WASHINGTON — The largest conservative think tank in DC dismissed two staffers this past Friday while more left voluntarily for an advocacy group led by former Vice President Mike Pence, creating a “brain drain” of right-wing legal scholars and other top employees, The Post has learned.
Heritage Foundation Chief Advancement Officer Andy Olivastro announced in a statement Monday that deputy director of programs Jessica Reinsch and Institute for Constitutional Government vice president John Malcolm had been fired for “conduct inconsistent” with the think tank’s “mission and standards.”
“Breach of fiduciary duty and intellectual property removal led to immediate actions. Others who departed were closely aligned with them,” Olivastro said. “Their departures clear the way for a stronger, more focused team.”
Embattled Heritage President Kevin Roberts — who has faced backlash for defending Tucker Carlson following the right-wing podcaster’s interview with white nationalist Nick Fuentes — wrote to staff on Sunday that employees are all “expected to work for and not against Heritage’s interests while on the Heritage payroll,” according to a copy of the email reviewed by The Post.
Sources familiar with the firings of Malcolm and Reinsch indicated that both had been accused of “leaks to the media” amid the fallout of the Carlson controversy.
Meanwhile, Pence’s Advancing American Freedom (AAF) revealed that Malcom had joined the group along with Richard Stern, who had served as a top Heritage scholar on the economy and federal budget, and Kevin Dayaratna, the foundation’s former top data analyst and chief statistician.
AAF has taken in at least $13 million in donations to help bankroll the hirings, a person familiar with the fundraising numbers confirmed.
The contributions were first reported by The Dispatch senior editor Mike Warren.
The Wall Street Journal initially reported Monday on Dayaratna, Malcolm and Stern jumping to AAF, noting that roughly a dozen are expected to make the sane move.
Sources confirmed to The Post that more Heritage employees are expected to depart in the near future.
Malcolm is helping to shift members of Heritage’s well-regarded Meese Center, named for the former US attorney general, to Pence’s organization and rebrand it as the “Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law,” AAF said in a press release Monday.
“The Heritage Foundation is proud to be home to the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, now led by Charles ‘Cully’ Stimson, a longtime Heritage staffer and former Assistant United States Attorney and JAG officer,” a spokesman for the think tank also said.
Meanwhile, at least three Heritage board members also resigned over the weekend, citing a failure by the think tank “to condemn antisemitism and hatred” and “a drift from the principles that once defined its leadership.”
Josh Blackman, the former senior editor of the Heritage Guide to the Constitution, announced his departure in a Sunday letter to Roberts that was published by Reason magazine.
“It’s significant that so many of the scholars from the Meese Center moved over. It’s basically everyone,” Blackman told The Post on Monday, declaring that “knowledge that’s built up over a decade” had “left overnight,” creating a “brain drain” from Heritage.
In his letter, Blackman faulted the Roberts for having made “a huge unforced blunder” in embracing Carlson in a way that “gave aide and comfort to the rising tide of antisemitism on the right.”
“[I]n the wake of your remarks, jurists, scholars and advocates have made clear to me they can no longer associate with the Heritage Guide they contributed to,” he said.
“[A]nd perhaps most tragically, your actions have weakened the ability of the storied Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies to promote the rule of law,” Blackman added. “My resignation is effective immediately.”
Blackman noted in a phone interview that Roberts has “had three months to do something” about his comments on the former Fox News host’s interview with Fuentes, released Oct. 27, “but hasn’t.”
Instead, Roberts released a video statement Oct. 30 denouncing conservatives who were “canceling our own people.”
Many voices on the political right — and within Heritage — took issue with Roberts’ claim that those “attacking” Carlson were a “venomous coalition” and their “attempt to cancel him will fail.”
The Heritage chief later apologized for “a terrible choice of words” and said at a subsequent staff town hall that he “made the mess, let me clean it up.”
Roberts also defended the move not to “cancel” Carlson but qualified that he should have noted he was not “endorsing everything” said on the podcast.
The Heritage leader’s initial statement in defense of Carlson has yet to be taken down from X.
“Our mission is unchanged, and our leadership is strong and decisive,” Olivastro wrote in Monday’s statement. “Heritage has always welcomed debate, but alignment on mission and loyalty to the institution are non-negotiable. A handful of staff chose a different path—some through disruption, others through disloyalty.
“Heritage is surging ahead. Demand to join Heritage far exceeds available roles. Major gift donors have grown 35%, contributions 57%, and we are investing millions annually in partnerships and innovation to strengthen the conservative movement nationwide,” he added.
“America is at a turning point. Heritage is building the team that will deliver-not for yesterday’s fights, but for tomorrow’s victories. We are united, disciplined, and ready. Onward and upward.”
The imbroglio has become a proxy fight over the future of the conservative movement — and potentially the 2028 Republican presidential primary — with figures like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) weighing in.
“Now is a time for choosing. If you sit there with someone who says Adolf Hitler was very cool and that their mission is to defeat ‘global Jewry,’ and you say nothing, then you are a coward, and you are complicit in that evil,” the Texas Republican told attendees at a Republican Jewish Coalition summit in Las Vegas in October.
Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro also delivered a speech denouncing Carlson at the Heritage Foundation last week — in front of an audience that included Roberts, who sources said was unaware that the conservative pundit planned to spend 15 minutes castigating the right-wing podcaster.
Vice President JD Vance in a Sunday speech at TPUSA’s America Fest — where Shapiro had challenged conservatives days earlier to condemn Carlson along with him — spoke out against making lists “of conservatives to denounce or de-platform.”
“We have far more important work to do than cancelling each other,” Vance said.
However, the veep went on to call out Fuentes by name for referring to Vance as a “race traitor” for marrying his wife Usha, the daughter of Indian immigrants.
“Let me be clear. Anyone who attacks my wife, whether their name is Jen Psaki or Nick Fuentes, can eat s–t,” the VP told UnHerd in an interview published Sunday. “That’s my official policy as vice president of the United States.”
“I think this creeping tide of antisemitism on the right is very troubling,” Blackman said Monday. “And I don’t know which forces will fight back against it versus accept it and just say, ‘We have a big tent.’”
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