Biden’s Allies in ‘Deep State’ Exposed: Truth Behind AAF’s DEI Watchlist
Earlier this year, Stefanie Anderson, a federal worker, found herself diving into a pool of questions she thought she would never have to encounter. Amid the quietude of her kitchen, she and her husband deliberated on matters concerning the safety of their children, their schooling, and even their residency status. This wave of anxiety had been dredged up by information relayed to her from a friend- a reference to a ‘DEI Watchlist’ issued by the American Accountability Foundation, a conservative group allied with key figures from ex-President Donald Trump’s regime.
Having vested significant parts of her professional life to public health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Anderson possessed substantial expertise in addressing infectious disease outbreaks. Her credentials boasted of an assignment in Sierra Leone during the debilitating Ebola crisis, among other significant endeavors within HIV prevention programs. Understandably, her change of circumstances was shocking even to her.
Attempting to maintain anonymity, she altered her appearance, limited her ventures outdoors, and rerouted deliveries intended for her home located in Atlanta. She even reinforced the importance of vigilance and security measures to her children. These reactions were sparked by the fact that Anderson was merely one amongst 175 federal employees who had made it to the ‘watchlists’ of the American Accountability Foundation, owing to unsubstantiated claims of favoring liberal ideologies.
Quite a number of these individuals from the ‘watchlist’ demonstrated a diverse demographic representation; most of them were women and persons of color. These dedicated professionals carried within their portfolios expansive work experiences across both Republican and Democratic administrations. Predominantly, they possessed little public exposure, indicating their roles were mainly relegated to background operations within the government.
Detailed investigations into legal documents, public archives, and interviews with over three dozen sources allowed Reuters to trace the transformation of the American Accountability Foundation. From a base solely focusing on opposing Biden, the organization has evolved into a potent weapon within the Trump campaign’s strategy to weed out individuals they perceive as adversaries.
In fact, a considerable portion of the people named on these watchlists – at least 88 – have either exited the government service or have been coerced toward administrative leaves. Some were victims to the layoffs spearheaded by Trump under his federal employment policy, while others left due to the fear of termination or the threat of unexpected reassignments. A couple of these individuals, unnerved by unsettling concerns about their safety, abandoned the country.
Interestingly, the focus of AAF’s ‘watchlists’ is predominantly the obscure career civil servants who are entrusted with the execution of administrative policies. The compilation of details within these sites encompass photos, personal details sourced from public records and social media, and allegations of alleged ‘left-wing’ transgressions. The origin of this ‘list’, slated as a strategy for Trump’s election campaign in 2024, serves to ‘cleanse the deep state’, translating to a dossier of names and faces.
The American Accountability Foundation has pitched its operations as an extensive endeavor to safeguard Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda. Their claim within the websites is to unveil ‘the truth behind the people and groups undermining American democracy’. During the last year, the conservative Heritage Foundation had financed the group’s activities by granting $100,000, as revealed by public archives.
It was noted that much of the early funding and organizational support for AAF originated from groups in sync with Trump. Since Trump’s administration, over 200,000 federal workforce have exited the government service. The administration alleges that approximately 154,000 of these have accepted redundancy packages while around 55,000 have found themselves terminated or rendered unemployed as reported by the Partnership for Public Service, a non-profit that scrutinizes federal workforce trends.
In a decisive move, the Trump administration worked towards relaxing restrictions designed to keep partisanship out of government operations. In April, apparently, the enforcement of the Hatch Act, a law of almost a century old that aimed to protect civil service from partisan politics was relaxed.
For those named by AAF, implications can be immediate and severe. Post the release of the DHS list, an anonymous commenter on AAF’s X account posted an image of ammunition. Enquiries regarding this post remained unanswered.
The American Accountability Foundation was officially launched in December 2020, following Trump’s election loss to Biden. Initially, both CPI and America First Legal featured themselves in tax filings as a ‘direct controlling entity’ of AAF.
AAF then launched consecutive offensives against its targets, with Sharp being one of them. Upon unveiling his DEI Watchlist in January, Jones made a statement to Fox News claiming, ‘We’re going to help the Trump administration identify the people they need to get out of these positions.’
‘DANGEROUS’ – this label was slapped ruthlessly by the AAF on its watchlists that interestingly and disproportionally featured women. The federal employees were singled out by AAF under loosely based allegations of political bias.