A fully-sourced investigation · 2026-06-10
The money and the disclosures, read together in her own records.
OGE Form 278e · FEC filings · federal contract records · voter registration · named reporting
The thesis
Funded overwhelmingly from outside the district. Paid ~$328,000 by two defense-AI firms after leaving CISA, then kept it off her own website behind NDAs. A "crack down on Wall Street" message bankrolled by the people it names.
The case, in eight parts
Press O for every slide · ←/→ to navigate · P to print.
The credibility floor
Part I
The thesis
Funded overwhelmingly from outside the district. Paid ~$328,000 by two defense-AI firms after leaving CISA, then kept it off her own website behind NDAs. A "crack down on Wall Street" message bankrolled by the people it names.
I · The Manufactured Candidate
Three Arizona-registered joint-fundraising committees and the recruitment PACs moved roughly $64,000 straight into Conley from the apparatus that built her candidacy.
| New Politics Next Mission Fund | $31,078 | slate joint-fundraising committee |
|---|---|---|
| VoteVets HELLCAT Victory Fund | $17,906 | registered in Arizona, home of fellow Hell Cat JoAnna Mendoza |
| New Politics Hellcats | $5,118 | slate joint-fundraising committee |
| VoteVets + Serve America PAC | $10,000 | direct checks from the recruitment apparatus |
| Total from the machine | ~$64,101 | into Cait for New York |
Joint-fundraising committees are a legal, common mechanism; the point is that the structure documents a coordinated slate, not any violation.
FEC committee C00900431; The Nation; Salon; serveamericapac.com
I · The Manufactured Candidate
New Politics writes her story; the VoteVets ad repeats it. A centrally produced message, illustrated.
'From combat zones to the Situation Room, Cait has always answered the call to lead.' (newpolitics.org)
'From combat zones to the Situation Room, she knows where she comes from.' (City & State NY, on the $1M cable buy)
Her service record is treated here only as confirmed, neutral background; the comparison is about a manufactured message and its funders, never about her record in uniform.
newpolitics.org; City & State NY; NPRC service record
I · The Manufactured Candidate
The slate says it was inspired by the 2018 class of women veterans and national-security officials, and that cohort now writes the checks.
Recruitment, endorsement, and successor funding are all legal and ordinary in party politics; the finding is the apparatus, not any impropriety.
Salon; FEC; NBC News
Part II
II · The Out-of-District Money
Half of her itemized individual dollars come from outside New York entirely; Manhattan rivals the whole district.
Out-of-district fundraising is legal and routine; the figure describes where the money originates, against an 'of the district' brand, not any violation.
FEC committee C00900431 (through 3/31/2026); committee contributor records
II · The Out-of-District Money
Her policy page pledges to rein in corporate landlords and Wall Street hedge funds. Her FEC file names them, maxed out.
| Steve Mandel (Lone Pine Capital) | $7,000 | founder of one of the largest hedge funds in the country |
|---|---|---|
| Joshua Bekenstein (Bain Capital) | $7,000 | Bain co-chairman; $14,000 as a household with Anita |
| Michael Eisenson (Charlesbank) | $7,000 | Charlesbank co-founder, ex-Harvard Management |
| Jonathan Rose / Kristel / Blumenstein | $7,000 each | named real-estate developers |
| Real estate + finance bloc | ~$180K-$204K | across ~60-78 donors (classification-dependent) |
These are legal individual contributions, and plenty of Democrats who back reform take this money; the contrast is the pledge against the named donor list, not a purchased position.
caitconley.com/policy; FEC committee C00900431 (through 3/31/2026)
II · The Out-of-District Money
The same names max out to her, fund the bundling PAC, and fund the super PAC airing her ads. The signature is concentration, not coordination.
| Joshua Bekenstein (Bain) | $7,000 + $375,000 | direct, then to VoteVets — its largest gift after Simon |
|---|---|---|
| The Mandels (Lone Pine) | $14,000 + $300,000 | direct + VoteVets; Sue Mandel +$3.63M to Majority Democrats PAC |
| Mark Heising (Renaissance/Simons) | $7,000 + $1,005,000 | direct + to the same Majority Democrats PAC |
| Majority Democrats PAC → Conley | $112,150 | ≈ half her entire in-district haul |
Parallel giving across separate committees is legal and uncoordinated by law; no quid pro quo is alleged, and the documented point is the overlap of donors across channels.
