This is the town of Lake Arthur, New Mexico.
Population 433. It’s 3 ½ hours from Albuquerque, New Mexico
and to call it a sleepy southwestern town would be an understatement.
This is Will Norwood. Until recently, he was Lake Arthur's police chief.
Lake Arthur was an unusual department -- almost every one of Norwood's officers were volunteers.
84 in all. And one of those volunteers?
Robert Mercer.
Robert Mercer is the fabulously wealthy computer scientist
who helped bankroll the election of President Donald Trump.
And for six years, by serving as a volunteer policeman in Lake Arthur, Mercer was getting
something money alone can't buy: the right to carry a concealed firearm anywhere in America.
Bloomberg’s Zach Mider uncovered this latest chapter of the many incredible-but-true stories
about Mercer.
I was definitely surprised, but I’m sort of used to being surprised by
all the interesting things that Robert Mercer is up to.
So who is Robert Mercer?
Here’s what we know about this incredibly secretive, political kingmaker
and some of the fringe ideas he bankrolls.
Robert Mercer is notoriously private.
Zach: “As far as we know, Mercer has never spoken publicly about his political beliefs.
He really is not interested in talking publicly about what he believes or why.”
So one of the only ways to get a clearer picture of Mercer, is to follow his web of money.
And a lot of it supports projects far from the mainstream as you can possibly get.
Zach: “That's a theme that you see with Mercer again and again, is that he's deeply
skeptical of the received wisdom and that connects to a lot of his support for what
you might call kind of fringe science and fringe economics ideas,
and really his willingness to bankroll people like Steve Bannon, who at the time was not
considered an A-list political player.”
Steve Bannon led Trump’s campaign in the final months leading to the election and of
course he later moved to the White House.
For years, Mercer was the money behind Bannon’s projects, the biggest one being Breitbart
News.
Zach: “Bannon had this very distinct vision for a new kind of conservative politics that
would be much more populist than the standard republican playbook.”
In 2011, Mercer gave the far-right, populist website $10 million. Soon after, Bannon became
Breitbart’s executive chairman and the site’s audience exploded.
Zach: “Bannon really builds this thing into a juggernaut of conservative politics.”
Mercer also helped fund a Bannon-led nonprofit organization, which published a book portraying
Hillary Clinton as corrupt.
“It does involve the Clintons and an enormous mining company called Uranium One.”
“This company, Uranium One, which controlled about a fifth of America’s uranium…”
“Giving away nuclear capability to our enemies…”
All of that came from the book “Clinton Cash”.
The third BIG Bannon project that Mercer bankrolled was Cambridge Analytica. Bannon and Mercer
co-founded the political data firm in 2013, with Mercer giving $15 million. Later the
Trump campaign hired the firm to help get Trump elected.
This is the Cambridge Analytica that in 2018 became the center of a tech and political
firestorm for using the personal data of 87 million Facebook users without their approval.
And those are just some of the political projects that Mercer has funded.
As a family, the Mercer’s have given more than $40 million to GOP candidates
and super PACs since 2010.
Outside of politics, some of the more quirky ideas that Mercer has funded include
a scientist in Oregon who has a gigantic stockpile of human urine with the goal of extending human life.
A counter-conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, promoting the use of the gold standard.
And he gives millions to multiple groups attacking the science of global warming.
Now 71, Mercer wasn’t always rich and able to bankroll his idiosyncratic views.
He grew up in New Mexico with an interest in computers.
Zach: “Through his mid- to late-40s he was kind of like a research...almost like a professor.
He worked at IBM, and he was a researcher. He was responsible for doing really interesting,
cutting-edge work in computer science, but he wasn't a zillionaire.”
At IBM he was part of a team laying the groundwork for modern-day speech-recognition software,
like Google Translate.
It wasn’t until his late 40s when he left IBM for Renaissance Technologies
Zach: “...arguably the most successful hedge fund in the history of the world.”
Mercer became co-CEO of the fund in 2009, making him a very wealthy man.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index values his wealth at almost a billion dollars.
Zach: “It seemed to me like a story about the lengths that a person of really astonishing
means will go to to get something that they otherwise couldn't get.”
The right to carry his gun anywhere in the U.S.
Mercer is a serious gun enthusiast. To give you a picture…
He co-owns a gun company, bought the largest private collection of these machine guns..
….and has a factory in South Carolina that makes assault-style rifles.
We also know…
Zach: “When he built his house, which is this sort of sprawling palace on the north
shore of Long Island, he actually included in it a pistol range right in the basement
of his home.”
But getting a conceal carry permit where Mercer lives is incredibly difficult. And even if
he did get a permit, he would not be able to take his gun to New York City or other states.
Until 2004, when Congress passed a law which says police officers can carry concealed guns in any state.
Since then, small police departments around the country, including the one in Lake Arthur,
have been rumored to hand out badges in exchange for cash, the so-called “badge factories".
After Businessweek spotlighted the Lake Arthur department, the mayor quickly shut it down.
We still don't know exactly what was going on in Lake Arthur.
What we do know is that during the six years he wore his badge, Mercer supported the town generously.
Zach: “I think he's kind of more whimsical than most people would imagine. I think he
hears an interesting idea, and he says, "This is something worth exploring and let's give it a shot."