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Kyle Herrig

Occupation:

Political Activist

Attorney

Kyle Herrig is an activist and attorney who serves on the boards of or as an adviser to various left-of-center advocacy projects. He serves as a board member of the New Venture Fund, which is a major left-wing funder.

Herrig holds roles with a number of New Venture Fund-associated organizations. Herrig is a board member of American Oversight, a left-wing judicial activist organization; an advisory board member to Restore Public Trust, a left-wing advocacy organization; and is a strategic adviser to the advocacy group Allied Progress. 1

New Venture Fund

Herrig sits on the board of the New Venture Fund and oversees research and strategic communications for various projects. 2 The New Venture creates and funds various groups that appear to be independent but are in reality little more than subsidiaries for the organization. 3

The New Venture Fund also funnels money to outside left-of-center organizations such as Media Matters for America and the Center for American Progress. The New Venture Fund has been described as a “dark money conduit” since it shields the identity of its donors. 4 5

Herrig holds roles with a number of New Venture Fund-associated front groups, among them American Oversight and Restore Public Trust.

American Oversight

Herrig became a member of the board of directors for the New Venture Fund-sponsored organization American Oversight. 6 The organization was created in 2017 and opposed Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court in the fall of 2018. 7 8

The group’s model is based on that of the conservative Judicial Watch, which uses lawsuits and Freedom of Information Act requests to stymie the agenda of its target. American Oversight would in turn become the model for various other left-wing organizations used to target the President Donald Trump administration. 9 10

Restore Public Trust

In 2018, various Democratic and left-wing operatives and activists formed Restore Public Trust to attack cabinet officials of the Trump administration. Restore Public Trust is a project of New Venture Fund. 11

The group seeks to unearth allegedly unethical and corrupt behavior by Trump administration officials. 12 Herrig is on the board of the group, which is also associated with New Venture Fund. 13 Restore Public Trust sued the Trump administration demanding the documents about the process to include the question on the census. 14 Herrig issued a statement on behalf of the group which read, “The American people have a right to know what Secretary Ross and the rest of Trump’s political appointees discussed behind closed doors as they devised a scheme to make the census less representative for all Americans.” 15 16

Allied Progress

Herrig is a quoted spokesman for the New Venture Fund project Allied Progress. In February 2019, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau scrapped an Obama administration rule that would limit how much people could borrow from payday lenders. The rule would’ve required lenders to determine if borrowers could pay off the loans and limit attempts to withdraw the loan amount from the borrowers’ account. 17 18

Herrig, on behalf of Allied Progress, denounced the rule change as favoring special interests over consumers. “The people in power have chosen to side with payday lenders over consumers,” said Herrig. 19

George Santos

When asked to comment on the FEC complaint filed against Rep. George Santos (R-NY) for misusing campaign fund, Herrig states, “With each passing day, Congressmen Santos’s rap sheet of potential crimes and outlandish lies continues to grow. The FEC has an obligation to hold him accountable — Speaker McCarthy and his MAGA majority certainly won’t, especially after gutting the Congressional Ethics Office.” 20

