Frontline and Marketplace released an important new investigative report last night that highlights how a dark-money group called American Tradition Partnership (ATP) may have broken the law by illegally coordinating its work with the campaigns of candidates running for office.

This investigation comes on the heels of other recent news that ATP appears to have also broken a major federal law by lying to the IRS when it applied for nonprofit, tax-exempt status. According to the New York Times: “It said it would not try to influence elections for public office, yet it has done so repeatedly.”

You may remember ATP as the group that sued the state of Montana about a year ago to kill the state’s century-old Corrupt Practices Act, which barred corporate spending on elections there, extending the twisted logic of the infamous Citizens United case to invalidate Montana’s law.  ATP has also been suing Montana in the past few weeks, seeking to eliminate the state’s remaining campaign finance law.

Free Speech For People is partnering with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) in launching a petition today, calling on the Justice Department to investigate ATP.

You can watch the Frontline / Marketplace report via this link.

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