EXCLUSIVE: Mike Pence’s AAF Hires Former Heritage Legal Scholar Eugene Kontorovich

Former Heritage Foundation senior research fellow Eugene Kontorovich has joined Advancing American Freedom (AAF), the nonprofit led by former vice president Mike Pence, the Washington Free Beacon has learned. Kontorovich is the 19th former Heritage employee to leave the think tank for AAF since Heritage president Kevin Roberts released a video attacking critics of podcaster Tucker Carlson's friendly interview with white supremacist Nick Fuentes.

"I am excited to join the amazing and rapidly-growing team at AAF, and build out its foreign policy portfolio," Kontorovich told the Free Beacon in a statement. "I will continue my work of reclaiming American sovereignty—and taxpayer dollars—from dysfunctional international organizations, while pushing back on a growing body of fake international law that seeks to hobble America. AAF will advocate for global alliances based both on common values and genuine partnership, not free-riding."

Kontorovich's move to AAF follows a period of tumult at Heritage after Roberts's video, in which he lashed out at what he described as a "venomous coalition" criticizing Carlson in the wake of his interview with Fuentes. In January, former Heritage senior legal fellow Hans von Spakovsky joined AAF's Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law—named after the former U.S. attorney general who was the namesake of Heritage's Center for Legal and Judicial Studies before taking his shop to AAF. It is unclear whether the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies still exists; the center's page has been removed from the Heritage website and a Heritage spokeswoman did not return a request for comment.

Von Spakovsky's exit came after Roberts tapped him to help lead the think tank’s legal center, only for von Spakovsky to resign and join the center’s former leader, John Malcolm.

In December, more than a dozen Heritage staffers left the think tank and joined AAF in a move its president, Tim Chapman, described as a "reorganization of the conservative movement." One of those was Malcolm, whom Heritage fired because he planned to resign and would not disclose where he planned to work next. Malcolm now heads AAF's Meese Institute and told the Free Beacon in a statement that he looks forward to having Kontorovich on board.

"Eugene, who specializes in international law, sovereignty, international institutions, and issues related to Israel, has published dozens of articles and book chapters in leading law reviews and major media outlets," Malcolm said. "Eugene has testified numerous times before Congress, including at a hearing this week, and will remain a professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University. It is a strong testament to the quality of the team of principled conservatives that we are building at Advancing American Freedom that a scholar of Eugene's caliber has decided to join us."

The erstwhile Heritage staff who joined AAF are not the only figures to leave the think tank in the wake of the Roberts video and a subsequent meeting in which Roberts blamed his former chief of staff for writing the script. Five Heritage board members—Princeton University professor Robert George, Abby Moffat, Shane McCullar, Darryle Owens, and Price Harding—have resigned since Roberts published his video statement. McCullar said in a statement that he could not associate with an organization that "hesitates to condemn antisemitism and hatred" and "gives a platform to those who spread them." George left the board when Roberts "could not offer a full retraction" of his defense of Carlson.

Other high-profile Heritage scholars left the organization amid the continuing fallout from Roberts's October video, including Chris DeMuth, who led the American Enterprise Institute from 1986 to 2008 and joined Heritage in 2023, and economist and adviser to President Donald Trump Stephen Moore. Josh Blackman, the onetime senior editor of the Heritage Guide to the Constitution, wrote that Roberts "gave aid and comfort to the rising tide of antisemitism on the right" and that jurists and scholars had told him "they can no longer associate with the Heritage Guide they contributed to."

Roberts's video statement also pushed the National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism to end its relationship with Heritage. Its co-chairs wrote in an email announcing the decision that "[w]e cannot allow the Conservative movement to be corrupted and destroyed by those consumed with attacking America's Judeo-Christian heritage and values, thereby distracting us from all the real challenges facing our nation."

In December, AAF chairman Marc Short told a group of reporters that his organization hopes to shore up support for Israel among young conservatives. "Being able to reach some of the Christian evangelical audiences with our nation's heritage and why we have a relationship with Israel, I think it's important to [Pence] and will be important to our organization moving forward, too," he said.

In his statement on Kontorovich's move, Chapman, the AAF president, noted his new hire's expertise on that exact issue.

"Eugene is a top-notch legal scholar and international law thought leader," Chapman said. "He has established himself as an expert on the Israel-Arab conflict and we look forward to hosting his scholarship. I'm honored to welcome him to AAF's growing team at such a pivotal time for the Conservative Movement."

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