The Conservative Partnership Institute, a nonprofit whose funding skyrocketed after it became a nerve center for President Donald J. Trump's allies in Washington, has paid at least $3.2 million to companies led by its own leaders since the start of 2021 or their relatives, records show. .
In his most recent tax returnsthe nonprofit's three highest-paid contractors were all connected to insiders.
One was led by the institute's president, Edward Corrigan, and the other by the Chief Operating Officer. At a third contractor, the board consisted of a senior legal fellow from the group Cleta Mitchella lawyer who supported Mr. Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Last year, the Conservative Partnership Institute hired a fourth company linked to an insider: a fundraising firm run by Mr. Corrigan's brother, Patrick Corrigan. Public records show the company received a contract three weeks before it was legally incorporated.
The Conservative Partnership Institute has filed with the Internal Revenue Service as a tax-exempt nonprofit, and the agency has granted its approval. This means that donations to the group are tax deductible, just like donations to a food bank or the American Red Cross. It also means that, according to law, the money must serve the public interest and not private interests.
The nonprofit has pushed those boundaries by intertwining with just one faction of American politics. It pays high salaries to some of Mr. Trump's former officials, hosts retreats for Republican lawmakers at a rural compound and funds efforts to research people and ideas for a second Trump term.
Legal experts say these insider transactions also raise concerns about self-dealing. While hiring insiders is allowed if certain safeguards are in place, the payments moved money out of the spotlight and into opaque entities that helped control the nonprofit's leaders.
“There are no checks and balances,” he says Michael West, an attorney with the New York Council of Nonprofits. Because there is no real third party to determine whether the insider-run companies charged the nonprofit a fair price, Mr. West said, “the potential for overpayment here is epic.”
Mr. Corrigan, the institute's president, did not respond to questions about what steps the group was taking to ensure it did not overpay insiders' companies. The companies have not disclosed what rates they charge.
Of the insiders who served dual roles at the nonprofit and its suppliers, only one responded to questions from The New York Times. Wesley Dentonthe institute's chief operating officer and a former Trump administration official, said he was also paid by Compass Professional, one of the suppliers.
Mr. Denton's annual compensation, with benefits, from the Institute was $391,735. He declined to say how much he received from Compass Professional. He was on the board of both the supplier and the institute.
“We are proud to have helped launch new, independent, not-for-profit service providers that deliver high-quality professional services,” Mr. Denton said in a written statement.
The institute's donors include several Republican political campaigns, as well as conservative businesspeople. One major donor, retired Texas aerospace entrepreneur Robert Bruce, said the nonprofit's leaders had not told him about their use of suppliers with insider connections.
“I've never had a conversation like that,” Mr. Bruce said in a telephone interview.
He estimated that he had given “several hundred thousand” dollars to the institute. Mr. Bruce said he was not concerned that the nonprofit's leaders were misusing funds. “I've known them for a long time,” he said. “They are good people.”
The Times traced the relationships between the group's leaders and their suppliers by examining charity and corporate registrations with the federal government, five states and the District of Columbia.
The data does not show what portion of the $3.2 million went to the institute's top leaders and their family members — only that the money flowed to companies where they served as owners or directors. In at least one case, a company failed to mark that connection as required in a state filing.
The Conservative Partnership Institute was founded in 2017 by former Senator Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina, after he was ousted as president of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative nonprofit. The group's purpose was to help conservatives wield power and shepherd them “through the swamps of Washington without becoming infected with Potomac FeverMr. DeMint said in 2017.
The institute's fundraising improved even as the Conservatives lost power.
In 2021, the institute, led by Democrats in Washington, hired former Trump staffers, including Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff. It began courting donors as the voice of Mr. Trump's allies and ambitions.
Fundraising skyrocketed $45 million in 2021 of $7 million in 2020. The nonprofit, recently flushed, bought a 2,200-acre sanctuary on Maryland's Eastern Shore and a string of commercial buildings near the U.S. Capitol, with plans for a restaurant, school and TV studios. The group also began organizing workshops and seminars for conservative lawmakers and staffers, and seeding new conservative nonprofits.
As the money flowed, the institute's leaders began forming a series of companies in Delaware.
The first was Compass Professional. The first annual report included a list of directors including Edward Corrigan and Mr Denton.
Next was Compass Legal Services. The initial filing listed directors including Ms. Mitchell and Charlotte Davis, one of the institute's board members.
By the end of 2021, the group had paid its companies a total of $639,259, according to an audit it submitted to state-level charity regulators.
Federal law allows nonprofits like this one to hire insiders, as long as they properly disclose payments and ensure the insiders aren't overcharging. Legal experts still advise against this because of the temptation for insiders to abuse their power over charitable funds.
“You have a duty to act in the best interests of that organization,” said Linda Sugin, a professor of nonprofit law at Fordham University. “The problem is that if you're on both sides of the transaction, we're skeptical that you're going to put the interests of the organization ahead of your own.”
Ms Sugin said the institute could have reduced its risk by soliciting bids from rival companies to gauge whether the insiders were charging market rates. The institute could have asked its leaders to back away from the decision to hire their own companies, she said.
Mr. Corrigan and other leaders did not respond to questions about whether their group had taken these steps.
If a nonprofit is found to have provided improper benefits to insiders, the insiders could face financial penalties from state or federal regulators. In extreme cases, the IRS could revoke the group's tax exemption.
In 2022, a third company was founded in Delaware: Compass Property Management. Company records show that Mr. Denton is president.
That year, the nonprofit paid the three insider-linked companies a combined $2.6 million, according to the audit it filed with the states. The institute said these payments were “for use of facilities, personnel, human resources and other professional services.”
How much of that flowed to the insiders on those suppliers' boards?
Mr Denton gave only a partial answer.
He said the vendors didn't pay their board members just because they were board members.
But as in his case, Mr Denton said the companies could pay their board members for other reasons, for “providing employment for these organizations outside of their board duties.” The president of Compass Legal issued a statement saying his firm was not paying “outside directors” but did not specify which directors were considered “outside directors.”
Compass Professional and Compass Legal have worked for other clients, including Mr. Trump's 2024 presidential campaign and Gun Owners of America, according to federal campaign and charity filings. The companies' leaders did not respond to questions about how much of their sales came from the Conservative Partnership Institute.
The latest data on what the institute paid the three original insider-related companies is from 2022. Since then, company documents show that the companies' board members have changed, but the leaders of the Conservative Partnership Institute or their family members have remained on the boards of each company.
Last year, the institute also hired a company partly owned by Patrick Corrigan, Compass Direct LLC, for a fundraising contract. pay $180,000 in the coming year.
In a filing in North Carolinathe institute said the contract would take effect on July 1, 2023. But Patrick Corrigan's company was just being founded July 24three weeks after it won the contract.
In its own filings with North Carolina, Patrick Corrigan's firm was asked if he was “related as a parent, spouse, child or sibling to ANY officer, director, trustee or employee” as his client, the nonprofit from his brother.
In the files for 2023 and 2024: the company responded “no.” Patrick Corrigan signed the forms.
After The Times pointed this out, Patrick Corrigan responded with a one-line email: “The NC application has been updated,” he wrote. He did not respond to other questions.
Robert Draper And Julie Tate reporting contributed.