Another Trump cash grab appears to be under federal investigation
Add one more investigation dogging former President Donald Trump as the Department of Justice continues its probe into top-secret government documents discovered at Mar-a-Lago and Fulton County District Fani Willis prepares to convene a new grand jury that will look into 2020 election tampering.
According to a report from the Daily Beast, it appears that Donald Trump's attempt to raise cash to finance a recount of the 2020 election returns is the subject of an unpublicized investigation by the Federal Elections Commission.
As the Beast's Roger Sollenberger reports, a recent FOIA request he made on Trump fundraising and use of funds was turned down with an explanation of, "To the extent that the records you requested concern an ongoing FEC enforcement matter, we can neither confirm nor deny that any such records exist,” which is an indication that they can't say anything because an investigation is underway.
As Solleberger wrote, "The request asked the agency for documents and communications related to a major Trump vendor that has received millions in campaign 'recount' funds for seemingly unrelated services—including document production for subpoenas from the congressional COVID subcommittee," adding that Dan Weiner, a former attorney with the FEC, suggested something is up.
“The FEC could be indicating one of many different scenarios,” Weiner said, with the Beast report adding that he explained "that the agency opens enforcement matters under a range of prompts, from publicly generated complaints to federal referrals to internal decisions."
Weiner added, "Recount fundraising is a particularly wild west area of campaign finance, where the absence of any visible guidelines has led to some fairly abusive behavior.”
According to Solleberger, an investigation by the FEC could be running concurrently with a similar investigation by special counsel Jack Smith.
"That spending—including payments through possible shell vendors—is now reportedly a target of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation. But Trump isn’t alone. Other 'recount' funds have recently drawn attention, including those belonging to Rep. George Santos (R-NY) and former senatorial hopeful Herschel Walker, who received a notice from the FEC after shuffling tens of thousands of dollars in donor funds to a 'recount' that was never in the cards," the report states.
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