FEC Schedule A and independent-expenditure records; committees C00900431, VoteVets C00418897, Majority Democrats PAC; Wealth Management
Part III
III · The Super PAC Behind Her
VoteVets is Conley's single largest outside backer, and its single largest individual funder gave $1.5 million.
Independent expenditures are legally uncoordinated with the candidate; this documents who financed the air war, not any exchange with Conley.
FEC Schedule E, committee C00418897; City & State NY (5/28/2026); FEC donor file
III · The Super PAC Behind Her
The ad attacks self-interested politicians. The funding is establishment money, not a grassroots veterans drive.
The VoteVets spot backing Conley attacks politicians who are 'in it for themselves.'
Independent spending and union funding are both legal; the contrast is the populist message against the establishment money behind it, and no coordination is alleged.
Washington Examiner investigation; FEC committee C00418897
III · The Super PAC Behind Her
The same households appear on both sides of the ledger, every dollar legal and disclosed.
| Bekenstein | $14,000 → $375,000 | household direct → VoteVets, which spent $826,880 boosting her |
|---|---|---|
| The Mandels | $14,000 → $412,150 | $300K VoteVets + $112,150 bundled back via Majority Democrats PAC |
| Deborah Simon | max + $1,500,000 | VoteVets' top individual funder for the cycle |
Every transaction is legal and FEC-disclosed, and giving to other committees is not coordination with the candidate; the documented fact is the same names recurring across channels.
FEC Schedule A and Schedule E; committees C00900431, C00418897, Majority Democrats PAC
Part IV
IV · The SALT-First Tax Plan
Her economic agenda leads with full SALT-cap repeal, which independent analysts find overwhelmingly benefits the highest earners.
SALT-cap repeal is a legitimate and locally popular position in a high-tax district; the finding is the gap between a 'working families' frame and the distributional analysis, not a hidden agenda.
caitconley.com/policy; caitconley.com/salt; Tax Policy Center
IV · The SALT-First Tax Plan
A live read of her policy page turns up zero mentions of the tax preferences the landlords and financiers funding her actually rely on.
The silence is a verified fact about her published platform; that the silence is bought is a label, not a proof, and she is a challenger with no voting record.
caitconley.com/policy; Tax Policy Center; Senate Finance Committee
Part V
V · The Surveillance-AI Paycheck
Her own financial disclosure reports about $328,283 from two Palantir-orbit defense-AI vendors, omitted from her campaign site behind NDAs.
The income is documented and the concealment is her own choice; the defensible charge is adjacency plus concealment, not contract-steering. The figure is sourced to the OGE form itself, not to The Intercept's narrower partial-period number.
OGE Form 278e #10076406; The Intercept (2/9/2026); cisa.gov
V · The Surveillance-AI Paycheck
Her platform promises to constrain the surveillance state. Her paycheck came from the industry that builds it.
Her policy page promises, in substance, 'Reining in ICE,' prohibiting masked agents, and revoking 287g agreements (caitconley.com/policy; phrasing is time-sensitive, confirm against a current snapshot).
Hidden Level builds passive-RF airspace and counter-drone surveillance; Primer is a defense AI and NLP shop that advertises support for DHS missions. The Intercept reports Hidden Level's data is used in Palantir's Maven platform (The Intercept, 2/9/2026).
The contrast is between her stated agenda and her disclosed income; the policy-page wording is time-sensitive and should be confirmed against a live snapshot before publication.
caitconley.com/policy; The Intercept (2/9/2026); hiddenlevel.com
V · The Surveillance-AI Paycheck
Fairness requires carrying the exculpatory facts. The honest charge is adjacency and concealment, not procurement.
