{"slug":"america-first-legal","title":"America First Legal","subtitle":"Stephen Miller's litigation arm, and the $27.1M gift that dwarfs its own reported revenue.","tldr":"America First Legal (AFL, EIN 86-2190372) is Stephen Miller's post-administration litigation vehicle. The Bradley Foundation reported a single $27.1M gift to AFL in 2022, nearly 3x AFL's own reported 2023 revenue ($9.6M), a discrepancy that suggests money flowed through additional vehicles. AFL was also named in Jack Smith's Arctic Frost grand-jury subpoenas as part of the CPI infrastructure.","publishedAt":null,"updatedAt":"2026-10-17T01:39:27.321Z","url":"https://codyhall.site/investigations/america-first-legal","reportUrl":"https://codyhall.site/investigations/america-first-legal/report.html","ogImage":"https://codyhall.site/og/investigations/america-first-legal.png","topics":["America First Legal","Stephen Miller","Bradley Foundation","dark money","Arctic Frost"],"diagram":{"caption":"AFL's funding (Bradley) and its placement inside the CPI / Arctic Frost infrastructure.","nodes":[{"id":"6a16369a972fef001d72215e","nodeId":"afl","label":"America First Legal","sublabel":"EIN 86-2190372","type":"org","x":50,"y":50,"emphasis":"primary","href":null},{"id":"6a16369a972fef001d72215f","nodeId":"miller","label":"Stephen Miller","sublabel":"Founder","type":"person","x":50,"y":20,"emphasis":"normal","href":null},{"id":"6a16369a972fef001d722160","nodeId":"bradley","label":"Bradley Foundation","sublabel":"$27.1M gift (2022)","type":"org","x":18,"y":40,"emphasis":"normal","href":null},{"id":"6a16369a972fef001d722161","nodeId":"scalia","label":"Eugene Scalia","sublabel":"Bradley director (as of 1/18/2022)","type":"person","x":16,"y":68,"emphasis":"normal","href":null},{"id":"6a16369a972fef001d722162","nodeId":"cpi","label":"Conservative Partnership Institute","sublabel":"Shared infrastructure","type":"org","x":80,"y":36,"emphasis":"normal","href":null},{"id":"6a16369a972fef001d722163","nodeId":"arctic","label":"Arctic Frost","sublabel":"Jack Smith grand jury","type":"org","x":82,"y":68,"emphasis":"normal","href":null}],"edges":[{"id":"6a16369a972fef001d722164","from":"bradley","to":"afl","relation":"funds","label":"$27.1M (2022), 3x AFL's reported revenue","asOf":"2022"},{"id":"6a16369a972fef001d722165","from":"miller","to":"afl","relation":"founded","label":null,"asOf":null},{"id":"6a16369a972fef001d722166","from":"scalia","to":"bradley","relation":"employs","label":"director","asOf":"as of 1/18/2022"},{"id":"6a16369a972fef001d722167","from":"afl","to":"cpi","relation":"affiliated","label":"shared payroll (Paychex GJE0068)","asOf":null},{"id":"6a16369a972fef001d722168","from":"arctic","to":"afl","relation":"affiliated","label":"subpoenaed GJ342/GJ343","asOf":null}]},"keyPlayers":[{"id":"6a16369a972fef001d722169","name":"Stephen Miller","nodeId":"miller","role":"Founder, America First Legal","bio":"Former senior Trump White House adviser; founded AFL as an anti-civil-rights litigation shop. Appears in the Arctic Frost subpoena officer-match pool."},{"id":"6a16369a972fef001d72216a","name":"Eugene Scalia","nodeId":"scalia","role":"Bradley Foundation director","bio":"Trump-1 Labor Secretary and Gibson Dunn partner; joined the Bradley board Jan 18, 2022, the foundation that gave AFL $27.1M."