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Two crossed lines that form an X . It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification. Former President Donald Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner are key players in a secretive shell company that s the subject of a new federal complaint. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images This story is available exclusively to Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.
An election watchdog group has filed an updated complaint with the FEC against the Trump campaign.
The complaint cites Insider s reporting on American Made Media Consultants, a secretive shell company the Trump campaign operated
The complaint asserts that Trump s team and family members may have violated federal law.
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”.
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.
Ramon Cota of Chicago has repeatedly used social media to profess his support for President-elect Joe Biden, and disdain for President Donald Trump.
According to Delaware incorporation records, Cota signed paperwork in April 2018 that formed American Made Media Consultants the company that Insider reported spent almost half of the $1.26 billion in the campaign s coffers and secretly paid the president s family members.
Cota listed the Chicago office address of CSC, a Delaware-based company that provides clients with comprehensive business formation solutions and bills itself as the business behind business, in the American Made Media Consultants incorporation paperwork.
Reached through Twitter direct message on Friday, Cota, who does not appear to be involved in American Made Media Consultants operations beyond helping incorporate it, declined to comment.