These exculpatory findings are load-bearing: the record does not support that she steered any contract, that an agency she ran bought from a firm that paid her, or that she worked for Palantir or ICE. Anything stronger than adjacency-plus-concealment is unsupported.
USASpending and FPDS-NG; Yonkers Times; The Intercept (2/9/2026)
V · The Surveillance-AI Paycheck
The closest true link runs the wrong way in time, which is why steering cannot be alleged.
This timeline is what disciplines the charge: it shows adjacency, not procurement, and explicitly forecloses any steering claim.
USASpending / FPDS; cisa.gov; OGE 278e #10076406; The Intercept (2/9/2026)
Part VI
VI · The Thiel-Palantir Orbit
A $10,000 household maxout from the Anduril COO who came up inside Palantir and Thiel's own venture fund, with one clean caveat.
| Matthew Grimm (Anduril co-founder/COO) | $5,000 | listed 'ANDURIL INDUSTRIES / COFOUNDER,' 2025-09-29 |
|---|---|---|
| Kimberly Grimm | $5,000 | same date, adjacent Orange County town; reads as one household |
| Cy Sack (Anduril) | $1,000 | a second Anduril employee, 2025-03-17 |
| Peter Dixon (Second Front Systems) | $7,000 | defense-tech founder, 2025-06-24 |
| Catherine Gray (In-Q-Tel) | $1,000 | the CIA's venture arm, 2025-06-18 |
These are independent, lawful individual contributions, not a corporate tie or coordination; the weighting of her donor base toward defense-AI is the finding, and the Anduril-PAC caveat is non-negotiable.
FEC Schedule A and cross-giving records; Crunchbase; The Org; 20VC
VI · The Thiel-Palantir Orbit
Rep. Pat Ryan, her most co-funded fellow candidate and a public endorser, spent two years as a Palantir subcontractor and was on the threads pitching surveillance of unions and a journalist.
From 2009 to 2011, Pat Ryan was deputy director of Berico Technologies, a Palantir subcontractor in Afghanistan, and was on the leaked Team Themis email threads pitching the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Bank of America on surveilling unions and journalist Glenn Greenwald.
The Intercept (2/22/2018); Salon (2/15/2011)
Ryan's record is his own and is not imputed to Conley; the documented link is a shared donor base and a mutual endorsement, not any joint conduct.
The Intercept (2/22/2018); Salon (2/15/2011); FEC; Judge Street Journal; Techdirt
VI · The Thiel-Palantir Orbit
The Conley-to-Grimm-to-Anduril line and the Conley-to-Ryan-to-Palantir line trace to the same Thiel and Founders Fund defense complex, with the caveats stated.
This is a thematic network map built on hard FEC and SEC facts plus a labeled inference; it asserts adjacency and a shared orbit, never coordination or a corporate tie to Conley.
SEC DEF 14A; CNBC; TechCrunch; FEC
Part VII
VII · The Residency Question
A documented timeline from her own voter file and county records, presented without imputing motive.
Moving into a district to run is legal and common; the dates are her own public records, presented as a timeline rather than a character attack.
Westchester County BOE FOIL via David McKay Wilson
VII · The Residency Question
The brand and the assessor's record do not line up, and the money comes from people who cannot vote for her.
Conley presents as 'Ossining,' a working-river-town identity in NY-17.
This critiques only her current residency and the geography of her money, not her genuine upbringing; out-of-district money is legal and routine.
Westchester County BOE FOIL via David McKay Wilson; FEC committee C00900431; NRCC
Part VIII
The thesis
Funded overwhelmingly from outside the district. Paid ~$328,000 by two defense-AI firms after leaving CISA, then kept it off her own website behind NDAs. A "crack down on Wall Street" message bankrolled by the people it names.
VIII · The Federal Contract Record
The closest true link is Primer to the special-operations community she came from, and it pre-dates both her CISA role and the day Primer started paying her, which is why steering cannot be alleged.
This timeline is what disciplines the entire story. It shows adjacency, not procurement, and it forecloses any claim that Conley steered a dollar to a firm that paid her.