}],"sources":[{"id":"6a16369a972fef001d72216e","label":"ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, AFL EIN 862190372","url":"https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/862190372","sourceTier":"primary","kind":"990","notes":null}],"fileNo":"CF-0005","fileType":"Investigation","subject":"Stephen Miller","narrativeText":"The litigation division AFL occupies the 'courtroom' layer of the conservative machine: where CPI provides personnel and Marble Freedom Trust provides money, AFL turns dark money into litigation. It was founded by Stephen Miller after the first Trump administration. The 3x revenue discrepancy The Bradley Foundation's 2022 990-PF reports a $27.1M single-grantee gift to AFL, while AFL's own 2023 990 reports $9.6M in total revenue. A 3x gap is a strong forensic signal that the real money flow exceeds the visible 990, plausibly routed via Bradley Impact Fund or an AFL-related entity. Inside the Arctic Frost pool America First Legal Foundation was directly named in Jack Smith's Arctic Frost subpoenas (GJ342, GJ343), and a Paychex payroll subpoena grouped 'AFL Foundation' with CPI, CRA, and Compass Legal Services as one shared payroll system, federal prosecutors treating them as a single integrated infrastructure. Stephen Miller appears in the Arctic Frost officer-match pool.","record":{"facts":6,"primaryFacts":6,"sources":30},"evidenceClasses":{"primary":14,"derived":13,"reported":3},"findings":[{"id":41,"statement":"Bradley Foundation paid America First Legal $27.1M in 2022, nearly 3x AFL's own reported 990 revenue ($9.6M in 2023), strongly suggesting money flowed through additional vehicles","state":"verified","confidence":"confirmed","evidenceClass":"primary","marker":"primary","sourceNumbers":[2,3,7,9,10,13],"discoveredBy":"human","record":null,"records":null,"ledger":null},{"id":43,"statement":"Jack Smith's 'Arctic Frost' investigation issued 197 grand jury subpoenas targeting 430+ named Republican individuals and entities, the Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI) was directly subpoenaed at least 4 separate times as a target","state":"verified","confidence":"confirmed","evidenceClass":"primary","marker":"primary","sourceNumbers":[1,4,5,6,9,11,14,28],"discoveredBy":"human","record":null,"records":null,"ledger":null},{"id":46,"statement":"At least 14 named officers from our entity graph appear directly in Arctic Frost subpoena lists, the CPI / Center for Renewing America / America First Legal personnel layer IS the Arctic Frost defendant pool","state":"verified","confidence":"confirmed","evidenceClass":"primary","marker":"primary","sourceNumbers":[1,6,8,24,25,26],"discoveredBy":"human","record":null,"records":null,"ledger":null},{"id":52,"statement":"Five distinct CPI-incubated organizations were directly named in Arctic Frost subpoenas, confirming the federal investigation treated the CPI ecosystem as institutional infrastructure for the 2020 overturn effort","state":"verified","confidence":"confirmed","evidenceClass":"primary","marker":"primary","sourceNumbers":[1,6,15,16,17,18,27],"discoveredBy":"human","record":null,"records":null,"ledger":null},{"id":36,"statement":"America First Legal lost Bradley Impact Fund and CPI as named grantors after the 2022 mega-grant, and was rebuilt on Donors Trust (a DAF) which scaled grants to AFL 24.7x from 2023 to 2024","state":"verified","confidence":"confirmed","evidenceClass":"primary","marker":"primary","sourceNumbers":[7,10,12,13,19,20,21],"discoveredBy":"human","record":null,"records":null,"ledger":null},{"id":80,"statement":"After the 2022 Bradley Impact Fund mega-grant of $27.1M, both Bradley and Conservative Partnership Institute zeroed out their AFL giving and were replaced by Donors Trust, whose grants to AFL scaled 127x from 2023 ($129,250) to 2024 ($3,191,074), a structural pivot from a named ideological foundation to a fully anonymizing donor-advised-fund sponsor","state":"verified","confidence":"confirmed","evidenceClass":"primary","marker":"primary","sourceNumbers":[12,13,19,20,21,22,23],"discoveredBy":"agent","record":null,"records":null,"ledger":null}],"numberedSources":[{"n":1,"title":"Arctic Frost 197 Subpoena Tracker (PDF)","url":"https://www.grassley.