Outdoor clothing group Patagonia has made no secret of their far-left radical views.
Patagonia CEO Rose Marcario has repeatedly attacked President Trump and pledged to “resist” him.
Now, the watchdog group Americans for Public Trust (APT) has filed a campaign finance complaint against the company’s tax-exempt arm, alleging the nonprofit is misrepresenting donations and “funneling its profits to an array of groups working on everything from dam removal to voter registration.”
According to The New York Times, Patagonia and the Chouinard family, which founded the company, “set up a series of trusts, limited liability corporations and charitable groups designed to protect the independence of the clothing company while distributing all of its profits through an entity known as the Holdfast Collective” after the family relinquished ownership of the company declaring all its future profits would be used to protect the environment and combat climate change.
APT Executive Director Caitlin Sutherland shared, “By misreporting the source of the donations, Holdfast is trying to hide its true organizational structure that operates as a $1.7 billion ATM for liberal groups.”
NEW: We have filed an FEC complaint against @patagonia’s dark money group: @CaitlinAPT: “By misreporting the source of the donations, Holdfast is trying to hide its true organizational structure that operates as a $1.7 billion ATM for liberal groups.” https://t.co/Jsy1CbgPNy
— Americans for Public Trust (@apublictrust) February 22, 2024
According to APT’s complaint, filed on Thursday with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), a collective of climate-focused tax-exempt groups representing 98% of Patagonia’s nonvoting shares, misidentified political contributions made to Democrat political action committees in 2022. If confirmed, this would violate the Federal Election Campaign Act.
“With these tremendous resources, and the subsequent desire to pour this money into American politics, there should come great responsibility and transparency,” the complaint states, pointing to the Patagonia collective’s vast assets. “The very bedrock of these responsibilities should include providing accurate contributor information so that most basic disclosure and transparency requirements of [FECA] can be met.”
Federal elections filings analyzed by APT and reviewed by Fox News Digital show that in late 2022 the so-called Holdfast Collective donated $100,000 to the Senate Majority PAC, which is devoted to electing Democrats to the Senate; $50,000 to the Jane Fonda Climate PAC, which gives solely to left-wing campaigns; and $25,000 to the Galeo Impact Fund PAC, which donated only to Democrat Georgia Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff.
The Holdfast Collective gave another $20,000 to Activate America, another PAC devoted entirely to supporting Democrats.
Sutherland told Fox News Digital, “It is unacceptable that a for-profit company posed as a donor to mask a network of nonprofit organizations working to quietly influence our political system. By misreporting the source of the donations, Holdfast is trying to hide its true organizational structure that operates as a $1.7 billion ATM for liberal groups.”
I always knew Patagonia was dirty. Get their granola asses. https://t.co/uF4ebIvTC1
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) February 22, 2024
