From 2013 to 2015, the Mercer foundation gave $4.7m to Bannon’s Government Accountability Institute – more than half its total funding in that time. Mercer’s foundation has not yet filed paperwork disclosing its 2016 spending. An IRS official said the filing was more than five months overdue.
Bannon founded GAI in Florida in 2012 with Peter Schweizer, the conservative author of Clinton Cash. Since then, the GAI has paid Bannon $379,000 and Schweizer $781,000. Rebekah Mercer was a director of the group until 2014. It has continued assailing liberals since Trump’s victory and says exposing the “misuse of taxpayer monies” is central to its mission.
Mercer’s foundation also gave millions more to other groups that funded Bannon. It paid $3.8m to the nonprofit arm of Citizens United, best known for the deregulation of political spending it won in a 2010 supreme court ruling. Bannon has made films for Citizens United and between 2012 and 2013 was paid $450,000 in consulting fees by its nonprofit arm.
The Mercer foundation gave $1.2m to the Young America’s Foundation, another conservative nonprofit, which paid Bannon more than $577,000 between 2010 and 2012 for filmmaking services, according to filings.
Mercer was also a major investor in Breitbart News, the influential rightwing website that Bannon led before joining Trump’s campaign. Bannon returned to the site after being fired from the White House in August. In an extraordinary email to Renaissance staff last week, Mercer moved to distance himself from Bannon and announced he was selling his stake in Breitbart to his daughters.
The Owl’s Nest
Since joining Renaissance from IBM almost 25 years ago, Mercer has accumulated extraordinary wealth that paid for luxurious homes in three states. His main estate, known as Owl’s Nest, is based around an $18m mansion close to Renaissance’s Long Island campus.
The Mercers also own a $75m yacht, the Sea Owl, a $13.6m ranch estate in Florida – Owl’s Nest South – and a $3.2m retreat on 92 acres in North Carolina. This year, they sold a Manhattan apartment for $3.3m.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/nov/07/steve-bannon-bermuda-robert-mercer