“Republican megadonor Jeff Yass and his inner circle have given tens of millions of dollars in recent years to shape federal policy, education and legal matters,” CNBC reports.

“The Yass-run foundations have been seeded with hundreds of millions from the billionaire, his wife and others linked to Susquehanna International Group.”

“When conservative icon Matt Schlapp announced Tuesday that the sexual battery and defamation lawsuit against him was dropped, he and his allies were quick to note that the ordeal ended without him or the American Conservative Union—the right-wing organization he runs—paying his accuser a single dollar,” the Daily Beast reports.

“But what Schlapp didn’t disclose was that the Republican operative who sued him was, in fact, paid to drop the lawsuit, according to two people with knowledge of the payout. It was just that the money came from ACU’s insurance company.”

“The Republican operative who accused the American Conservative Union head Matt Schlapp of sexual assault has dropped his lawsuits against him and his wife, Mercedes Schlapp,” Politico reports.

“Soon after the 2022 Herschel Walker Senate campaign, Carlton Huffman — a staffer working for that campaign — accused Schlapp of sexual battery and defamation. In a lawsuit, he sought $9.4 million in damages.”

New Republic: “With Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler embroiled in scandal, the group is now on the defensive—and that will hurt Republicans in this fall’s elections.”

The top four congressional leaders — House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffires (D-NY) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) — are all set to address AIPAC’s Congressional Summit in Washington, D.C., which kicked off on Sunday, Jewish Insider reports.

“AIPAC is expected to spend $100 million across its political entities in 2024, taking aim at candidates they deem insufficiently supportive of Israel,” Politico reports.

“The strategy has taken on new urgency this election season from donors animated by the Israel-Hamas war.”

“Nazis appeared to find a friendly reception at the Conservative Political Action Conference this year,” NBC News reports.

“Throughout the conference, racist extremists, some of whom had secured official CPAC badges, openly mingled with conference attendees and espoused antisemitic conspiracy theories.”

Daily Beast: “As the once-storied Conservative Political Action Conference kicks off the 50th anniversary of its inaugural national gathering, the organization is finding itself increasingly anchored to the sexual assault allegations leveled a year ago against its longtime leader, conservative activist Matt Schlapp.”

“On Wednesday, the opening day for CPAC 2024, the Alexandria City Courthouse posted a batch of eye-popping new filings in the sexual battery and defamation lawsuit against Schlapp—including a subpoena to a CPAC official alleged to have overseen document destruction days after the accusations were first publicly reported. Schlapp was on notice at the time about potential legal action.”

Former Vice President Mike Pence has a $20 million blueprint for building out an organization meant to defend the sentiment that conservatism, when properly defined, “is bigger than any one moment, election, or person,” RealClearPolitics reports.

“Four major nonprofits that rose to prominence during the coronavirus pandemic by capitalizing on the spread of medical misinformation collectively gained more than $118 million between 2020 and 2022, enabling the organizations to deepen their influence in statehouses, courtrooms and communities across the country,” the Washington Post reports.

“Not so long ago, if Heritage Action announced that it would be ‘key voting’ a vote in the House or Senate, conservative lawmakers could be counted on to line up and do whatever Heritage Action demanded,” NOTUS reports.

“Now when the political partner of the Heritage Foundation alerts a ‘key vote,’ barely anyone blinks. The organization’s once-powerful ‘scorecards’ have been supplanted by a more important metric: the approval of Donald Trump.”

CNN: “After effectively channeling conservative anger over cultural issues into action on the ground, from supporting candidates in school board races to spearheading campaigns against teachers, administrators and other political foes, Moms for Liberty’s burgeoning influence in Republican national politics may be faltering, observers say.”

“A sex scandal involving the husband of Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler, a Sarasota County school board member, has not helped the group’s cause.”

“The Fair Fight political and advocacy organization that Stacey Abrams founded is laying off staffers and narrowing its mission as it struggles with mounting debt from lengthy court battles over voting rights that racked up massive legal bills,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.

Washington Post: “In one alleged incident, during a fundraising trip to South Florida in early 2022, Matt Schlapp was accused of stripping to his underwear and rubbing against another person without his consent, according to the filing. In 2017, at a CPAC after-party, Schlapp attempted to kiss an employee against his wishes, the lawsuit claims.”

“In both cases, according to the suit, the alleged victims reported the unwanted advances to staffers at CPAC’s parent organization, the American Conservative Union, but no action was taken.”

Hannah Giles, the CEO of conservative nonprofit Project Veritas, announced her resignation “effective immediately” on Monday, saying she’d unwittingly “stepped into an unsalvageable mess” upon taking the job earlier this year, the Daily Beast reports.

Giles was named the group’s leader after its messy breakup with founder James O’Keefe.

“Cities across the U.S. have seen hundreds of protests since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, according to a tracker from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project,” Axios reports.

“As Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip have ramped up and the death toll has increased, a growing proportion of the demonstrations have been in support of Palestinians.”

“Opinion polling shows that younger Americans in particular have grown more sympathetic to Palestinians since the start of the conflict.”

“Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler appears to have departed her role at the conservative Leadership Institute, which removed her name from its website in the wake of a three-way sex scandal and criminal probe involving her husband,” the Daily Beast reports.

“The move comes days after a local journalism watchdog revealed that Sarasota police are investigating allegations that her husband, Florida Republican chairman Christian Ziegler, raped a woman with whom the couple had previously had a ménage à trois.”