Is Peter Schweizer part of a vast right-wing conspiracy?

The upcoming books attacking Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush by conservative Peter Schweizer, who has worked for Republican politicians and whose Government Accountability Institute is apparently financed by wealthy conservative donors, raises an important question: Is Schweizer at the epicenter of the kind of “vast right-wing conspiracy” that then-first lady Hillary Clinton spoke about long ago?

Here’s what we know for certain: Schweizer will soon release a book that will level accusations against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. His book will be published by HarperCollins, which is owned by News Corp., Rupert Murdoch’s conglomerate. He has worked for Republican politicians, including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. He is president of the Government Accountability Institute, which has received substantial financing from conservative donors, including the Mercer family, one of whose members reportedly hosted a meeting supporting the presidential candidacy of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), reported this week by Media Matters.

For the record, I will probably be writing a more detailed column about this affair, and am in the process of more fact-checking for my column than most beat reporters do for their news stories. I have several formal media inquiries pending, including an inquiry to the Government Accountability Institute asking for information detailing the institute’s largest donors.

{mosads}Let me suggest that anyone in the media who interviews Schweizer about his attack against the Clintons ask him directly to list during those interviews the largest donors to the Government Accountability Institute. Since Schweizer is attacking the Clintons and making allegations about donations to the Clinton Foundation that they have voluntarily disclosed, he should be honor-bound to disclose the major donors who are supporting his attacks against the Clintons.

We also know that Schweizer will soon be publishing another book attacking Republican candidate Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida. It is fair to ask him, therefore, whether major donors to his institute are supporting Republican opponents to Bush’s presidential campaign.

I will judge the content of the Schweizer book when his allegations are fully public. So far, of the many media reports hyping his book, I have not seen one “smoking gun” that is anything more than information that was almost all publicly known, which proves nothing that should be damaging to the Clinton or the Bush campaigns.

The larger issue for today is whether what is happening is a modern-day equivalent of the vast right-wing conspiracy that Hillary Clinton once discussed. What Schweizer is doing in his book, published by a Murdoch-owned publishing house, is the functional equivalent of a private opposition-research attack project, of the exact kind that partisan campaigns routinely run, financially supported directly or indirectly by some conservative money sources who are not currently fully disclosed, including apparent media partnerships that have not been satisfactory disclosed including organizations such as Fox News, The New York Times and The Washington Post.

I am not ready today make the full-blown charge that Schweizer and his books are part of a vast right-wing conspiracy aimed to destroy the presidential campaigns of Clinton and Bush. I am suggesting that this scenario is very plausible, and that this question could be answered by full disclosure of major financing sources for the Government Accountability Institute and full disclosure of any and all relationships between those promoting this book and media organizations that should be reporting about allegations in this book with independence and objectivity.

Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and former Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.), who was then chief deputy majority whip of the House. He holds an LL.M. degree in international financial law from the London School of Economics. Contact him at brentbbi@webtv.net.