References

  1. Hayden Ludwig. “Big Money in Dark Shadows: Arabella Advisors’ Half-billion-dollar ‘Dark Money’ Network.” Capital Research Center. March 2019. Accessed June 11, 2019. https://capitalresearch.org/app/uploads/CRC_Arabella-Advisors-Dark-Money.pdf
  2. “Board”. 2019. American Oversight. Accessed May 20. https://www.americanoversight.org/board.
  3. Walter, Scott. 2018. “The Left’s Judicial Watch Knockoffs Targeting Trump”. Capital Research Center. https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-lefts-judicial-watch-knockoffs-targeting-trump/.
  4. Walter, Scott. 2018. “The Left’s Judicial Watch Knockoffs Targeting Trump”. Capital Research Center. https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-lefts-judicial-watch-knockoffs-targeting-trump/.
  5. Kim Strassel. “The Trump ‘Ethics’ Resistance.” Wall Street Journal. December 27, 2018. Accessed June 11, 2019. https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-trump-ethics-resistance-11545955715
  6. Walter, Scott. 2018. “The Left’s Judicial Watch Knockoffs Targeting Trump”. Capital Research Center. https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-lefts-judicial-watch-knockoffs-targeting-trump/.
  7. Walter, Scott. 2018. “The Left’s Judicial Watch Knockoffs Targeting Trump”. Capital Research Center. https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-lefts-judicial-watch-knockoffs-targeting-trump/.
  8. Kim Strassel. “The Trump ‘Ethics’ Resistance.” Wall Street Journal. December 27, 2018. Accessed June 11, 2019. https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-trump-ethics-resistance-11545955715
  9. Walter, Scott. 2018. “The Left’s Judicial Watch Knockoffs Targeting Trump”. Capital Research Center. https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-lefts-judicial-watch-knockoffs-targeting-trump/.
  10. Hayden Ludwig. “Big Money in Dark Shadows: Arabella Advisors’ Half-billion-dollar ‘Dark Money’ Network.” Capital Research Center. March 2019. Accessed June 11, 2019. https://capitalresearch.org/app/uploads/CRC_Arabella-Advisors-Dark-Money.pdf
  11. Kim Strassel. “The Trump ‘Ethics’ Resistance.” Wall Street Journal. December 27, 2018. Accessed June 11, 2019. https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-trump-ethics-resistance-11545955715
  12. Stein, Sam. 2018. “New Oversight Group Wants To Make Trump’S Cabinet Miserable”. The Daily Beast. https://www.thedailybeast.com/new-progressive-oversight-group-wants-to-make-trumps-cabinet-miserable.
  13. Stein, Sam. 2018. “New Oversight Group Wants To Make Trump’S Cabinet Miserable”. The Daily Beast. https://www.thedailybeast.com/new-progressive-oversight-group-wants-to-make-trumps-cabinet-miserable.
  14. Rodrigo, Chris. 2019. “Progressive Group Sues For Census Citizenship Question Docs”. The Hill. https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/443439-progressive-oversight-group-sues-for-census-citizenship-question?amp.
  15. Rodrigo, Chris. 2019. “Progressive Group Sues For Census Citizenship Question Docs”. The Hill. https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/443439-progressive-oversight-group-sues-for-census-citizenship-question?amp.
  16. Hayden Ludwig. “Big Money in Dark Shadows: Arabella Advisors’ Half-billion-dollar ‘Dark Money’ Network.” Capital Research Center. March 2019. Accessed June 11, 2019. https://capitalresearch.org/app/uploads/CRC_Arabella-Advisors-Dark-Money.pdf
  17. Cheslow, Daniella. 2019. “Consumer Protection Bureau Aims To Roll Back Rule For Payday Lending”. National Public Radio. https://www.npr.org/2019/02/06/691944789/consumer-protection-bureau-aims-to-roll-back-rules-for-payday-lending.
  18. Hayden Ludwig. “Big Money in Dark Shadows: Arabella Advisors’ Half-billion-dollar ‘Dark Money’ Network.” Capital Research Center. March 2019. Accessed June 11, 2019. https://capitalresearch.org/app/uploads/CRC_Arabella-Advisors-Dark-Money.pdf
  19. Cheslow, Daniella. 2019. “Consumer Protection Bureau Aims To Roll Back Rule For Payday Lending”. National Public Radio. https://www.npr.org/2019/02/06/691944789/consumer-protection-bureau-aims-to-roll-back-rules-for-payday-lending.
  20. Saksa, Jim. “Legal Woes Grow for George Santos as Another Watchdog Files Complaint.” Roll Call, January 13, 2023. https://rollcall.com/2023/01/13/legal-woes-grow-for-george-santos-fec-complaint/.
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