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Screenshot from Republicans for the Rule of Law ad President Trump: Dont let history repeat itself Captured via YouTube

A new anti-Trump group helmed by Republicans announced Tuesday that it would raise $50 million to encourage lawmakers to break with President Donald Trump. Behind the project is Defending Democracy Together, one of the top-spending dark money groups in the 2020 election cycle.

The new effort the Republican Accountability Project promises to use its cash to ensure that ample resources are available for those principled Republicans who do the right thing and hold Trump accountable for inciting an attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The campaign joins another never-Trump Republican group, super PAC The Lincoln Project, in its efforts to sway Republican who might otherwise hesitate to break from the president in order to avoid alienating Trump voters in their home states and districts. The Republican Accountability Projects website offers scant detail about how lawmakers will be selected to benefit from the campaign, but promises to back credible primary challengers against Republican members of Congress who have enabled or capitulated to Trump and Trumpism.

The group promises Republicans who vote to impeach that it will provide them with political protection against primary challenges from Trump loyalists. The presidents campaign has raised $200 million since the election, which he could use against incumbent members of Congress who speak out against him.

Ten House Republicans voted to impeach Trump Wednesday, making the vote the most bipartisan impeachment in U.S. history. The resolution will now move to the Senate, where Democrats need to win over at least 17 Republicans in order to convict Trump. The impeachment trial is expected to begin next week following the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.

The Lincoln Project released an ad Wednesday urging members of Congress to vote to both impeach and convict Trump of inciting insurrection. The organization also aired an ad in California urging staff employed by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to quit en masse following Trump supporters Jan 6. attack on the Capitol.

The Lincoln Project receives millions of dollars from so-called dark money groups, 501(c)(4) nonprofits that are not required to disclose their funders. Defending Democracy Together is itself a 501(c)(4) organization that props up its affiliated super PACs with millions of dollars from undisclosed sources.

Both organizations are helmed by Republicans who broke from Trump at some point during his four-year term. Bill Kristol is the director of Defending Democracy Together and chairman of the board for the Republican Accountability Project. Kristol worked as an executive branch staffer during the administrations of both former Republican Presidents George H. W. Bush and Ronald Reagan.

Olivia Troye and Elizabeth Neumann, who both briefly worked in the Trump White House before breaking with the president in 2020, are co-directors of the project. Sarah Longwell, a Republican consultant and long-time Trump critic, is executive director of Defending Democracy Together and its newly-announced project.

Troye was a top aide to Vice President Mike Pence and advised the administration on its response to the COVID-19 pandemic before leaving in July, accusing Trump of grievously mishandling the federal governments response to the crisis. She appeared in several TV ads produced by Defending Democracy Together that aired before the election.

Despite the partisan affiliation of their leaders, the Lincoln Project and Defending Democracy Together are both funded largely by Democratic donors with deep pockets. In the run up to the 2020 election, The Lincoln Project took $1 million from Gordon Getty and hundreds of thousands of dollars from other billionaire Democrats including John Pritzker of Geolo Capital, Jonathan Lavine of Bain Capital and Dreamworks Founder David Geffen.

In 2020, Republican Voters Against Trump, a super PAC organized and funded by Defending Democracy Together, received $500,000 each from Pritzker and Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City who spent $152 million supporting Democratic candidates in the 2020 election cycle.Polls show that voters blame Trump for the Jan. 6 violence that left five dead. Some Republicans in Congress are taking the hint and denouncing Trump for his role in inciting the mob, but others have resisted linking the president to the violence.

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Excerpt from:
Never-Trump 'dark money' group to spend millions backing Republicans who impeached Trump - Center for Responsive Politics