Formation 2015 Type Super PAC | Founder David Brock Headquarters Washington, D.C. | |
Predecessor American Bridge 21st Century Purpose Supported Hillary Clinton's 2016 U.S. presidential campaign | ||
Correct the Record was a super PAC founded by David Brock. It supported Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. The super PAC aimed to find and confront social media users who posted unflattering messages about Clinton and paid anonymous tipsters for unflattering scoops about Donald Trump, including audio and video recordings and internal documents.
Contents
History
The organization was created in May 2015 when it spun off from American Bridge 21st Century, another Democratic Super PAC. It coordinated with Clinton's 2016 U.S. presidential campaign via a loophole in campaign finance law that it says permits coordination with digital campaigns.
Purpose
In July 2015, Correct the Record teamed with Priorities USA Action, another pro-Clinton super PAC, to create a fundraising committee called American Priorities ’16.
In April 2016, Correct the Record announced that it would be spending $1 million to find and confront social media users who post unflattering messages about Clinton. The organization's president, Brad Woodhouse, said they had "about a dozen people engaged in [producing] nothing but positive content on Hillary Clinton" and had a team distributing information "particularly of interest to women".
In September 2016, Correct the Record announced a project called "Trump Leaks". Correct the Record said it would pay anonymous tipsters for unflattering scoops about Donald Trump, including audio and video recordings and internal documents.
On December 31, 2016, the official website was deactivated from its host's servers WPEngine.[4]
Legality
Super PACs, officially known as "independent-expenditure only committees", are political committees that are legally only allowed to make expenditures that are independent of specific campaigns and which are not coordinated with a candidate or political party. However, Correct the Record says its activities do not fall under this campaign coordination ban restriction, relying on a 2006 Federal Election Commission "Internet exemption" regulation that said that content posted online for free is off limits from regulation. According to FEC rules, online postings do not technically count as campaign expenditures, which allows independent groups to consult with candidates about the content they post on their sites.
In July 2016, leaked Democratic National Committee emails appeared to show the Clinton presidential campaign and senior Clinton aides, including John Podesta, her campaign chairman, were coordinating with the Correct the Record PAC. These included an email stating that the campaign would "work with CTR and DNC to publicize specific GOP candidate vulnerabilities" and others dealing with fundraising issues for CTR.
Correct the Record could legally accept unlimited contributions.
Donors
Major donors to Correct the Record included: