Foreign dark money just bought its way into an American federal courtroom and nobody registered as a foreign agent.
Congress finally traced the money to a California group filing lawsuits against American energy companies.
What Jordan uncovered about who is funding those courtroom battles goes deeper than anyone reported.
ClientEarth USA Took Foreign Money to Fund Climate Lawsuits Against American Energy Companies
House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan sent a formal demand to ClientEarth USA – a California-based climate litigation group – requiring the group to hand over documents related to its American lawsuits.
Jordan said he was investigating whether the organization was "using foreign funding and abusing the American legal system to disrupt American industries and stop domestic energy production."
ClientEarth USA works in a declared "strategic partnership" with ClientEarth UK, its British parent group, and in a December 2024 financial filing reported receiving $370,332 in restricted contributions from ClientEarth UK specifically to fund American program activities.
In his letter, Jordan wrote: "Because ClientEarth receives funding from its affiliated entities abroad, these foreign entities and their donors may have outsized influence on the types of lawsuits that ClientEarth brings in U.S. courts that affect American industries."
British money, flowing into California, paying for lawsuits against American oil and gas companies in American courts.
150 Climate Groups Took Nearly 2 Billion Dollars in Foreign Funding Without Registering as Foreign Agents
ClientEarth is one piece of a much larger operation Jordan has been working to expose.
In February, 19 Republican attorneys general – led by Montana's Austin Knudsen – sent a formal letter to former Attorney General Pam Bondi demanding a DOJ investigation into more than 150 U.S.-based climate organizations that received nearly $2 billion in foreign funding over the past decade.
That money came from five overseas foundations: the Oak Foundation out of Switzerland, the UK-based Children's Investment Fund Foundation, the UK's Quadrature Climate Foundation, Denmark's KR Foundation, and Switzerland's Laudes Foundation.
FARA – the Foreign Agents Registration Act – requires any organization operating on behalf of a foreign principal to register with the Justice Department and disclose that relationship. Not one of those 150 groups did.
"Foreign actors are attempting to sabotage our nation's energy sector by funneling dark money to their climate activist cronies in the U.S.," Attorney General Knudsen said.
The Children's Investment Fund Foundation – which has sent over $553 million to American climate groups – maintains documented ties to the Chinese Communist Party, a detail that puts the entire network in a different category than run-of-the-mill foreign lobbying.
The Same Network Ran a Separate Program Designed to Influence Federal Judges
Jordan's committee opened a parallel investigation in January 2026 into the Environmental Law Institute's Climate Judiciary Project – a program that offers paid seminars to federal judges on climate science and legal strategy.
Jordan and Rep. Darrell Issa sent letters demanding documents from lawyers who work on climate lawsuits against the oil and gas industry, focused on their coordination with that judge seminar program.
The same foreign-funded network bankrolling lawyers to sue energy companies was simultaneously running a program designed to shape how judges think about those cases before they ever reach a courtroom.
In July 2026, national security think tank State Armor released a report alleging that the Environmental Law Institute maintained a longstanding relationship with Chinese government-affiliated organizations through its China Program – the same institute running climate seminars for American federal judges.
Rep. John Moolenaar, chairman of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition with China, said the pattern is exactly what it looks like: "The CCP is actively taking advantage of our open society and attempting to advance its malign influence across all levels of government."
ClientEarth Is Targeting Your Retirement Account and American Oil Wells
Jordan's demand specifically flagged ClientEarth USA's active litigation portfolio.
The group is pursuing a case on behalf of an employee trying to force his company to offer a "fossil free" retirement investment option – using ERISA law to push radical climate ideology into American pension management.
It is also prosecuting a Colorado case accusing two energy companies of failing to plug abandoned oil wells, a lawsuit Jordan noted "could affect U.S. policy on domestic energy production and interstate commerce."
These aren't lawsuits driven by concerned Americans fighting for their neighborhoods – they are coordinated legal campaigns funded with foreign money, engineered to impose regulatory outcomes that Congress never voted for and the Trump administration is actively dismantling.
Jordan just connected the dots nobody else would.
Sources:
- Leif Le Mahieu, "EXCLUSIVE: Jim Jordan Takes Aim At Foreign-Funded Climate Activist Group," The Daily Wire, September 17, 2026.
- Ashley Oliver, "Billions in Foreign Cash Tied to US Climate Network Draws Scrutiny from Republican AGs," Fox News, February 13, 2026.
- "House GOP Launches Probe Into Alleged Climate Group Influence on Federal Judges," House Judiciary Committee, January 14, 2026.
- Fred Lucas, "House Chairman Eyes Potential China Influence in US Judiciary in Climate Cases," The Daily Signal, July 7, 2026.
- Attorney General Raúl Labrador, Press Release, Office of the Idaho Attorney General, February 2026.
