'More equal': Journalist explains how Trump pal Leo 'manipulates' free speech to 'set himself up as the victim'

09 August 2023

Leonard Leo, the co-chair of the conservative Federalist Society's board of directors, may not be a household name. But the fifty-eight-year-old lobbyist holds significant sway over Republican Party politics. For instance, The Guardian's Ed Pilkington recalls on Wednesday, all three associate justices who thrice-indicted former President Donald Trump nominated to the United States Supreme Court were names recommended by Leo.

According to Pilkington, Leo has also marketed himself as a defender of the First Amendment. But Pilkington points out that "a couple of eye-catching, and seemingly incongruous, events have led to speculation that his commitment to free speech might be more complicated than he professes, and more self-serving. If all American citizens are equal in front of this vital element of the US Constitution, could it be that some people – notably Leo himself – are more equal than others?"

Pilkington alludes to two instances that he says are evidence of Leo's "duality" regarding individual freedom of expression.

"The first of the two events took place in the bailiwick of the Bangor Daily News, in Maine, where Leo has a $3m waterfront estate on an elite island community in Northeast Harbor. On 20 July, Jane Mayer of the New Yorker reported on a new lawsuit that had been brought by a 23-year-old local resident for wrongful arrest," Pilkington writes. "Eli Durand-McDonnell, a landscaper, was part of a group of progressive activists who staged a series of peaceful protests outside Leo's home. They were angry about his role in securing a rightwing supermajority on the US supreme court, and the evisceration of fundamental rights that flowed from that."

Although "Leo isn't named as a defendant in the civil lawsuit, which accuses two local police officers of making an illegal and retaliatory arrest of Durand-McDonnell during one of the protests on 31 July 2022, a month after the devastating abortion ruling," Pilkington continues, "it does claim that the arrest was made 'at the direct behest of Leo, a powerful and wealthy conservative political activist who has used millions of dollars as political speech to influence American politics and courts.'"

Event number two "burst into public view five days after Mayer's New Yorker article. On 25 July, Leo wrote a letter through his lawyer to two leading Democratic US senators on the judiciary committee, Dick Durbin and Sheldon Whitehouse," Pilkington explains. "The senators wanted Leo to answer a series of questions about his ties to the Supreme Court justices as part of an ethics investigation they were conducting. Leo has long been a figure of interest for Congress, given his outsized influence on US politics and the courts."

Leo's attorney, however, argued that their client "is entitled by the First Amendment to engage in public advocacy, associate with others who share his views, and express opinions on important matters of public concern,'" Pilkington says, adding, "Leo declined to cooperate with Congress."

Pilkington's complete analysis is available at this link.

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