Conservative nonprofit with obscure roots and undisclosed funders paid Matthew Whitaker $1.2 million

Acting attorney general Matthew G. Whitaker worked for a charity called the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust for three years, starting in 2014. Credit: Yuri Gripas, Reuters

In the three years after he arrived in Washington in 2014, Matthew G. Whitaker received more than $1.2 million as the leader of a charity that reported having no other employees, some of the best pay of his career.

The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust described itself as a new watchdog nonprofit dedicated to exposing unethical conduct by public officials. For Whitaker, it became a lucrative steppingstone in a swift rise from a modest law practice in Iowa to the nation’s top law enforcement job. As FACT’s president, he regularly appeared on radio and television, often to skewer liberals.

But FACT’s origins and the source of funding used to pay Whitaker — now the acting attorney general — remain obscured. An examination of state and federal records, and interviews with those involved, show that the group is part of a national network of nonprofits that often work in concert to amplify conservative messages.

View the complete November 20 article by Robert O’Harrow, Jr., Shawn Boburg and Aaron C. Davis on The Washington Post website here.