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/arctic_frost197_subpoena_tracker_compiled_by_sjc_staff.pdf","domain":"grassley.senate.gov","class":"primary","retrievedAt":"2025-10-28T00:00:00.000Z","sha256Prefix":null,"anchor":null},{"n":2,"title":"Bradley Funneled $86 Million to Right-Wing Litigation, Policy, Media, Youth Groups, and Higher Education in 2022","url":"https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2023/12/13/bradley-funneled-86-million-to-right-wing-litigation-policy-media-youth-groups-and-higher-education-in-2022/","domain":"exposedbycmd.org","class":"primary","retrievedAt":"2023-12-13T00:00:00.000Z","sha256Prefix":null,"anchor":null},{"n":3,"title":"BRADLEY IMPACT FUND INC paid AMERICA FIRST LEGAL FOUNDATION on 2021: GENERAL CHARITABLE PURPOSES (990 Schedule I grant, tax year 2021 | WASHINGTON, DC)","url":"https://gt990datalake-rawdata.s3.amazonaws.com/EfileData/XmlFiles/202203489349301650_public.xml","domain":"gt990datalake-rawdata.s3.amazonaws.com","class":"primary","retrievedAt":"2026-10-20T20:26:05.469Z","sha256Prefix":null,"anchor":"EIN 45-4678325"},{"n":4,"title":"Conservative Partnership Institute - Nonprofit Explorer - ProPublica","url":"https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/821470217","domain":"projects.propublica.org","class":"primary","retrievedAt":"2026-05-29T22:46:36.391Z","sha256Prefix":null,"anchor":"EIN 821470217"},{"n":5,"title":"Conservative Partnership Institute 2024 Form 990 (full filing) - ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer","url":"https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/821470217/202513189349303026/full","domain":"projects.propublica.org","class":"primary","retrievedAt":"2025-11-14T00:00:00.000Z","sha256Prefix":null,"anchor":"EIN 821470217"},{"n":6,"title":"Conservative Partnership Institute: The Trump-aligned Hub","url":"https://documented.net/investigations/conservative-partnership-institute","domain":"documented.net","class":"primary","retrievedAt":"2024-07-15T00:00:00.000Z","sha256Prefix":null,"anchor":null},{"n":7,"title":"Donors Trust Inc - Nonprofit Explorer - ProPublica","url":"https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/522166327","domain":"projects.propublica.org","class":"primary","retrievedAt":"2024-12-31T00:00:00.000Z","sha256Prefix":null,"anchor":"EIN 522166327"},{"n":8,"title":"Full list: 14 GOP lawmakers on Jack Smith's subpoena list","url":"https://www.newsweek.com/full-list-14-gop-lawmakers-jack-smith-subpoena-list-11729171","domain":"newsweek.com","class":"primary","retrievedAt":"2025-10-28T00:00:00.000Z","sha256Prefix":null,"anchor":null},{"n":9,"title":"How Mark Meadows' Employer Helped Pay His Legal Bills - NOTUS","url":"https://www.notus.org/money/mark-meadows-legal-bills","domain":"notus.org","class":"primary","retrievedAt":"2026-05-29T22:46:36.805Z","sha256Prefix":null,"anchor":null},{"n":10,"title":"Murphy's Law: Bradley Foundation Bankrolls Trump's Disinformation","url":"https://urbanmilwaukee.com/2024/03/19/murphys-law-bradley-foundation-bankrolls-trumps-disinformation/","domain":"urbanmilwaukee.com","class":"primary","retrievedAt":"2024-03-19T00:00:00.000Z","sha256Prefix":null,"anchor":null},{"n":11,"title":"NEW: Jack Smith Subpoenaed Records for Over 400 Republican Targets As Part of Arctic Frost","url":"https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/press/rep/releases/new-jack-smith-subpoenaed-records-for-over-400-republican-targets-as-part-of-arctic-frost","domain":"judiciary.senate.gov","class":"primary","retrievedAt":"2025-10-28T00:00:00.000Z","sha256Prefix":null,"anchor":null},{"n":12,"title":"ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, AFL EIN 862190372","url":"https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/862190372","domain":"projects.propublica.org","class":"primary","retrievedAt":"2024-12-31T00:00:00.000Z","sha256Prefix":null,"anchor":"EIN 862190372"},{"n":13,"title":"Trump-Aligned