--:-- [Theme music fades out]
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Jessica Mendoza. It's Thursday, June 12th.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: A new TV show broke through this year. Can one stone change the course of history? And it's a story that many people are pretty familiar with. Goliath! The Biblical Tale of David and Goliath. House of David is an eight-part series airing on Amazon Prime Video. It follows the story of King David, from his early days as a shepherd to his epic fight with Goliath. After hitting the top rankings on Amazon this spring, the show has been greenlit for a second season.
--:-- Maggie Severns: What's interesting about House of David is that it's aspiring to be an HBO-style prestige TV show, right? It's a show that they're shooting in Greece on this desert land, and there are these wide shots of landscapes. And it's different from what you would expect if you were trying to think about a biblical series.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: That's our colleague Maggie Severns. She covers corporate influence, and she's been looking into the people who've secretly been helping to bankroll this series. One of the funders we uncovered in our reporting is Leonard Leo. Leonard Leo isn't a name typically associated with Hollywood. He's better known for his influence in Washington, where he's long been involved in causes important to the political right.
--:-- Maggie Severns: You know, he wears a suit and he looks very academic, pocket square wearing, conservative, legal guy. So he is someone who spent money on big political races. He's been very influential in politics. But these days, Leonard Leo has turned his influence toward changing American culture more broadly.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: In the eyes of Leonard Leo, the left of center has come to dominate way too many spaces in America, right? Like, not just entertainment, but, you know, in finance, in Silicon Valley. But he wants to get rid of that and create a lasting strain of conservatism that's stronger.
--:-- Maggie Severns: And he would say, and people around him would say, is politics is downstream of culture. He has come to a belief that if you can affect corporate culture, if you can affect entertainment culture, that elections will flow because America will look different and people will see things differently, right?
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Jessica Mendoza. It's Thursday, June 12th. Coming up on the show, the powerful conservative trying to push American culture to the right for decades Leonard Leo led the Federalist Society, an influential conservative legal organization.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: And one of its biggest concerns is the makeup of the courts. Here's Leonard Leo being interviewed on PBS.
--:-- [Clip of Leonard Leo's interview plays]
--:-- Leonard Leo: Well, for one thing, I think we have to remember that judges wear black robes for a reason. They wear them because their identity is meaningless in the work that they do.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Leonard Leo advised Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump, and he helped pick most of the conservative justices now on the Supreme Court. Supreme Court nominee John Roberts was gliding through confirmation hearings. Neil Gorsuch was confirmed by the U Senate yesterday afternoon. Senators voted 50 to 48 to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the U Supreme Court. It is official. Amy Coney Barrett sworn in tonight on the South Lawn of the White House.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: What kind of role did Leonard Leo play in getting those justices actually onto the bench? So with Roberts, as well as other Supreme Court justices, there are several roles that need to be played, right? There are kind of what they would call Sherpas, people who kind of advise the nominee through the process.
--:-- Maggie Severns: Leo and people close to Leo have had played that role with several Supreme Court justices. There are also outside ad campaigns these days. They can be tens and tens of millions of dollars where you raise money from donors and you run ads that promote that person on the court.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: So he's both kind of connected to, at times, choosing or advising on choosing judges, helping them through the process, and then being this kind of public voice and support.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: It sounds like Leonard Leo achieved a lot during the first Trump administration. Three Supreme Court justices in one administration is nothing to sniff at. Were he and President Trump close?
--:-- Maggie Severns: Leonard and President Trump, my understanding is, yeah, they were close. And he was someone who was sometimes at the White House. You know, he was advising on these court picks. That changed around 2020. There was a sense by Trump that Leonard had taken too much credit, as if Leonard was the person who had made all the decisions and gotten these people onto the Supreme Court when they were Trump's nominees.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: So Leonard Leo was becoming more high profile. And as we've seen with people in Trump world, when you appear to be taking too much credit, you can get kind of cast out. And that's what happened with Leo. They haven't talked in years as our understanding.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: After a series of judicial rulings against his policies, including from judges he appointed, Trump lashed out at Leo on Truth Social. In a post last month, the president called him a sleazebag who, quote, probably hates America.
--:-- Maggie Severns: In response, Leo said that there's more work to be done, but that, quote, the federal judiciary is better than it's ever been in modern history.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: For many conservatives, being in Trump's inner circle, or at least having his approval, is a must. But apparently, not Leonard Leo. Most people don't have $1.6 billion that they're trying to spend, and Leonard Leo does have all that money.
