The Democracy Integrity Project (TDIP) is an advocacy group that purports to investigate interference in American and international elections by hostile foreign powers. Its work is based heavily on research and information generated by individuals and organizations behind the 2016 “Steele dossier” of unsubstantiated attacks on Donald Trump. ^[1][2]

It is one of three related organizations run by Daniel J. Jones, a former FBI analyst and staffer for Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and the Senate Intelligence Committee, who was instrumental in publicizing information about the CIA’s detention and interrogation practices during the War on Terror. ^[3]

Connected Organizations

Jones is TDIP’s president and CEO. The organization’s 2017 tax filings report that Jones worked full-time for the nonprofit and was paid $381,263 in salary and other compensation for the year. ^[4]

TDIP is apparently separate from Jones’s research firm Penn Quarter Group, which Jones also runs. Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) alleged that Jones told the FBI that Penn Quarter “was being funded by 7 to 10 wealthy donors located primarily in New York and California, who provided approximately $50 million.” ^[5]

Jones’s third organization, the 501(c)(3) charity Advance Democracy, was founded in 2018 and has not filed public tax returns as of June 2019. ^[6]  It shares an address with TDIP and is also actively engaged in purporting to combat Russian election interference: The New York Times reported that it had “flagged a number of suspicious websites and social media accounts” to authorities as promoting Russian interference in the 2019 European Parliament elections and claimed right-wing groups were using the same tactics. ^[7]

Fusion GPS

The Democracy Integrity Project funds and promotes the work of people and organizations linked to the discredited “Steele dossier” of unsubstantiated allegations about Donald Trump.

House Intelligence Committee Republicans released records of a discussion FBI agents had with Jones, in which he disclosed that his for-profit company Penn Quarter Group had secured the services of “Steele dossier” author Christopher Steele and Fusion GPS to “continue exposing Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election.” The FBI report said Jones planned to send information generated by Steele and Fusion GPS to Congress and the media. ^[8] A spokesperson for liberal financier George Soros confirmed to the Washington Post that the liberal financier was aware that TDIP “used Fusion GPS as a contractor.” ^[9]

In its 2017 tax filings, Democracy Integrity Project reported paying more than $3.3 million – roughly two thirds of its expenses for the entire year — to Fusion GPS parent company Bean LLC. ^[10] It also paid more than $250,000 to a UK-based company where Christopher Steele is a director, and almost $128,000 to Edward Austin LTD, a firm run by Steele dossier research assistant Edward Baumgartner. ^{[11][12][13][14]} It also paid almost $150,000 to Istok Associates, a UK-based firm run by Neil Barnett, who has claimed that Russia interfered with the UK’s Brexit referendum. ^{[15] [16]}

Political Activities

2018 Midterm Elections

During the 2018 midterm elections, TDIP partnered with cyber-security firm New Knowledge to operate Disinfo 2018, a website that purported to track Russian efforts to interfere with the elections through social media campaigns. ^[17] A New York Times investigation uncovered that New Knowledge itself was using the similar social media disinformation tactics to depress Republican turnout in the 2018 Alabama Senate special election, in a project funded in part by LinkedIn co-founder and left-wing activist Reid Hoffman and operated with the assistance of staff from left-of-center donor Investing in US. ^[18]

Funding

In 2017, TDIP received slightly more than $7 million in donations. While it does not disclose its donors, a spokesperson for George Soros has confirmed that the left-wing financier has donated at least $1 million to the organization. ^[19][20] IRS filings also show that TDIP has also received more than $2 million from the Fund for a Better Future (FBF), a left-of-center foundation headquartered in Silicon Valley. ^[21] The donation to TDIP was the second-largest that FBF made in 2017, behind only a $3.9 million donation to left-wing advocacy group Priorities USA.