EXCLUSIVE: Mike Pence’s Group Hires Former Heritage Legal Scholar Amid Exodus From Think Tank
Former Heritage Foundation senior legal fellow Hans von Spakovsky has joined Advancing American Freedom (AAF), the nonprofit led by former vice president Mike Pence, the Washington Free Beacon has learned. The move comes after Heritage president Kevin Roberts tapped von Spakovsky to help lead the beleaguered think tank’s legal center—only for von Spakovsky to resign alongside the center’s previous leader.
“My career has been dedicated to the vital work of election integrity, defending the Constitution and the rule of law, advocating for limited government, and protecting our fundamental rights as Americans,” von Spakovsky said in a statement announcing his new role. “That includes eliminating discrimination in any form, particularly the scourge of anti-Semitism. There is no place for such pernicious and invidious hatred in our nation.”
Von Spakovsky’s move to AAF is a part of the continuing fallout from Roberts’s October video statement taking on what he described as a “venomous coalition” attacking Tucker Carlson, who had recently conducted a friendly interview with the neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes. Last month, more than a dozen Heritage staffers left the think tank and joined AAF in a move its president, Tim Chapman, described as a “reorganization of the conservative movement.”
Among those who departed the Heritage Foundation was John Malcolm, who led the organization’s Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies. In the wake of his departure, Roberts told staff that von Spakovsky and then-Heritage scholar Cully Stimson would take the reins. Instead, both von Spakovsky and Stimson resigned, and the former will now work alongside Malcolm at AAF.
AAF established the Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law—named after the former U.S. attorney general who gave his name to and at one point chaired Heritage’s legal center—in December. Meese, who said at the time that his institute’s new home “has already established itself as a leader in the conservative movement,” issued a statement on Monday congratulating AAF on its move to hire von Spakovsky.
Five Heritage board members—Princeton University professor Robert George, Abby Moffat, Shane McCullar, Darryle Owens, and Price Harding—have resigned in the months since Roberts released his video. McCullar said he could not associate with an organization that “hesitates to condemn antisemitism and hatred” and “gives a platform to those who spread them.” George left the board when Roberts “could not offer a full retraction” of his video statement.
Several other high-profile Heritage figures left the think tank in the wake of the Roberts video. They include Chris DeMuth, who led the American Enterprise Institute from 1986 to 2008 and joined Heritage in 2023, and economist and Trump adviser Stephen Moore. Josh Blackman, former senior editor of the Heritage Guide to the Constitution, wrote that Roberts “gave aid and comfort to the rising tide of antisemitism on the right” and that jurists and scholars had told him “they can no longer associate with the Heritage Guide they contributed to” as a result of Roberts’s video.
The video also pushed the National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism to cut ties with the Heritage Foundation. Its co-chairs wrote in an email announcing the decision that “we cannot allow the Conservative movement to be corrupted and destroyed by those consumed with attacking America’s Judeo-Christian heritage and values, thereby distracting us all from the real challenges facing our nation.”
Von Spakovsky told the Free Beacon that there were two large factors behind his decision to join AAF: the opportunity to help build a new organization promoting conservative principles—particularly on election integrity and immigration issues—and his new employer’s vocal stand against anti-Semitism.
“AAF has taken a very strong position—from what I’ve seen, people I’ve talked to—fighting against the scourge of anti-Semitism that has risen in this country,” he said. “My mother grew up in Nazi Germany, my father was Russian and actually fought the Nazis. I think that is extremely important. I am just shocked and dismayed at the rise of anti-Semitism, particularly on college campuses, and it’s very clear to me that AAF wants to help lead the fight against that.”
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