The ex-president is once again in trouble over his finances. This time the problem is his Make America Great Again PAC. It seems that it “made several mistakes” when the Federal Election Committee (FEC) looked at its first-quarter 2022 report. Certainly, Donald Trump’s numbers people would not make simple calculation errors, would they?
When the FEC looked at the financial report, it revealed “discrepancies,” The Business Insider reported. The Insider received a copy of the FEC’s July 6 letter to the committee:
‘[It saw] discrepancies in its reported cash on hand in addition to calculation errors.’
Donald Trump’s PAC, Make America Great Again (MAGA), stopped being his 2020 presidential campaign committee for the 2020 presidential election. The FEC has given him a deadline of August 10, 2022. Should he choose not to respond by then he will not obtain an extension. But what can the Commission do about that?
Well, the FEC could impose an audit or “enforcement action” should Trump choose not to respond, according to The POLITICO:
‘[A]ccounting mistakes and financial foibles can lead to federal fines and bad headlines, such as when the FEC slapped President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign with a $375,000 fine for reporting violations.’
Even the 2016 presidential candidate 2016 Hillary Clinton had to pay fines to the Democratic National Committee, The Washington Post reported. The Canadian billionaire political donor Barry Zekelman had to pay fines for alleged “illegal contributions to a pro-Trump super PAC.”
Trump has a number of political committees, even as he flirts with the idea of running for president in 2024:
‘As of March 31, Make America Great Again PAC reported having about $5.5 million in available cash. It’s one of several political committees within the post-presidency political operation of Trump, who continues to mull a run for president again in 2024.’
In this type of letter frequently shows up when big political committees raise very large amounts of money, and mistakes are common. But MAGA PACs have been investigated, looking for proof his “2020 campaign laundered hundreds of millions of dollars in spending.”
Thus far, there have been a minimum of 43 possible violation cases involving Trump that were sent to the FEC in the past six years:
‘[The FEC] has civil powers to enforce federal campaign finance laws, failed to act on any of the cases due to repeated deadlocks by its commissioners — in every case, the three Republican commissioners did not vote against Trump.’
It appeared that in the six-commissioner FEC, Trump had seeded the FEC with his own people. It requires a four-vote decision to make a determination. And a 3-3 vote causes a deadlock, which can be trouble, especially in cases such as Trump’s.
The Report of Receipts and Disbursements can be read as a pdf file here.
Featured image is a screenshot via YouTube.
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