Pro-Trump Millionaire Patrick Byrne Has Been Funding Far-Right Groups That Promote Conspiracy Theories: Report

According to tax records and voting experts, Patrick Byrne, a wealthy figure, increased funding to the MAGA-allied America Project.

This organization has directed substantial donations to far-right groups promoting voting conspiracies in Arizona, Michigan and other states, reported The Guardian.

Last fall, Byrne, the former CEO of online retailer Overstock.com, disclosed that out of the $30 million raised by the Florida-based project, only $3 million came from public sources, with the remainder funded by himself.

According to tax records revealed by Issue One, a bipartisan political reform group, The America Project nearly doubled its revenues in 2022, reaching $14.3 million compared to approximately $7.7 million the previous year.

The America Project, founded in April 2021 by Byrne and Michael Flynn, former national security adviser to Donald Trump, has been outspoken in promoting the false claims that Trump lost the 2020 election due to fraud.

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Byrne and Flynn were at a late 2020 meeting with Trump and others to discuss strategies to overturn his election defeat, The Guardian added.

In practice, The America Project, under Byrne’s direction, has allocated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Arizona’s We the People AZ Alliance and Michigan’s United States Election Investigation and Lawsuits Inc. This has raised concerns among election watchdogs and some GOP veterans due to their contentious positions denying the legitimacy of the election and their leadership’s incendiary rhetoric.

In 2023, Byrne appointed Tom Homan, Trump’s former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as CEO of the America Project. Known for his staunch border policies, Trump has indicated Homan would hold a significant role if the former president were re-elected.

During the Republican convention in Milwaukee, Homan delivered a passionate speech criticizing Joe Biden’s border and immigration policies, asserting that they were intentionally designed rather than mismanaged or incompetent.

Beyond his substantial contributions to The America Project and affiliated organizations, Byrne has also sought to exert influence in other MAGA initiatives involving election deniers.

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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