The membership list of the Council for National Policy is supposed to be a prized secret. A 2016 internal CNP policy obtained by Documented threatens expulsion for anyone that breaks the rules and names names. So anytime a list like this comes out, it's a big deal for those trying to follow what is happening in right-wing circles.
CNP members range from the leaders of the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society, to the Southern Poverty Law Center designated anti-LGBTQ hate groups Family Research Council and Alliance Defending Freedom. The heads of major foundations on the right, including those of Donors Trust and the Bradley Foundation, are also members.
Justice Clarence Thomas has spoken at CNP. His wife, the right-wing activist Ginni Thomas, is a leader within the group and a board member of CNP Action, the organization’s 501(c)(4) arm. Much has been written recently about Ginni Thomas’ role in CNP, including by Jane Mayer of the New Yorker, and by Danny Hakim and Jo Becker for the New York Times Magazine.
The group was founded in 1981 by leaders in the so-called “new-right,” including Paul Weyrich (who also founded the Heritage Foundation and ALEC), and Rev. Tim LaHaye of the Moral Majority. For decades, the Council for National Policy managed successfully to keep the names of its members secret, as well as details of what went on at their closed-door meetings. Those meetings are almost always held at luxurious 5-star Ritz-Carlton resorts, because culture-war doesn't come cheap.
In recent years, the veil of secrecy has been falling.
In 2016, the Southern Poverty Law Center published a leaked copy of CNP’s 2014 membership directory. Then Max Blumenthal published a 2018 CNP meeting packet, which included a membership list. Both of these were significant breakthroughs.
On November 1, 2020 Documented published a total of 14 membership directories spanning three years, which outlined hundreds of members, including some overlap from the 2014 and 2018 directories as well as many new members. This new list is now the most recent publicly available list of CNP memberships.
Documented has also published many other internal CNP documents, along with dozens of recordings from the private CNP meetings. These materials have resulted in significant increased press coverage of CNP in recent years. In October 2021, Robert O'Harrow published a major investigation of CNP, based on many of the internal materials obtained by Documented, for the Washington Post Magazine.
The new membership list was shared by a member of CNP in January 2022 and obtained by Documented. Although the list does not include a specific date, metadata of the file shows it was created on January 19, 2022.