USASpending / FPDS-NG; cisa.gov; OGE 278e #10076406; The Intercept (2/9/2026)
VIII · The Federal Contract Record
Palantir and Anduril sell exactly this surveillance and autonomy category to agencies in Conley's orbit, often during her CISA years. Neither paid her, and where they sold, the buyer was the wrong component.
Primer and Hidden Level: ~$328,283 in disclosed income to her, but $0 in confirmed contracts with CISA or DHS, and no buy by any entity she served except a SOCOM/Army Primer purchase that pre-dates her CISA role (USASpending; OGE 278e #10076406).
Palantir and Anduril: hundreds of millions in DHS, SOCOM, and Army awards, including Anduril's $862M+ in CBP surveillance-tower delivery orders, some awarded during her CISA tenure. But CBP and ICE are not CISA, a CISA advisor has no contracting authority over them, and neither firm paid Conley (USASpending; FPDS verified to the cent).
The bottom line: the surveillance-procurement category Conley's critics invoke is genuinely enormous, which is what makes the exculpatory finding load-bearing. The agencies buying it are not the agency she ran, and the firms winning those buys are not the firms that paid her.
USASpending / FPDS-NG; the defense-AI firms analysis; Yonkers Times; The Intercept (2/9/2026)
VIII · The Federal Contract Record
The honest limit on every 'none-found': USASpending does not show classified work, and an open accreditation question remains. Two FOIA pulls would convert the negatives to confirmed.
Stating these gaps is part of the discipline. The findings that hold are stronger because the file does not pretend the procurement record is omniscient, and it names exactly which document a reader or reporter would pull to close each remaining question.
USASpending data-coverage limits; GSA FedRAMP Marketplace; the defense-AI firms analysis; FOIA targets (DHS/CISA, SOCOM)
Part IX
The thesis
Funded overwhelmingly from outside the district. Paid ~$328,000 by two defense-AI firms after leaving CISA, then kept it off her own website behind NDAs. A "crack down on Wall Street" message bankrolled by the people it names.
IX · The Company She Keeps
Rep. Pat Ryan, her most co-funded fellow candidate and a January 2026 public endorser, spent two years as a Palantir subcontractor and was on the leaked email threads pitching surveillance of unions and a journalist.
From 2009 to 2011, Pat Ryan was deputy director of Berico Technologies, a Palantir subcontractor in Afghanistan, and was on the leaked 'Team Themis' email threads (Palantir, Berico, HBGary) pitching the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Bank of America on surveilling unions, progressive nonprofits, and journalist Glenn Greenwald.
This is a 'company she keeps' finding, kept strictly to documented facts: a shared donor spine and a public mutual endorsement. Ryan's two-decade-old contractor history belongs to Ryan; it is included because he is her closest co-funded ally and endorser, not as a charge against her.
The Intercept (2/22/2018); Salon (2/15/2011); Techdirt; FEC; Judge Street Journal; Yahoo/lohud
IX · The Company She Keeps
A $10,000 household maxout from the Anduril co-founder/COO who came up inside Palantir and Thiel's venture world, alongside other defense-AI principals, with the corporate-PAC caveat stated in full.
| Matthew Grimm (Anduril co-founder/COO) | $5,000 | listed 'ANDURIL INDUSTRIES / COFOUNDER,' 2025-09-29; arc runs Booz Allen to early Palantir to Thiel's Mithril Capital to Anduril |
|---|---|---|
| Kimberly Grimm | $5,000 | same date; reads as one $10,000 household |
| Peter Dixon (Second Front Systems) | $7,000 | defense-software founder and New Politics / With Honor cofounder, 2025-06-24 |
| Jen Easterly (former CISA Director) | $7,000 | Conley's own former agency head, filed via Evenstar Cyber, in her launch week |
| Georgina Cannan (CISA senior advisor) | $7,000 | FEC employer 'CISA,' occupation 'Senior Advisor'; a sitting colleague in Conley's old portfolio |
These are independent, lawful individual contributions, not a corporate tie or coordination. The finding is the weighting of her high-dollar base toward the defense-AI and national-security world she came from, and the Anduril-corporate-PAC caveat is stated as plainly as the donation itself.
