Speaking to the Washington Post, Mark Holden lauded the House provisions, which mirrored many of the white-collar-criminal-defense reforms that the Kochs had long sought. But many of their Democratic counterparts in the sentencing-reform coalition were horrified. President Obama declared that the House provisions were unacceptable, adding that he wanted criminal-justice reform that made things better, not worse. Sally Yates, the deputy attorney general, warned that, if the House’s proposed new standards became law, some “criminals would go free as a result, because we simply would not be able to meet that standard of proof.” She told NPR, “It would provide cover for top-level executives, which is not something we think would be in the best interest of the American people.” Neera Tanden, the president of the Center for American Progress, called the House version a deal breaker. If the new Koch persona was anything more than a public-relations ploy, she told me, “this is the test.”

The Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Bob Goodlatte, told me that Republicans in the House would also not bend on the white-collar provisions: “We’re happy to discuss specific concerns, but it’s a deal breaker for us if they’re not included.”

In the midst of this standoff, Holden reassured his liberal partners that the Kochs were sincere about sentencing reform, and would rather see it pass without the white-collar-crime provisions than not at all. Speaking of the white-collar legislation, he told me, “We’re not pushing this now. Hopefully, it will get worked out, but if it will kill it we don’t want the perfect to be the enemy of the good.”

But as Congress returned from the holidays the criminal-justice-reform coalition seemed to be fraying. Although Van Jones praised the Kochs’ promise to support the sentencing-reform bill with or without the House provisions, he criticized the brothers for not doing more to pressure Republicans in Congress to support sentencing reform. “A fair criticism would be that the Koch brothers haven’t used their nuclear arsenal on this thing,” he acknowledged. “They haven’t said that they’ll run ads about it.”

Mike Paul, the head of Reputation Doctor, isn’t surprised that the Kochs’ rebranding has encountered troubles. “You can’t just use spin to make it look like you’re doing the right thing,” he says. “Ultimately, the currency that the Kochs are after is trust. And it’s won only by showing consistency, transparency, and evidence of real change.” ♦

JANE MAYER, “New Koch” in the New Yorker, January 25, 2016, page 47.