President Donald Trump’s big beautiful bill might actually benefit woke corporations seeking to insulate themselves from legal accountability if a provision inserted by Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) remains, conservatives and consumer advocates warn.
The provision would kneecap third-party litigation financing (TPLF), whereby a contract where a third party agrees to fund a lawsuit in exchange for interest on damages recovered. Litigation funded this way has become an increasingly critical resource for conservatives and small law firms taking on deep-pocketed woke corporations.
Though the intent of the provision might be to limit unnecessary and frivolous litigation, by effectively taking away TPLF, many Americans with legitimate claims likely will be unable to afford the cost of legal representation and a day in court.
Breitbart News first reported growing opposition to the legislation on May 27 after Tillis introduced the bill called – some argue deceptively called – “Tackling Predatory Litigation Funding Act.” Since then, the Senate Finance Committee inserted language from the bill into its version of the Big, Beautiful Bill.A growing number of influential conservative advocates are arguing its a big mistake.
The Tea Party Patriots joined by a coalition of more than 25 conservative groups Friday in issuing a letter today to the Senate Finance Committee voicing their opposition to a provision in the current draft of the Senate reconciliation measure that would – they argue – help insulate woke corporations from legal accountability. The Alliance for Consumers issued their own letter to Congressional leadership Thursday warning how the little-noticed section within the bill threatens to derail the conservative legal fight against the Left and woke corporate America by – among other things – forcing disclosure of those funding such lawsuits.
Also Thursday, the Gold Star family of Lieutenant Colonel David E. Cabrera issued a letter to Congressional leadership making the case that without TPLF, it would be more challenging for Gold Star families and the victims of terrorism to bring claims against terrorists and those who have sponsored terrorism.
Will Hild of Consumers’ Research, Gene Hamilton of America First Legal, Robby Starbuck, and other conservatives have warned that the provision would be a giveaway for Big Tech, Big Pharma, and other woke corporations.TPLF has a history of legal success. As Breitbart News reported:
One of the most well-known examples of third-party litigation funding (TPLF) came when Forbes broke the news in 2016 that billionaire PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel had been secretly funding a lawsuit that professional wrestler Hulk Hogan filed against Gawker Media for publishing a sex tape without his permission — a move Thiel made in retaliation after the website outed him as gay in 2007.
The Thiel-bankrolled lawsuit ended in victory for Hogan when the jury awarded him $115 million in compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages, leading to Gawker Media’s bankruptcy and subsequent dissolution.
Tillis has framed the bill as a tax on “foreign” investments and “predatory” litigation. But the bill would go much further by disincentivizing TPLF altogether by imposing a punitive 41% levy on all litigation financing, including domestic.
A spokesman for Tillis did not respond to an inquiry from Breitbart News.
A murderer’s row of woke businesses and organizations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Amazon, Meta, Google, and Pfizer, have heavily lobbied for it. They hope that the bill would enable them to dodge accountability, insulating them from reputational harm and consumer lawsuits, particularly from those harmed by DEI-related discrimination, debanking, and other woke corporate policies.
Those companies’ support is perhaps understandable. Big Tech giants like Amazon, Meta, and Google would be better protected from litigation brought by Americans over censorship, bias, and data privacy abuses. And Big Pharma companies, including vaccine manufacturers like Pfizer, would benefit from reduced legal exposure to Americans seeking vaccine-related accountability.
But the bill’s opponents question how it fits into the America First agenda and are pushing Senate leaders to remove the language from the bill. The provisions are expected to escape parliamentarian scrutiny that could eliminate the language, and with broad Democrat support for Tillis’s efforts expected, an amendment to remove it could prove unsuccessful.
With the big, beautiful bill set for Senate floor action within days, time is running out to remove it.
Bradley Jaye is Deputy Political Editor for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter and Instagram @BradleyAJaye