FEC Schedule A and the cross-giving data; the donor-network map; The Intercept (2/9/2026); Crunchbase; The Org
Part X
X · Compliance, Conflicts & the Uniparty Tell
Several tempting 'violation' angles netted out legal. The honest story is composition and concealment, not law-breaking, and the file says so to keep the real findings credible.
Carrying the exculpatory compliance record is the price of credibility. The defensible spine of this file is the geography of her money, her surveillance-AI paycheck plus concealment, and policy-versus-donor contradictions, never an invented FEC violation.
FEC committee C00900431 (Schedule A and B); OGE Form 278e #10076406; this investigation
X · Compliance, Conflicts & the Uniparty Tell
She ran CISA's election-security mission, then took ~$328,283 from two defense-AI vendors and kept it off her campaign site behind NDAs. The defensible charge is adjacency plus concealment.
This is the legitimate conflicts finding, bounded to what the record supports. The income and the concealment are documented and her own choice; anything stronger than adjacency-plus-concealment is unsupported by the contract record in Chapter 9.
OGE Form 278e #10076406; The Intercept (2/9/2026); the defense-AI firms analysis; USASpending / FPDS-NG
X · Compliance, Conflicts & the Uniparty Tell
Conley runs as the change candidate against Mike Lawler, but a small set of donors, one defense company, and K Street write checks to both. It is a hedge, not a secret operation, and the caveats are kept.
Two individuals funded both: Jessica Neuwirth gave Lawler $1,000 (2024-08-01) and Conley $1,000 (2025-08-15); Anita Wien gave Lawler $222.22 (2024-06-14) and Conley $250 (2025-11-10). BGR Group lobbyists sit on both sides: Hai Peng maxed $7,000 to Conley while BGR-employer money to Lawler totals roughly $34,000, and BGR's PAC funds both parties' committees (FEC).
Anduril spans the race: co-founder Matthew Grimm and spouse gave Conley $10,000, while Anduril founder Palmer Luckey personally bankrolls Lawler ($3,300 twice 2023-02-09, $3,500 2025-06-27, $2,000 2026-03-20). One company, both candidates (FEC).
The uniparty tell is a posture, not a quid pro quo: a donor class that buys access in a competitive seat by funding both sides. The point is documented in FEC checks; the explicitly stated limit is that the dollars are small, mostly Democratic, and uncoordinated.
FEC committees (Conley C00900431, Lawler); the donor-network data; bgrdc.com; DOSSIER-Conley-NY17-FULL.md
Part XI
The thesis
Funded overwhelmingly from outside the district. Paid ~$328,000 by two defense-AI firms after leaving CISA, then kept it off her own website behind NDAs. A "crack down on Wall Street" message bankrolled by the people it names.
XI · The Bottom Line
The open questions a reporter, or the candidate, can still answer, drawn from the records named in this file.
These are open, sourced questions with a named record to pull for each, not allegations; they mark the line between what is documented and what is still unverified.
OGE 278e #10076406; caitconley.com/policy; NY State Board of Elections; FEC committee C00900431
The bottom line
Cait Conley campaigns as the working-class candidate who will rein in Wall Street and the surveillance state — while half her money comes from outside the district, a megadonor-seeded Super PAC carries her air war, and she banked roughly a third of a million dollars from two defense-AI firms whose work she then left off her own website. The record doesn't question her service. It questions who her bid actually answers to.
Every figure traces to a primary public record. Nothing alleges a crime, and nothing here questions her military service. The full evidence is at /findings; the narrative is the dossier.
The bottom line
Cait Conley campaigns as the working-class candidate who will rein in Wall Street and the surveillance state — while half her money comes from outside the district, a megadonor-seeded Super PAC carries her air war, and she banked roughly a third of a million dollars from two defense-AI firms whose work she then left off her own website. The record doesn't question her service. It questions who her bid actually answers to.
Every figure traces to a primary public record. Nothing alleges a crime, and nothing here questions her military service. The full evidence is at /findings; the narrative is the dossier.
Swipe or use the arrows · “All slides” jumps to any chapter