Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images This story is available exclusively to Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.
One of Eric Trump s top deputies played an important role overseeing the Trump campaign shell company that spent $617 million during the 2020 presidential race, sources told Insider.
In one instance, the Trump campaign paid an extra 2% fee on all ads aired from a firm tied to its chief strategist, Jason Miller, Trump advisors told Insider.
But much of the spending made through American Made Media Consultants remains a mystery, according to Trump advisors and an Insider analysis of Federal Election Commission records.
I write to request an immediate investigation into the allegations published this past Friday by
Business Insider’s
Tom LoBianco and
Dave Levinthal in their story “Jared Kushner Helped Create a Trump Campaign Shell Company that Secretly Paid the President’s Family Members and Spent $617 Million in Reelection Cash.”[1] If true, such acts are clear violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30101 et seq.) and punishable by up to five years imprisonment and more than one billion dollars in fines.
52 U.S.C. 30101(4) states that a “political committee” is “any…group of persons…which makes expenditures aggregating in excess of $1,000 during a calendar year”. 52 U.S.C. 30101(9)(A)(i) states that an “expenditure” is “any purchase, payment, distribution, loan, advance, deposit, or gift of money or anything of value, made by any person for the purpose of influencing any election for Federal office”.
Another Russiagate Like Trump Scandal Which Isn t One
Published: December 21, 2020
Some of the Russiagate fanatics dream of indicting U.S. President Donald Trump as soon as he leaves his office. But they never explain what crime he should be indicted for. What did he actually do wrong?
Yes, he killed foreigners. But no U.S. president will ever be indicted for that. It is seen as a part of the job. Trump may have old tax issues. But those are usually solved by negotiating about the amount of money in question. As soon as the negotiated amount is paid such cases get closed.
American Made Media Consultants, for extra risibility. Bess Levin is always a good read:
Donald Trump and his family have spent the last four years making the airtight case that they view the presidency as simply a means to enrich themselves and their associates. They probably don’t particularly like that reputation and, yet, it hasn’t stopped them from funneling taxpayer money to their private business, gouging the Secret Service, and raising legal defense funds that the fine print says could go directly to their pockets. Oh, and, according to a new report, setting up a shell company that spent hundreds of millions of campaign dollars to pay Trump family members along with other expenditures it seemingly wanted to keep under wraps.
JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images This story is available exclusively to Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.
Two lawmakers demanded that the FBI and the Federal Election Commission open an investigation into whether the Trump campaign violated federal law by spending hundreds of millions of reelection money through a company that White House advisor Jared Kushner created.
The lawmakers letter comes hours after Insider reported that the Trump campaign had spent $617 million through a company that the president s son-in-law helped establish in 2018.
In the letter obtained exclusively by Insider, Reps. Ted Lieu of California and Kathleen Rice of New York noted that campaign finance violations above $25,000 are felonies punishable by up to five years in prison.