American Accountability Foundation

The American Accountability Foundation (AAF) is an American conservative opposition research group founded in 2020 that has opposed nominees to the Joe Biden administration.[1]

American Accountability Foundation
AbbreviationAAF
Formation2020
85-4391204
HeadquartersWashington, D.C.
Executive director
Tom Jones
WebsiteAAF website

History

The AAF's executive director and co-founder, Tom Jones, previously worked for Republican senators Ron Johnson, Ted Cruz (directing opposition research for Cruz's 2016 presidential campaign), Jim DeMint, and John Ensign. Its other co-founder, Matthew Buckham, worked in the White House Presidential Personnel Office during the Trump presidency.[2] The New Yorker described the AAF as a dark money group ("a politically active, tax-exempt nonprofit charity that doesn’t disclose its backers") that is an offshoot of another such group, the Conservative Partnership Institute, which employed Mark Meadows after he left the Trump administration.[2][3]

The AAF describes itself as a "charitable and educational organization that conducts non-partisan governmental oversight research and fact-checking so Americans can hold their elected leaders accountable".[4] Jones told Fox News in April 2021 that he aimed to "take a big handful of sand and throw it in the gears of the Biden administration".[2][5]

Campaigns

According to The New Yorker, the AAF "aims to thwart the entire Biden slate", and as of April 2022 had targeted 29 nominees.[2] The AAF acknowledged its role in derailing Biden's nominations of David Chipman to be director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in 2021;[6] Sarah Bloom Raskin to be vice-chair for supervision of the Federal Reserve Board in 2022;[3] and David Weil for the Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor.[2] The AAF's research was used by Republican opponents of the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson for the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022.[7]

In September 2021, the AAF filed an ethics complaint against representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for attending the Met Gala. The AAF claimed that her attendance amounted to accepting an illegal gift since her estimated $35,000 ticket was paid for by Conde Nast, a for-profit company, not a charity. The event itself is however a charitable fundraiser.[8][9][10]

References
  1. Wong, Scott (March 24, 2021). "Conservative group escalates earmarks war by infiltrating trainings". The Hill.
  2. Mayer, Jane (April 16, 2022). "The Slime Machine Targeting Dozens of Biden Nominees". The New Yorker.
  3. Mayer, Jane (March 15, 2022). "Sarah Bloom Raskin Withdraws Her Nomination to the Federal Reserve Board". The New Yorker.
  4. "American Accountability Foundation". AAF. Retrieved April 19, 2022.
  5. Shaw, Adam (April 11, 2021). "New conservative group wields unorthodox tactics to block Biden agenda, nominees". Fox News. Retrieved April 19, 2022.
  6. Markay, Lachlan (September 14, 2021). "Conservative group behind sunk ATF nomination takes a victory lap". Axios. Retrieved April 19, 2022.
  7. Pilkington, Ed (March 24, 2022). "Republicans turn Ketanji Brown Jackson hearing into a political circus". The Guardian. Retrieved April 19, 2022.
  8. Clark, Dartunorro. "Conservative group files ethics complaint against AOC for attending Met Gala". NBC News.
  9. Mishra, Stuti (September 15, 2021). "AOC hit with ethics complaint over Met Gala appearance as she fires back at critics". The Independent.
  10. Vakil, Caroline (September 15, 2021). "Conservative group files ethics complaint over Ocasio-Cortez appearance at Met Gala".
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