- 2020 « Interest Groups « Campaign Legal Center
Campaign Legal Center
July 28, 2020
Trump Campaign Hides $170 Million in Spending from Donors and Voters, Says CLC Complaint
Washington, DC:
Today, Campaign Legal Center (CLC)
filed a complaint with the Federal
Election Commission (FEC) against
President Donald Trump’s reelection
campaign and joint fundraising
committee. The campaign and its
committee violated the law by
laundering nearly $170 million in
campaign spending through firms
headed by Trump’s former campaign
manager, Brad Parscale, and other
firms created by Trump campaign
lawyers.
The campaign
reported millions in
payment--American Made and Parscale
Strategy—which disbursed the funds
to the campaign’s ultimate vendors.
Ultimately, this hid millions in
payments to companies engaged in
significant work for the campaign,
as well as payments to Trump family
members or associates like Lara
Trump and Kimberly Guilfoyle.
“Voters have a
right know how campaigns are
spending money to influence
elections,” said CLC President and
former Republican Chair of the FEC
Trevor Potter. “This scheme flies in
the face of transparency
requirements mandated by federal
law, and it leaves voters and donors
in the dark about where the
campaign’s funds are actually going.
This secrecy could also disguise
other campaign finance violations,
but we don’t know, because the
campaign isn’t disclosing these
routed payments.”
CLC has asked the
FEC—the only federal agency
dedicated to enforcing our laws
governing presidential campaigns—to
take action.
“This illegal
conduit scheme leaves voters in the
dark about the entities working for
the Trump campaign, the nature of
their services, and the full amount
they are paid. We don’t know all of
what is being hidden by this scheme,
but we do know that it violates the
law,” said CLC’s Director of Federal
Reform Brendan Fischer.
To read the full
complaint, click
here.