Brain trust was a term that originally described a group of close advisers to a political candidate or incumbent; these were often academics who were prized for their expertise in particular fields.
[4] Around the same time the term "brain trust" was employed in a slightly different sense by journalists covering Henry Cabot Lodge.
For example, in 1901 a group of journalists in a state press association was called a "brain trust" by the Deseret Evening News.
[7] That use became regular for the next two decades, as can be seen from the use by Time magazine in 1928, which ran a headline on a meeting of the American Council on Learned Societies titled "Brain Trust".
[8][9] The core of the Roosevelt brain trust initially consisted of a group of Columbia Law School professors (Moley, Tugwell, and Berle).
The core of the Roosevelt brain trust later consisted of men associated with Harvard Law School (Cohen, Corcoran, and Frankfurter).