--:-- Maggie Severns: Leo now has a virtually unlimited war chest to back candidates, support causes, and tip the political scales. ...Mogul has quietly given $1.6 billion to the architect of the right-wing takeover of the courts, the largest...
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: That $1.6 billion donation was to a nonprofit that Leo controlled. It's believed to be one of the largest single contributions to any politically active group in U.S. history. The man behind the money is Barry Side, a businessman who founded a successful company that makes electrical products.
--:-- Maggie Severns: He's 93 years old. He's been very secretive. But he had known Leonard Leo for a while. He seems to lean libertarian, and he basically donated his company to a trust that Leonard had created, and then the company was sold, and all the money that it was sold for went into that trust.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: So Leonard now controls this $1.6 billion trust that is going to, he says, disperse all that money. So far, Leo has given millions to nonprofits and corporations to advance a conservative agenda.
--:-- Maggie Severns: According to my reporting, one firm he tied to is looking to fund lawsuits against companies that embrace diversity and sustainability initiatives. Another group has targeted executives that sit on the boards of hospitals that perform gender reassignment surgeries.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: So you might see this out in the world and say, oh, that's interesting, but not know that it is connected to Leonard Leo's network. And there are a bunch of different groups like that.
--:-- Maggie Severns: But for those who are looking, the most visible sign of Leo's influence isn't in corporations. It's in Hollywood.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Over the past few decades, movies and TV shows with Christian or right-leaning themes have had limited mainstream success. There have been these moments when conservative content broke through. Something like The Passion of the Christ was big when it was big. There was Thank You for Smoking where Peter Thiel was involved with that movie.
--:-- Maggie Severns: So was David Sachs, another Trump ally. So we've had these moments where movies with a conservative point of view have made it big. The failure, if you talk to people in this space, has been that there wasn't really a great space for follow-ups.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: So like if a movie does well, Hollywood wants more of it. But there wasn't really an ecosystem of people for them to turn to and say, hey, make more of that.
--:-- Maggie Severns: And the proposition from Leo and other people is, what if we can change that? After the big donation, Leo's group started moving money around. It's a little murky, but according to my reporting, one of the groups funded through Sides Gifts was a networking club called Teneo.
--:-- Maggie Severns: So there are lawyers, but there are also people who work in corporate America, Silicon Valley. They very purposefully recruit people from different parts of industry and of society. And most of the people who they recruit are under 45 years old, so kind of young-ish to mid-career folks.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: It's membership is secret. People aren't supposed to talk about Taneo. It's got kind of the fight club thing going on. What happens. Exactly. What happens at Taneo stays at Taneo.
--:-- Maggie Severns: Before Leo's involvement, Tineo, founded in 2008, was raising less than a million dollars a year. By 2023, that figure had grown to $7 million a year.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Neither Leo nor the companies and groups receiving money, including those outside of entertainment, would comment on the largely untraceable investments.
--:-- Maggie Severns: In my reporting, I found that under Leo's guidance, Taneo has recruited about 100 members who work in movies, podcasts, and entertainment financing. Among them is the founder of the production studio behind House of David, the series we heard about earlier.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: The idea is to invest in studios rather than individual movies or shows, ultimately creating an ecosystem that makes content for audiences with conservative values.
--:-- Maggie Severns: What if we can, you know, have House of David and then there will be five more movies, you know, as streamers and movie theaters are looking to pick up movies. They can say, hey, we can offer this. We can offer this. You want biblical stories? We have these people making them. You want comedies? They're over here. Children's entertainment.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Because you might say, oh, that's interesting, but not know that it is connected to Leonard Leo's network. And there are a bunch of different groups like that.
--:-- Maggie Severns: But for those who are looking, the most visible sign of Leo's influence isn't in corporations. It's in Hollywood.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Over the past few decades, movies and TV shows with Christian or right-leaning themes have had limited mainstream success. There have been these moments when conservative content broke through. Something like The Passion of the Christ was big when it was big. There was Thank You for Smoking where Peter Thiel was involved with that movie.
--:-- Maggie Severns: So was David Sachs, another Trump ally. So we've had these moments where movies with a conservative point of view have made it big. The failure, if you talk to people in this space, has been that there wasn't really a great space for follow-ups.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: So like if a movie does well, Hollywood wants more of it. But there wasn't really an ecosystem of people for them to turn to and say, hey, make more of that.
