“The Dark Money Game”: Director Alex Gibney on How Citizens United Ushered in “Legalized Corruption”

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

We end today’s show with a new documentary series premiering today on HBO. Alex Gibney is the Academy Award-winning director of the HBO original The Dark Money Game.

NARRATOR: In Mexico, it’s a bite. In China, it’s tea money. In America, it’s called campaign finance.

TYLER FEHRMAN: There’s a whole political world out there that runs on dark money.

JEFFREY WILLIAMS: When elected public officials deal with business interests, corruption and bribery take over.

NARRATOR: Dark money led to the biggest case of political corruption in the history of Ohio.

JEFFREY WILLIAMS: In 2019, there was an investigation involving Matt Borges and Neil Clark. Neil had been one of the most powerful lobbyists in the history of the state.

NEIL CLARK: I’m ready to [bleep] people over.

EMILY GLATFELTER: That recording with Neil Clark and undercovers, those were critical to connect that dotted line.

NEIL CLARK: Every politician’s got to have somebody that is the hitman.

TYLER FEHRMAN: The FBI asked me to essentially spy.

MATT BORGES: You’re not like trying to set me up here, are you? That would be bad for both of us, but it would be worse for you.

TYLER FEHRMAN: And I thought, “What is he going to do?”

JEFFREY WILLIAMS: This was a organized conspiracy on a massive scale. But I fear this case is not a one-off example.

NARRATOR: Dark money has heralded a new era of vast corruption.

JANE MAYER: If corporate America was going to reassert its power, it had to create a counterrevolution and take political power back.

ROBERT SCHENCK: We had a little Bible verse: “The wealth of the wicked is laid up for the righteous.” So, let’s baptize the billionaires’ money.

NARRATOR: The Supreme Court rolled back rules on campaign finance.

RUSS FEINGOLD: Citizens United said corporations can create a super PAC.

NARRATOR: Now corporations could fund elections with unlimited amounts of cash.

JANE MAYER: One way you could look at it is that it’s a fair fight. Another way is that both parties are corrupt.

RUSS FEINGOLD: When it comes to the power of big business, the fix seems to be in.

JANE MAYER: A tiny group of people have bought an inordinate amount of influence.

JAMES BOPP: People with money will always have an advantage. Always.

NARRATOR: Money has a way of changing the rules.

AMY GOODMAN: For more, we’re joined by Alex Gibney, Academy Award-winning director this new two-part series, The Dark Money Game, an HBO original premiering tonight, 15 years after the Citizens United Supreme Court case.

I want to thank you so much for being with us. In these last few minutes, as you feature Jane Mayer, the great New Yorker investigative reporter, her book called Dark Money, talk about what’s critical for people to understand today as your two-part series premieres, The Dark Money Game.

ALEX GIBNEY: I think what’s critical to understand is that our country is being run by a small group of people who have an enormous amount of money, and they dominate our politics. It’s almost as if bribery has become utterly legalized. It’s pay to play. It’s quid pro quo. And unless we stop the system of money in politics, we’re done, because then our lives will simply be ruled by the people who have the most money.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Alex, how do these films relate to your earlier work, in particular The Crime of the Century on the opioid crisis?

ALEX GIBNEY: Well, it was doing a film on the opioid crisis that made me understand that one of the reasons there was such an anemic response to, literally, the intentional poisoning of America by a few corporations was because so many people in Congress were being paid off to look the other way, to focus on the needs of their donors rather than on the needs of their constituents. So it was that anger that led me to investigate this.

We found an extraordinary story in Ohio that’s literally quid pro quo corruption. And all the people on the FBI wiretap are saying, “It’s good now because of Citizens United.” And then we tried to look back at how we got to this place by looking at the corruption of the Supreme Court. So, you know, and I was inspired, as you say, by the great work of Jane Mayer, who’s in the film.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And in terms of what you’re hoping people will do, especially this coming out on the 15th anniversary of the Citizens United case?

ALEX GIBNEY: Yes. I mean, I hadn’t originally intended for that to be the case, but nothing could be more apt, because Citizens United is the single most damaging decision the Supreme Court has come up with in the last 15 years, because it’s destroyed our democracy. And we need to understand that in order to get our democracy back, we have to reinvigorate our laws, as many states are doing, in order to be able to end this system of, essentially, legalized corruption.

AMY GOODMAN: Alex, we want to stay with you and post online our second part at democracynow.org. Alex Gibney, Academy Award-winning director of the new HBO original series, The Dark Money Game, premiering tonight. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.