns, made grants of millions of dollars to political committees. Its returns record contributions of 827,106 dollars for calendar 2005 and, for the fiscal years ended June, 18,545,000 dollars in 2016, 48,134,887 dollars in 2021 and 65,100,191 dollars in 2024, without naming donors. The Concord Fund, the name it carried in its last returns, filed articles of termination with Virginia on January 6, 2026.¹²³⁴

Incorporation and First Return

The return for the calendar year 2005, filed by the Judicial Confirmation Network from 9502 Nelson Lane, Manassas, Virginia, stated: "The Judicial Confirmation Network was incorporated in December 2004. During 2005, the Organization applied to the Internal Revenue Service for tax-exempt status under section 501 (c) (4)." Its purpose was "to support the confirmation of highly qualified individuals to the Supreme Court of the United States" and to ensure that "every nominee sent to the full United States Senate receives an up or down vote." Revenue was 827,106 dollars and expenses 772,820 dollars. The officers were Gary Marx, president, paid 60,000 dollars; Neil Corkery, treasurer, paid 16,000 dollars, at the Nelson Lane address; and James Hirsen, secretary, unpaid.¹

On June 13, 2007 the Mitt Romney presidential campaign announced a National Faith and Values Steering Committee that listed "Gary Marx, Executive Director of the Judicial Confirmation Network, Former Executive Director of the Virginia Christian Coalition" and "Wendy Long, Chief Counsel, Judicial Confirmation Network, New York."⁵

The 2008 Electioneering Filing

On October 2, 2008 the Judicial Confirmation Network filed a Form 9 with the Federal Election Commission, a 24-hour notice of electioneering communications, from P.O. Box 3141, Manassas. It reported disbursements on September 29, 2008 to the Pittsburgh firm BrabenderCox for television and cable placement, a marketing fee and production of an advertisement titled "Chose" that named Barack Obama, with a total on the form of 548,063 dollars. Neil Corkery was the custodian of records, listed as self-employed and a consultant. The persons "sharing or exercising control" were Corkery, Gary Marx, whose employer was Century Strategies, and Dan Casey, whose employer was DC Strategies. Marx signed the form.⁶

Wellspring and the 2016 Donation

The Wellspring Committee was a Virginia organization formed in 2008 whose books and records were kept by Neil Corkery at 8665 Sudley Road, Suite 182, Manassas. Its returns show revenue of 13,243,310 dollars in 2010, 7,802,442 dollars in 2014, 9,350,040 dollars in 2015, 32,227,010 dollars in 2016 and 16,650,162 dollars in 2017. In 2016 its program services were 31,459,679 dollars, of which 29,124,997 dollars were grants.⁷

Margaret Sessa-Hawkins and Andrew Perez of MapLight reported on October 24, 2017 that the Judicial Crisis Network's return for July 2015 to June 2016 showed a single anonymous contribution of 17.9 million dollars, "96.6 percent of its revenue," in an organization that "had never reported more than $6 million in revenue since its 2005 creation," and that Wellspring "reported giving JCN more than $15 million between 2012 and 2015." They described Corkery as JCN's longtime treasurer, his wife Ann Corkery as the person who ran Wellspring, and the JCN director Daniel L. Casey as the father of Wellspring's director Michael Casey. In May 2019 Perez and Anna Massoglia reported that Wellspring had given JCN "$23.5 million in 2016" and almost 15 million dollars in 2017, and that JCN's return for July 2017 to June 2018 listed "a $17 million contribution from a single anonymous donor" and "nine other anonymous contributions, none smaller than six figures."⁸⁹

The return for June 2016, as read from the filed image, showed revenue of 18,545,000 dollars and expenses of 18,478,456 dollars. Its five highest paid contractors were Mentzer Media of Towson, Maryland, 1,438,439 dollars for advertising and promotion; CRC Public Relations of 2850 Eisenhower Avenue, Alexandria, 908,364 dollars; Sandler Innocenzi, 821,797 dollars; and the Wickers Group of San Francisco, 528,744 dollars. The return for June 2017 showed revenue of 25,614,292 dollars, expenses of 25,696,352 dollars, and contractors including Mentzer Media at 6,911,453 dollars, CRC Public Relations at 947,000 dollars and BH Group LLC of Arlington, Virginia, at 687,500 dollars for consulting.²

Garland, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh

In July 2018 Matt Shuham of Talking Points Memo wrote that the network pledged "$1.4 million in television advertisements supporting Judge Brett Kavanaugh" nationally on cable news and in Alabama, Indiana, North Dakota and West Virginia, and that it had earlier pledged "to spend up to $7 million stopping Merrick Garland" and up to 10 million dollars for Neil Gorsuch. Carrie Severino, then chief counsel and policy director, said: "Judge Kavanaugh is a home run."¹⁰

The return for June 2018 recorded total revenue of 22,045,341 dollars, expenses of 16,802,593 dollars and grants of 7,295,000 dollars, with contractors Mentzer Media at 3,585,940 dollars, CRC Public Relations at 3,348,638 dollars, BH Group at 241,000 dollars, IMGE Insights at 212,500 dollars and DDC at 187,500 dollars. In October 2018 the network filed electioneering reports with the Federal Election Commission for payments to Mentzer Media on October 2, 2018 of 217,130 dollars and 217,715 dollars; a report of December 2018 lists payments of the same date and total, 434,845 dollars, as one item described as "LOBBYING - BEST OF THE BEST MEDIA BUY," covering two candidates.¹¹¹²

The return for June 2019 reported revenue of 29,570,930 dollars and expenses of 33,658,619 dollars. Mentzer Media was paid 12,322,297 dollars for communication and promotion, CRC Public Relations 3,485,151 dollars, BH Group LLC 1,191,875 dollars for consulting, North Star Opinion Research 608,300 dollars for polling and the law firm Holtzman Vogel Josefiak Torchinsky 349,334 dollars. Daniel L. Casey, director and president until November 19, 2019, and Gary Marx, president, secretary, treasurer and director, were each paid 75,000 dollars.¹³

