How Devin Nunes’ mother helped 'mangle' his accounting 'for 17 years': report

Much of the reporting on far-right Rep. Devin Nunes of California has focused on his frivolous lawsuits or his desire to promote Trumpian conspiracy theories, but in an article published by the Daily Beast on October 28, journalist Roger Sollenberger examines the GOP congressman's history of accounting problems — problems that, according to Sollenberger, were made worse by his mother, Toni Nunes.

"Over the last few months," Sollenberger reports, "Nunes' mother, Toni Nunes, has filed a confounding series of financial disclosures. The reports attempt to correct an array of accounting errors and oversights, some dating back to 2004. And because the errors carry over from one accounting period to the next, all subsequent filings were also incorrect — meaning the California Republican's books have been off for 17 years."

Sollenberger continues, "But even after the embarrassing cascade of notices that inundated the campaign over the last year, Nunes' mom has continued filing and signing reports herself. One of the corrected reports she filed this month — itself a correction of a correction — was flagged for additional errors a few days after she submitted it. The filings reveal several inconsistencies, most glaringly that over the years, a number of people and entities have apparently not cashed checks from the Nunes campaign."

Caleb Burns, who specializes in campaign finance and is a partner at the firm Wiley Rein, discussed the type of actions that a campaign should take if any of its checks go uncashed.

Burns told the Beast, "For example, if a donor sends a check to a campaign in an amount that exceeds the contribution limit, the campaign must refund the excessive amount. However, if the contributor cannot be located or the refund check is never cashed by the contributor, the campaign must disgorge the funds to the U.S. Treasury."

According to Sollenberger, the "difference with Nunes is not only the amount of refunds, but the lapsed time."

"For instance," Sollenberger notes, "one of Donald Trump's lawyers, John Dowd, never banked the $3700 that the Trump campaign refunded him in 2018. However, it took the Trump operation less than a year to square it away. The Nunes campaign, on the other hand, failed to account for uncashed payments over several years."

The Beast also interviewed Jenna Grande, press secretary for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

Grande told the Beast, "It is impossible to tell from Congressman Nunes' mangled FEC reports what happened more than a decade ago. It remains very concerning that these uncashed checks go as far back as 17 years ago, and what that could mean for the accuracy of the FEC reports filed by Rep. Nunes for almost two decades."