A dual-pronged investigative and regulatory pincer movement is moving to close on the nonprofits and "dark money" networks that have long anchored the American left’s political and cultural infrastructure.

From Congress to the Justice Department and the IRS, the Trump administration and allied lawmakers are examining the anonymity and tax-exempt status enjoyed by some of the most influential progressive organizations in the country.

The latest development came Thursday when the House Oversight Committee issued a subpoena to the Sixteen Thirty Fund, the massive non-profit hub managed by Arabella Advisors. The subpoena demands internal communications and financial records regarding a social media influencer operation known as the Chorus program. 

The core of the House inquiry involves the Chorus program’s potential role in circumventing federal campaign finance laws. Specifically, the investigation focuses on the payment of social media influencers to disseminate political messaging without the disclosures mandated by campaign finance law. 

The Chorus

The subpoena is the latest step in the Republican-led effort to map the liberal dark money network that has funneled undisclosed donations into judicial confirmations, environmental activism, and nationwide protests and election-year turnout operations. 

The Sixteen Thirty Fund functions as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, which allows it to engage in political advocacy while keeping its donors anonymous. However, the Chorus program has drawn specific attention as a potential new frontier in political maneuvering. 

Last year, WIRED magazine first reported on the existence of the secretive Chorus program. The group allegedly pays online influencers up to $8,000 a month to disseminate talking points favorable to the Democratic Party. 

The influencers are expected to be tight-lipped about their arrangements with Chorus. According to several contracts reviewed by WIRED, the creators are prohibited from publicly acknowledging the program, disclosing the identities of any funders or admitting that they are being paid. 

The contracts also reportedly gave Chorus the authority to police the content that creators post, including the ability to demand creators take down any content produced at its events. 

Some of the most notable online liberal voices are reportedly affiliated with the program. Olivia Julianna, a Gen Z activist who spoke at the 2024 Democratic National Convention; Loren Piretra, a former Playboy executive turned Occupy Democrats YouTuber; and Barrett Adair, a content creator who runs a viral American Girl Doll–themed meme account, are purportedly among the creators.

The Oversight committee launched an investigation into the Chorus program last November, raising concerns that through it the Sixteen Thirty Fund may have sought to “circumvent campaign finance disclosure laws” and undermine media ethics standards. 

This inquiry is part of a broader push to establish whether large-scale nonprofit engines are operating within the same legal framework required of other political entities, or if they are utilizing their tax-exempt status to shield coordinated political campaigns from public scrutiny.

The Department of Justice and the SPLC

The Trump administration’s Justice Department has also scrutinized liberal nonprofits for alleged violations. Last month, a federal grand jury indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center.  

For decades, the group has positioned itself as the nation’s preeminent watchdog, which maintained a controversial "Hate Map" that increasingly labeled benign conservative organizations and religious groups as hate groups. 

According to federal prosecutors, the SPLC secretly funneled over $3 million from 2014 to 2023 to individuals associated with violent extremist groups, including the Aryan Nations, the Ku Klux Klan and the National Socialist Party of America.

The DOJ alleges the SPLC utilized a network of shell companies – with such names as "Center Investigative Agency" and "Fox Photography" – to disguise payments to individuals associated with those groups. 

While the SPLC claims these were legitimate payments for undercover informants to monitor threats, the FBI and DOJ allege the funds were used to ensure that "hate" remained visible enough to justify the SPLC’s mission and purpose. 

The scale of the SPLC’s wealth has long been a point of contention for investigative watchdogs. 

As of late 2024, the organization’s consolidated financial statements showed nearly $790 million in net assets. The conservative, nonprofit watchdog group Capital Research Center argues that the SPLC has deviated from its original mission and now uses its massive war chest to stoke division and paint benign conservative groups as vectors of hate.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said that SPLC and other nonprofits similarly in violation of federal laws would be held accountable. 

“The SPLC is manufacturing racism to justify its existence,” he said. “Using donor money to allegedly profit off Klansmen cannot go unchecked. This Department of Justice will hold the SPLC and every other fraudulent organization operating with the same deceptive playbook accountable. No entity is above the law.”

The IRS and the Singham Network

Lawmakers have also turned their focus on foreign-linked nonprofits conducting what they deem to be influence operations in the United States. Chief among them is the network linked to ex-tech mogul turned resident of China Neville Roy Singham.

House and Senate investigators have documented extensive financial and leadership ties between these groups and Singham, a wealthy Marxist businessman living in Shanghai who is reportedly aligned with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). 

Missouri GOP Rep. Jason Smith, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, has identified over $20 million in donations funneled to the People’s Forum through shell companies and donor-advised funds to obscure the original source of the money. He has urged the IRS to scrutinize the "Singham-CCP network" for failing to operate within its stated tax-exempt purpose. 

Smith has specifically cited the People’s Forum for hosting courses pushing communist propaganda and supporting disruptive college campus occupations, arguing that tax-exempt status is a privilege that should be revoked when used to "sow chaos" and interfere in American politics.

The Oversight committee escalated its probe in January by voting to subpoena Singham directly, following months of what lawmakers described as stonewalling. 

Despite years of congressional pressure, a sprawling web of activist groups – including the People’s Forum, Code Pink, the ANSWER Coalition and the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL)– has retained its tax-exempt status while avoiding prosecution under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), Just the News previously reported. 

Republican lawmakers have pressed the executive branch for a formal evaluation of the groups. 

In letters sent in March to FBI Director Kash Patel and then-Attorney General Pam Bondi, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley and Sen. Jim Banks argued that organizations such as Code Pink and the People’s Forum are engaging in "covered political activities" that advance the interests of the Chinese government. The lawmakers have urged the DOJ to utilize FARA as a "priority tool" to combat foreign influence.

“Sixteen Thirty Fund complies with the law and has cooperated with the Committee’s inquiry while protecting the rights and safety of the people who work with us,” the fund said in a statement to Just the News. 

The SPLC has also defended its record, asserting that its work remains necessary for monitoring extremism and defended its use of informants to do so. The organization called Blanche’s related statements “false” and denied the allegations contained in the indictment. 

Similarly, groups within the Singham network have previously denied that they operate under the direction of any foreign government. The People’s Forum has characterized the investigations as a "political assault" intended to criminalize anti-war and pro-Palestinian organizations.