CRC Advisors

On January 7, 2020 Leonard Leo announced that he was leaving the day-to-day management of the Federalist Society to form CRC Advisors with Greg Mueller, president of CRC Public Relations. "Leo will be chairman of CRC Advisors, while Mueller will be its CEO," and Leo remained co-chairman of the Federalist Society's board. The network's returns list CRC Public Relations at 2850 Eisenhower Avenue, Alexandria, in the returns for June 2016 through June 2019, and CRC Advisors at the same address in the returns for June 2021 through June 2025. CRC Advisors was paid 7,679,331 dollars for the year to June 2021, 3,757,454 dollars to June 2022, 6,058,832 dollars to June 2023, 4,092,349 dollars to June 2024 and 4,610,996 dollars to June 2025, a total of 26,198,962 dollars. The returns also list Mentzer Media at 6,194,131 dollars (2021), 5,719,496 dollars (2022) and 3,801,690 dollars (2023), BH Group at 500,000 dollars (2021), Creative Direct at 1,827,221 dollars (2021), Holtzman Vogel at 533,097 dollars (2024), the fundraising firm Invictus at 1,025,000 dollars (2025) and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher at 382,673 dollars for legal services (2025).¹⁴¹⁵

Barrett and the Marble Freedom Trust

For the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett in the fall of 2020 the network announced a phase of "a $2.2 million-dollar ad blitz" and a second of "an initial $3 million-dollar ad buy," and stated that it "expects to spend at least $10 million," in Colorado, Iowa, Maine, North Carolina, Utah and Washington, D.C. Carrie Severino, "Judicial Crisis Network President," said that "President Trump promised to appoint justices in the mold of Scalia and Thomas."¹⁶ Its return for June 2021 reported revenue of 48,134,887 dollars and listed Severino as president at 139,667 dollars, Ann Corkery as counsel at 256,063 dollars and Frank J. Scaturro as counsel at 242,500 dollars.³

The Marble Freedom Trust, a Utah trust led by Leo as trustee and chairman, reported total revenue of 1,642,871,821 dollars for the year ended April 30, 2021, against none in the year before. The trust was created in April 2020, and Barre Seid transferred to it 100 percent of the electronics maker Tripp Lite, which Eaton bought for 1.65 billion dollars in March 2021; ProPublica and The Lever reported that Seid thereby avoided up to 400 million dollars in income tax. In a February 2021 Illinois corporate filing of Tripp Lite, "Added as an officer, written in by hand, was Leonard Leo."¹⁷ Marble's Schedule I lists grants to The Concord Fund of 16.5 million dollars for the year ended April 30, 2021, 28.9 million dollars for 2022, 55.5 million dollars for 2023, 60.45 million dollars for 2024 and 33.45 million dollars for 2025, a total of 194.8 million dollars. For the year to April 2021 it also listed 153 million dollars to the Rule of Law Trust and 41.1 million dollars to DonorsTrust; in later years it listed Schwab Charitable Fund grants of 153.8, 153.75, 122 and 157.65 million dollars.¹⁸

The network's contributions were 29,351,842 dollars for the year to June 2022, 52,773,080 dollars to June 2023, 65,100,191 dollars to June 2024 and 26,475,000 dollars to June 2025. Marble's gifts to it in the fiscal years ended April 2023 and 2024 were 55.5 million and 60.45 million dollars.³¹⁸

Grants to Political Committees

The network's Schedule I for the year to June 2022 lists grants to One Nation (3 million dollars), Catholic Vote Civic Action (1.7 million), Americans for Limited Government (1.685 million), Independent Women's Voice (1.5 million), the Republican State Leadership Committee and the Republican Attorneys General Association (1 million each), Heritage Action for America (1 million) and the Foundation for Fair Courts (1 million). For June 2023 it lists the Susan B. Anthony List (8.8 million), the Republican Governors Association (6 million), the Republican Attorneys General Association (4 million) and Bluegrass Freedom Action (3 million). For June 2024 it lists Protect Women Ohio Action (17.26 million), Right Vote (8.05 million) and Club for Growth Action Missouri (3 million), and for June 2025 Defend Missouri (2.5 million), Truth and Courage PAC (2.5 million), the Republican Party of Florida (2 million), the Republican State Leadership Committee (2 million), Turning Point Action (500,000) and the Lexington Fund (200,000).¹⁹

Officers and Pay in the Last Returns

The return for June 2025, filed on May 12, 2026, reported one voting member of the governing body. Gary Marx was president, secretary, treasurer and director, unpaid; Ann Corkery was paid 395,655 dollars as counsel, Frank Scaturro 291,805 dollars and Carrie Severino 238,034 dollars. Revenue was 26,475,000 dollars, expenses 27,593,274 dollars and total assets 42,274 dollars.²⁰

Termination and the Lexington Fund

Taylor Giorno of The Washington Sun reported on April 13, 2026 that the Concord Fund "quietly filed articles of termination on Jan. 6 of this year, according to previously unreported Virginia business records," and that in December 2025 the Lexington Fund "registered several alternative names including Judicial Crisis Network and Honest Election Project Action, according to Texas business records." The Lexington Fund's director was Oramel Skinner; its 2024 year-end report showed "just $305,000 in grants and contributions." The Concord Fund had given it 105,000 dollars between July 2023 and June 2024. The Marble Freedom Trust's return for the year ended April 30, 2025 lists a grant to the Lexington Fund of 14.75 million dollars, alongside 33.45 million dollars to The Concord Fund.⁴¹⁸