Groups Get Big Boost From 'Dark Money' Behemoth (NOTUS)","url":"https://www.notus.org/money/trump-donors-trust-america-first-policy-institute-legal-foundation-donations","domain":"notus.org","class":"primary","retrievedAt":"2025-11-20T00:00:00.000Z","sha256Prefix":null,"anchor":null},{"n":14,"title":"Wayback Machine snapshot - Inside the Trump Plan for 2025 (Blitzer, New Yorker)","url":"https://web.archive.org/web/2024/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/07/22/inside-the-trump-plan-for-2025","domain":"web.archive.org","class":"primary","retrievedAt":"2024-07-15T00:00:00.000Z","sha256Prefix":null,"anchor":null},{"n":15,"title":"Records from FEC filings","url":null,"domain":null,"class":"derived","retrievedAt":"2026-06-10T12:00:00.000Z","sha256Prefix":null,"anchor":null},{"n":16,"title":"Records from FEC filings","url":null,"domain":null,"class":"derived","retrievedAt":"2026-10-26T04:00:03.688Z","sha256Prefix":null,"anchor":null},{"n":17,"title":"Records from FEC filings","url":null,"domain":null,"class":"derived","retrievedAt":"2026-07-16T06:54:11.883Z","sha256Prefix":null,"anchor":null},{"n":18,"title":"Records from FEC filings, FEC C00867937","url":null,"domain":null,"class":"derived","retrievedAt":"2026-10-26T04:00:02.688Z","sha256Prefix":null,"anchor":"FEC C00867937"},{"n":19,"title":"Records from IRS Form 990 filings (Schedule I grants), EIN 454678325","url":null,"domain":null,"class":"derived","retrievedAt":"2026-07-16T07:01:45.664Z","sha256Prefix":null,"anchor":"EIN 454678325"},{"n":20,"title":"Records from IRS Form 990 filings (Schedule I grants), EIN 522166327","url":null,"domain":null,"class":"derived","retrievedAt":"2026-07-16T07:01:46.228Z","sha256Prefix":null,"anchor":"EIN 522166327"},{"n":21,"title":"Records from IRS Form 990 filings (Schedule I grants), EIN 522166327","url":null,"domain":null,"class":"derived","retrievedAt":"2026-07-16T07:01:46.838Z","sha256Prefix":null,"anchor":"EIN 522166327"},{"n":22,"title":"Records from IRS Form 990 filings (Schedule I grants), EIN 862190372","url":null,"domain":null,"class":"derived","retrievedAt":"2026-07-16T07:01:48.085Z","sha256Prefix":null,"anchor":"EIN 862190372"},{"n":23,"title":"Records from IRS Form 990 filings (Schedule I grants), EIN 862190372","url":null,"domain":null,"class":"derived","retrievedAt":"2026-07-16T07:01:47.470Z","sha256Prefix":null,"anchor":"EIN 862190372"},{"n":24,"title":"Records from public filings","url":null,"domain":null,"class":"derived","retrievedAt":"2026-05-30T09:43:49.510Z","sha256Prefix":null,"anchor":null},{"n":25,"title":"Records from public filings","url":null,"domain":null,"class":"derived","retrievedAt":"2026-05-30T09:43:49.898Z","sha256Prefix":null,"anchor":null},{"n":26,"title":"Records from public filings","url":null,"domain":null,"class":"derived","retrievedAt":"2026-05-30T09:43:51.344Z","sha256Prefix":null,"anchor":null},{"n":27,"title":"Records from public filings","url":null,"domain":null,"class":"derived","retrievedAt":"2026-06-10T12:00:00.000Z","sha256Prefix":null,"anchor":null},{"n":28,"title":"Arctic Frost investigation - Wikipedia","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Frost_investigation","domain":"en.wikipedia.org","class":"reported","retrievedAt":"2025-11-01T00:00:00.000Z","sha256Prefix":null,"anchor":null},{"n":29,"title":"Circular Funding Analysis","url":"https://codyhall.site/sources/investigations/america-first-legal/10reports/circular-funding-analysis.md","domain":null,"class":"reported","retrievedAt":"2026-02-16T12:27:37.000Z","sha256Prefix":null,"anchor":null},{"n":30,"title":"Cross-Reference Analysis","url":"https://codyhall.site/sources/investigations/america-first-legal/10reports/cross-reference-analysis.md","domain":null,"class":"reported","retrievedAt":"2025-11-13T00:24:47.000Z","sha256Prefix":null,"anchor":null}]}