The Mercers, secretive billionaires who are among President Trump's most powerful donors, also helped to fund Project Veritas, the controversial activist organization, tax filings obtained by BuzzFeed News show.



Gravitas Maximus LLC — a Mercer investment vehicle through which he also funded the conservative outlet Breitbart — gave $25,000 to Project Veritas, according to a nonpublic portion of a 2012 tax form. The family's involvement has not previously been made public.

The Mercer family did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The filings draw yet another connection in the web of conservative enterprises funded by Robert Mercer, who recently stepped down from his role as co-CEO of hedge fund Renaissance Technologies after a BuzzFeed News exposé revealed the connections among the Mercers, Breitbart, and white nationalists and neo-Nazis.

Project Veritas has come under intense scrutiny this week after one of its operatives, pretending to have been victimized by Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, tried to dupe the Washington Post. The scheme was uncovered by the Post on Monday. On Wednesday, BuzzFeed News published the names of two dozen donors to Project Veritas. A spokesperson for the organization responded that inquiries about donors were causing a spike in donations.

James O’Keefe, the organization's founder, came to national prominence for videos he made of employees of ACORN, a liberal organizing group, purportedly discussing illegal activities. He was later sued over the videos and paid out a six-figure settlement.



The tax filing listing several donations to Project Veritas was first surfaced by Nation Institute fellow Eli Clifton.