The Now or Never PAC spent a total of about $8 million backing candidates such as Todd Akin, a Senate nominee in Missouri. | Charlie Riedel/AP Photo Judge turns down secrecy bid from Super PAC donor

A judge has rejected a mystery conservative donor’s legal bid to maintain the secrecy surrounding $1.7 million donated to a Super PAC that was active on behalf of Republican candidates in the 2012 election.

In a ruling on Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson dismissed a lawsuit filed last December aimed at blocking disclosure of information in Federal Election Commission records about the activities of the Now or Never PAC, which spent a total of about $8 million backing candidates such as Todd Akin, a Senate nominee in Missouri.


A trust and trustee involved in funneling $1.7 million to the PAC argued in the suit that disclosure of their identities would invade their privacy. It appears that they are legally distinct from the original source of the funds, but it’s possible that naming the trust and trustee could effectively identify the donor.

Jackson, an appointee of President Barack Obama, said in her 23-page decision that the FEC was not legally barred from disclosing the identities of the trust and trustee. However, she also held that the agency was not legally obligated to release the information under a statute that the agency’s lawyers cited.

Under those circumstances, the FEC’s decision to disclose the information was reasonable, the judge wrote.

“The public has an interest in the agency’s decision to terminate this proceeding involving Government Integrity without enforcing its own subpoenas and following the money back to its source,” Jackson found. “The agency’s salutary interest in exposing its decision making to public scrutiny outweighs plaintiffs’ insubstantial privacy concerns.”

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The judge also said those who brought the suit — named in public court papers as John Doe 1 and 2 — hadn’t shown any impact on their right to make political donations.

“Even if one concludes that at least one plaintiff has asserted an interest in preventing the chilling of future speech in the form of donations, the only right that is implicated by the agency’s actions in this case is the right to contribute anonymously, not the right to contribute at all,” Jackson wrote.

There is no right to make anonymous political donations in most situations, she concluded, citing the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling.

An attorney for the anonymous trust and trustee who brought the suit, William Taylor, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday. However, late Friday night Taylor filed an emergency motion asking Jackson to stay her ruling pending an appeal.

After the suit was filed last year, the FEC released a variety of documents related to the case , but withheld the identities of the individual and the trust who filed suit.

FEC Commissioner Ellen Weintraub said in a statement posted to Twitter: "Delighted that a court has upheld @FEC’s right to disclose the names of persons integral to Commission investigations. Judge Amy Jackson’s opinion in Doe v. FEC strongly defends the FEC’s disclosure policy & vindicates public's right to know this key info. https://goo.gl/6HdXCk"

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which brought the original complaint against the Super PAC, filed its own suit against the FEC in December, charging that the agency’s violated its legal duties when it failed to take action in the case.

Jordan Libowitz, a spokesman for CREW, said: "The court today reaffirmed Americans’ ability to know who is funding their elections, as well as their ability to oversee the operations of the FEC, an agency in need of vigilant oversight if ever there was one. We hope this will be the end of plaintiffs’ attempts to hide from the American people."