Liz Cheney has a group of political consultants with ties to former President Donald Trump and the Koch network, as she considers a run for the White House after losing her Wyoming House seat.
Cheney was the vice chair of the committee that investigated the attack on the U.S. Capitol. She lost the Republican nomination in a big way to a Wyoming lawyer.
In an interview with NBC News, Cheney said she has put together a team of top GOP advisors to help her prevent Trump from ever becoming president.
Donald Trump poses a grave threat to our republic. She said in an interview on NBC's "TODAY" show last week that defeating him would require a broad and united front of Republicans, Democrats and independents.
She launched a leadership political action committee called The Great Task which will allow her to keep her political ambitions alive and take on the former president. Trump, whose home and private club Mar-a-Lago in Florida was raided by the FBI just days before the primary, has not ruled out running for president again.
Cheney is trying to prevent the former president from winning a second term in the White House by using some of Trump's own advisers. They may have used limited liability companies to keep their identity a secret.
The senior GOP strategist said that the president and his associates will not work with the former Cheney again. According to The New York Times, Jeff Miller, a lobbyist and ally of Kevin McCarthy, told vendors not to work with Cheney's team.
A spokesman for Trump did not reply to a request for comment. A spokesman for Cheney didn't reply.
According to financial database PitchBook, Charles Koch is helping Cheney through i360, a data and technology company owned by Koch Industries.
Two political action committees, Conservatives for a Strong America and Wyomingites Defending Freedom and Democracy, paid more than $300,000 for i360 to help deploy pro-Cheney ads through text messages. Julia Dailer, a former White House aide, is the leader of Wyomingites Defending Freedom and Democracy, according to a report.
According to the nonprofit's 2020 tax disclosure, Americans for Prosperity paid $11 million to i360 for data services.
Koch's political network worked with the Trump administration to support some of the former president's key initiatives, including cutting regulations for businesses.
The Americans for Prosperity ran an ad campaign against Democratic lawmakers, including moderates, to oppose the Inflation Reduction Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law this month.
According to FEC records, i360 worked with Dr. Mehmet Oz, who was endorsed by Trump for Pennsylvania's open Senate seat, and Rep. Peter Meijer, who voted to impeach the former president.
The representatives for the pro-Cheney groups didn't return calls.
After the former president adopted long-sought tax cuts and the nomination of conservative Supreme Court Justices, Trump and the Koch family have not always been close. The Kochs were called a joke in real Republican circles by Trump, who said they were against Strong Borders and Powerful trade. The Koch network didn't help Trump in his bid for reelection.
The people close to Trump told CNBC that the former president and those aligned with him could stop future work with those who worked for Cheney.
A company called Red Right Media was a top vendor for the Cheney campaign. FEC disclosures show that the company was paid more than $1 million for advertising and media services by Cheney's campaign.
Business records show that Red Right Media is an alternative name for a company called X/Roads Communications. State business records show that X/Roads Communications is run by a man who once worked in the White House as a communications director. According to financial disclosures filed while leading the White House communications team, Dubke was a managing partner of X/Roads Communications before he joined the White House.
Dubke had less than 100 days on the job. According to Open Secrets, Red Right Media has been getting paid millions of dollars by Republican groups for consulting work. According to records, DefendArizona paid more than $4 million for Red Right Media's services.
McSally ran a failed campaign against Sinema in the election. The Senate Leadership Fund, which is aligned with Senate Minority LeaderMitch McConnell, R-Ky., funded Defend Arizona.
Black Rock Group, a media consulting firm co-founded by Dubke, was paid more than $100,000 by Cheney's campaign last year. Dubke and Black Rock Group didn't reply to questions.
Other past Trump consultants that worked with Cheney during her primary run and who aided Trump include a New Hampshire-based group. The Cheney campaign paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for direct mail ads. According to campaign finance data, the Trump campaign paid more than $8 million to the company.
TAG Strategies, a political marketing firm that worked for Trump in the 2020 campaign and several of his endorsed candidates in the midterms, was paid almost $380,000 by Cheney's campaign for digital and marketing services. TAG Strategies was paid $200,000 by Trump's campaign.
In an email to CNBC, a vice president at TAG said that the firm worked for Cheney during the primary. She said that they do work for conservatives and center-right candidates.
A request for comment was not returned.
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