--:-- Maggie Severns: And the proposition from Leo and other people is, what if we can change that? After the big donation, Leo's group started moving money around. It's a little murky, but according to my reporting, one of the groups funded through Sides Gifts was a networking club called Teneo.
--:-- Maggie Severns: So there are lawyers, but there are also people who work in corporate America, Silicon Valley. They very purposefully recruit people from different parts of industry and of society. And most of the people who they recruit are under 45 years old, so kind of young-ish to mid-career folks.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: It's membership is secret. People aren't supposed to talk about Taneo. It's got kind of the fight club thing going on. What happens. Exactly. What happens at Taneo stays at Taneo.
--:-- Maggie Severns: Before Leo's involvement, Tineo, founded in 2008, was raising less than a million dollars a year. By 2023, that figure had grown to $7 million a year.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Neither Leo nor the companies and groups receiving money, including those outside of entertainment, would comment on the largely untraceable investments.
--:-- Maggie Severns: In my reporting, I found that under Leo's guidance, Taneo has recruited about 100 members who work in movies, podcasts, and entertainment financing. Among them is the founder of the production studio behind House of David, the series we heard about earlier.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: The idea is to invest in studios rather than individual movies or shows, ultimately creating an ecosystem that makes content for audiences with conservative values.
--:-- Maggie Severns: What if we can, you know, have House of David and then there will be five more movies, you know, as streamers and movie theaters are looking to pick up movies. They can say, hey, we can offer this. We can offer this. You want biblical stories? We have these people making them. You want comedies? They're over here. Children's entertainment.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Because Maggie says Leo isn't looking to offer only religious stories. He's also interested in mainstreaming movies and shows that conservatives say are appropriate for children and families.
--:-- Maggie Severns: So the makers of House of David are also in the process of making a comedy that features Nate Bregatzi the famous stand comedian and I think Colin Jost is supposed to have a part in a film It about a man trying to support his wife career when it takes off
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: But there is this idea that if you can make really good entertainment and make it of a high quality you can draw in a mass audience who's just looking for TV that doesn't have progressive messages, right? Or the liberal bent that we've come to see with a lot of Hollywood.
--:-- Maggie Severns: Taneo's CEO said that they're, quote, excited about what appears to be many new successful ventures focused on high-quality family entertainment.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: He feels like it's been very successful because I think that people thought that this was going to be an impossible thing, and they already have movie studios they funded. You know, and other studios, it's been around a while, it's called Moving Picture Institute. They also do, like, an education component, but Moving Picture Institute in recent years has made several movies that, like, went on the indie festival circuit and were accepted at different film shows, and they got streaming distribution.
--:-- Maggie Severns: And, you know, increasingly there are real actors that want to be in these movies. One of the films that made it on the festival circuit incorporated libertarian themes. A lot of the movies are about the evils of government overreach and onerous regulation, right?
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: So, for example, they did this movie about 1970s New York and a GQ journalist, and he loves playing pinball on the side, and he learns that pinball has been banned in New York for decades. It never even occurred to me that the game was illegal. And so he kind of goes on this journey to figure out how to overturn the pinball ban that culminates in him playing pinball at City Hall in New York.
--:-- Maggie Severns: I want to show the city council members that they've had it wrong for all these years.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: What do you find most interesting about him and his approach to spreading kind of conservative libertarian influence?
--:-- Maggie Severns: What Leonard Lero is doing comes from a point of view that I hadn't seen before, right? And it is striking in its ambition. It's striking in this willingness to play a long game and invest in things that you can't necessarily measure, like the soft power element of it.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: He has a different way of seeing the world and how power is exercised, and he's putting huge amounts of real money into that.
--:-- Maggie Severns: We don't know if he will be successful or not, and that's the part that you watch and track over time. But I think that his level of ambition just is very striking to me.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: In this space, is Leonard Leo a David or a Goliath right now?
--:-- Maggie Severns: He's a very bullish David right now. He is a David with $1.6 billion to spend. And he's taking on what I would call kind of this grand experiment in ways to shift culture and shift American life, entertainment being one of them.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Yeah, he's currently a David in that space making his way to becoming a Goliath. He's working on becoming a Goliath for sure.
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--:-- Jessica Mendoza: That's all for today, Thursday, June 12th. The Journal is a co-production of Spotify and The Wall Street Journal. Additional reporting in this episode by Josh Dossie and John Jurgensen. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow.
