America’s Biggest Charities Bankrolled RFK Jr.’s Anti-Vax Outfit
For this sweeping investigation, Important Context teamed up with Rolling Stone to reveal how major charitable funds were directing millions of dollars to anti-vaccine groups, including Robert Kennedy Jr.’s Children’s Health Defense.
Who is Funding the Brownstone Institute?
Important Context revealed some of the previously anonymous funders of the Brownstone Institute. A dark money group dedicated to opposing pandemic control measures, Brownstone quickly became a central hub of COVID-19-related misinformation since its founding in 2021.
Chinese Dissident Secretly Recruited Right-Wing Writers to Publish Flattering Articles
Important Context got inside the network of exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui. We exposed how operatives working for Guo recruited prominent Republican voices, including Donald Trump’s now-press secretary Karoline Leavitt, to write and/or sign their name to opinion pieces praising his various business ventures and painting him as a persecuted dissident—an image that was central to a $1 billion fraud scheme he was convicted in connection with in July 2024.
The Invisible Hand: How Dark Money Is Inventing Prestige for Right-Wing Academics
Important Context reveals how right-wing dark money groups are manufacturing prestige for friendly academics. This investigation dives into a new group called the American Academy of Sciences and Letters (AASL), which has been giving out awards to prominent scholars alongside fringe figures from the right. The goal appears to be boosting the latter through association with the former.
About that Vaccine Study RFK Cited At His Confirmation Hearing
At his confirmation hearing, RFK Jr. defended the debunked vaccine-autism link using a study from a journal run by his anti-vax allies. The study’s author, its publisher, and its editorial board are deeply tied to Kennedy’s network. Despite claiming to be “pro-safety,” he’s pushing discredited research from his own camp.
“A New Academic Publishing Model”: Right-Wing Dark Money Group Launches Fringe Medical Journal
Important Context dug into a new “academy” of public health complete with its own new medical journal. Behind the new publication are a number of COVID-19 contrarians, including two of Donald Trump’s public health picks, and a major right-wing dark money group funded by big money. The new venture promises to manufacture legitimacy for discredited pandemic policies and medical notions while limiting submissions to insiders.