Rick Wilson, a former Republican and anti-Trump operative behind the Lincoln Project, said he was tapped by the 2+2 Campaign in recent months to help the group with messaging and strategy. He said one of the group’s goals is to warn Fox News leadership and others about publishing potentially false claims about the 2024 election.

“I see this as part of a broader opportunity to hold accountable the organizations and individuals that have done great damage to our democracy and our republic,” Wilson told NBC News. he said. “They are relying on a very dangerous lie that has the potential to plunge us into an unprecedented level of national chaos and destruction. “If there is a second part of the big lie, I think the only outcome in this country is violence, and I’m working hard to both prevent Donald Trump from being elected and to prevent the second part of the big lie from dividing America even further… Toward violence and chaos.”

Wilson and others behind the group believe Fox News has reached a critical point of financial vulnerability following a lawsuit filed by two voting systems companies over allegations made in the 2020 election. Dominion Voting Systems reached a $787 million settlement with Fox News in April 2023, and a separate lawsuit from Smartmatic that goes to trial early next year could result in the cable channel having to pay billions of dollars in damages.

Fox Corp., which says it covers newsworthy events and people related to the 2020 election, as well as Smartmatic, the voting company accused of rigging the election even though it was used by only one region of the United States in 2020. The court battle between the two continues. Smartmatic sued Fox and some of its hosts and guests in 2021.

Wilson said the strategy was to target an “audience of one” to appeal to a handful of people: Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, the Fox News board of directors, and key “influencers” in Washington, D.C. or elsewhere. “If Fox is looking over their shoulders and wondering, maybe we shouldn’t go out and repeat Donald Trump’s lies. “This is a gain for the country.”

Wilson said he plans to use traditional television ads, digital ads and social media platforms to spread the message to ensure people on the shortlist see it. “Advertising has become incredibly detailed and allows us to target this almost at an individual level,” he said. “I can geofence the area around the Fox building, and I can geofence the individuals inside Fox if I want.”

The television ad ran four times in the Washington market last week. A source familiar with ad buying told NBC News that attempts to place the ad in the New York City market were not successful.

Dmitri Malhoun, a former political adviser to LinkedIn founder and prominent Democratic donor Reid Hoffman, said the Oakland Corps donor network donated nearly $100,000 from him and others in “technology and finance” circles to support the initial launch. Approximately $2,000 was raised through small individual donations on the website.

A member of Smartmatic’s legal team told NBC News they had nothing to do with the incident.