How Trump Uses Licensing To Launder Money
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
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A watchdog group is alleging that Donald Trump'south presidential entrada has laundered $170 million through companies controlled past campaign officials as part of an endeavor to avert disclosing which vendors it is really paying for services.
Under Federal Ballot Commission rules, campaigns are supposed to particular who they are paying. While some entrada vendors do hire sub-contractors or farm out work to other firms, a complaint to the FEC filed Tuesday by the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Eye alleges that the Trump campaign is doing this on an industrial scale and is obscuring vast amounts of spending.
According to the complaint, so-campaign manager Brad Parscale and other entrada officials in 2018 created a company called American Fabricated Media, which has since been paid more than $106 million, making it the campaign's largest vendor. The entrada said that instead of hiring exterior media buyers to purchase ads for the campaign, this new visitor would be used to direct buy the ads and cut out the middle-homo. Still, the Campaign Legal Center complaint points out that public records of television ad purchases appear to testify that at least some of the campaign's ad-ownership has been conducted by a Virginia house called Harris Sikes Media. The campaign has never reported to the FEC that it hired Harris Sikes. Co-ordinate to the Campaign Legal Center complaint, this suggests that American Fabricated Media isn't buying ads itself, just blocking the FEC from seeing who the campaign is hiring to buy ads.
"The campaign's failure to itemize disbursements to its ultimate vendors means that the public is left in the dark almost the entities working for the Trump campaign, the nature of their services, and the full amount they are paid," the complaint contends.
The Trump entrada did non reply to a request for comment on the complaint.
The complaint also lists several high-profile projects launched by the campaign that have never shown upwardly in the FEC filings. For instance, in Apr Parscale bragged in cable news interviews about a new app the campaign was developing, saying it would be "straight owned" and controlled by the entrada. Only, Phunware, the visitor that congenital the app, has never appeared in the campaign'south spending reports. According to the Campaign Legal Centre, that'south because information technology was paid through American Made Media—an allegation that would seem to be backed up past the company's ain statements highlighting its relationship with American Made Media.
Asked for annotate by Mother Jones, Phunware directed questions about the complaint to the Trump campaign. The campaign and National Media, Harris Sikes Media's parent visitor, did not reply to requests for annotate.
Parscale was fired every bit entrada managing director earlier this month. Just he has remained involved with the campaign, which is not surprising considering how closely he is reported to have ingratiated himself with the Trump family—including paying Trump family members working on the campaign through his own visitor, Parscale Strategy. The Campaign Legal Center complaint notes that Parscale Strategy is used as the vehicle to pay Lara Trump, who is the wife of Eric Trump, and Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is Donald Trump Jr.'s girlfriend.
Source: https://www.motherjones.com/2020-elections/2020/07/trump-campaign-accused-of-laundering-170-million/
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