Update on the Kochs and the ACLU

On Friday, in response to a post from Jonathan Chait, I noted that two philanthropy/society publications had reported a $20 million donation from Charles and David Koch to the ACLU to help overturn portions of the PATRIOT Act. Chait responds to my post here.

Since that post went up, I've been trying to confirm the donation with the Koch people, with the ACLU, and with the authors of those two publications. David Patrick Columbia of New York Social Diary, responded via email to say he can't remember the source of his report, though he did say he's certain that his source was not David Koch or George Soros (who was also named in the report for having given $10 million to the ACLU). I'm still trying to reach the editor of Faces of Philanthropy, which also reported the donation on its profile page for Koch, along with the additional detail of the specific provisions of the PATRIOT Act the donation was intended to help overturn.

I'm also still trying to get confirmation one way or the other from the ACLU or Koch. There does appear to be no notice of the donation on the ACLU's website.