Unelected Infections: Reid Hoffman
The LinkedIn co-founder flooded sketchy pro-Democrat organizations with cash and meddled with a US Senate election.
Out of all political spenders during the Donald Trump era, no one produced eyebrow raises and double-takes quite like Reid Hoffman. Over the course of one administration, the billionaire has funded a sleazy disinformation campaign, collaborated with the legal team for Fusion GPS (the investigative agency that backed the Steele dossier), strong-armed fellow tech oligarchs into matching his politically motivated financial contributions, and left a paper trail connecting him to the infamous Iowa Caucus Shadow app.
Hoffman’s overindulgent pro-Democrat footprint is ambitious enough to warrant a mini-series itself. He has become an upper-echelon gangster of the corporate-controlled Democratic Party, and his agendas are becoming the United States political arena’s reality.
Co-founder of LinkedIn and a frequent associate of figures like Eric Schmidt (Google) and Laurene Powell Jobs (Apple), the tech mogul seldom tossed around his fortune in political ventures before 2017. Hoffman had merely donated $2 million to political causes before his mass funding of the anti-Trump movement. Ironically, Hoffman gave $1 million of the $2 million to MayDay PAC — a PAC that supports candidates campaigning on legislations that limit campaign spending.
His political coyness changed seemingly overnight.
Referred to as “a top sugardaddy of the Democratic anti-Trump resistance” by journalist Max Blumenthal, Hoffman’s gold-lined pockets have been a mega-boost to the Democratic Party in key races around the country.
Arguably his most scandalous political endeavor involved a disinformation campaign centered on the 2017 Alabama Senate race titled Project Birmingham. The secret 5-month plan strived to ensure the defeat of Republican Roy Moore and boost Democrat Doug Jones.
Cosplaying as a liberal candidate, Jones opposed tax increases for the middle class, yet somehow proudly supported corporate tax cuts. Jones explained in 2019 that the US-Israel relationship should not be a political weapon (following Israel’s travel ban of Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Rep. Ilhan Omar). However, Jones maintained that the US-Israel relationship is bi-partisan and steadfast. He stressed that skepticism of the Israeli government and supporting Palestine are both anti-Semitic acts.
Project Birmingham was a campaign implemented by an information integrity company called New Knowledge (now called Yonder and incorporated under Popily Inc.). New Knowledge received funding from a Hoffman-backed company — American Engagement Technologies (AET). Hoffman invested $750k into AET, with $100,000 funneled into New Knowledge and the Project Birmingham scheme.
AET is, coincidentally, headed by a former Google and Obama staffer, Mikey Dickerson. Dickerson was appointed by Obama in 2014 to the positions of Administrator of the U.S. Digital Service and Deputy Federal Chief Information Officer. Dickerson also serves as the head of the anti-Republican tech company Alloy. Alloy’s initial fundraising garnered a whopping $35 million — half of which was provided by Hoffman.
Project Birmingham incorporated a mass political migration of seemingly foreign social media profiles, sought to radicalize one half of the American voter base, attempted to dissuade and depress turnout of the other half, and gave the impression that the Kremlin was meddling and covertly backing a GOP candidate. To put it simply, Project Birmingham was everything Democrats have been falsely claiming Russiagate was for the past four-plus years.
During its 5-month implementation period, Project Birmingham produced exceptional results. The program propped up write-in Republican candidate Mac Watson and set up interviews for Watson with The Washington Post and Montgomery Advertiser. Project Birmingham reported a 3,000% boost to organic anti-Roy Moore memes and manufactured “approximately 45k Twitter followers, 250k Retweets, 370k Tweet Favorites, 6k Facebook Comments, 10k Facebook Reactions,”
Our campaign was cheap and anonymous. We spent $100k and experimented with many of the tactics now understood to have influenced the 2016 elections. However, in spite of our impact in the press and in voting outcomes, not a single story about our activities appeared in any press outlet, including far-right internet-focused conspiracy sites like InfoWars or Breitbart, prone to speculation about liberal interference in Republican politics.
— Project Birmingham Debrief
Documents laying out the clandestine operation were partially published by Jeff Giesea on Medium. A Washington Post article confirmed Giesea’s leakand said that the full report, called “Project Birmingham Debrief”, was 12 pages long. The Washington Post, along with The New York Times, has not publicly released the full report despite having access to it.
The pro-Doug Jones election meddling resulted in Jones winning with 50% of the total vote, according to CNN. Moore received 48.3% and write-in candidates secured 1.7%.
A national security and intelligence community journalist at The New York Times, Scott Shane (known well for his betrayal of CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou), aided in concealing the Project Birmingham scandal for some time. On December 17, 2018, Shane proposed that Russian troll farms boosted Trump in the General Election via various media outlets, but mentioned nothing of the effective boosting and meddling from Project Birmingham. Journalist Dan Cohen wrote on January 23, 2019, that Shane had signed an NDA with AET. According to Cohen, when Shane was asked about the agreement by journalist Yasha Levine, he claimed that such agreements are “totally routine in journalism.”
Shane eventually revealed information on Project Birmingham in a report on December 19, 2018. Cohen’s report on Shane’s suspect measures regarding Project Birmingham was published by The Grayzone.
While Russiagate was hyperbolic and full of holes, Project Birmingham was very real — resulting in a formal apology from Hoffman. Max Blumenthal reported on Hoffman’s ties to New Knowledge and Project Birmingham at greater length in February 2020.
