A campaign watchdog group filed a formal complaint with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday, accusing Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign and its affiliated political committees of concealing payments of $7.2 million in legal fees by distributing them through an independent shell company paid, which violates campaign finance laws.
At the center of the Campaign Legal Center’s complaint is the company that received the payments, Red Curve. The company is led by Bradley Crate, who is also treasurer for the Trump campaign and four related political committees listed in the complaint, as well as 200 other candidates and committees.
In its complaint, the Campaign Legal Center said Trump political committees used Red Curve, which did not appear to offer legal services, “as a conduit to conceal payments for legal services.” The group filed its complaint hours after The Daily Beast published an article about the payments to Red Curve.
Neither Red Curve nor Trump campaign officials responded to a request for comment.
“However, this apparent payment arrangement violates the reporting requirements of the Federal Election Campaign Act,” the complaint states, “which requires committees to provide detailed information about who they pay for services and how much they pay for those services.”
The complaint also said that as part of the payment plan, Red Curve proposed payments for legal fees to the Trump committees, potentially violating a campaign finance law that prevents companies from giving money to candidates.
“What Red Curve did was basically contribute,” said Saurav Ghosh, the director of federal campaign finance reform at the Campaign Legal Center. “If it is treated as a business under federal campaign finance law, then that is prima facie illegal.”
He added: “Alternatively, if it is an unincorporated entity for campaign finance purposes, then the contributions would exceed the amount permitted under federal law.”
Mr. Trump has spent more than $100 million on attorneys’ fees and other legal costs since leaving office in 2021 and has relied almost entirely on political donations to cover those expenses. According to filings with the FEC, Red Curve was the largest single recipient of these payments, receiving $7.2 million
The FEC on Wednesday also fined a pro-Trump super PAC $6,075 as part of a plea agreement for failing to disclose $150,600 in in-kind donations in an April 2022 quarterly report. The super PAC — Make America Great Again, Again — was once a leading fundraising group for Mr. Trump. Last year it came under fire for an unusual $155,000 payment to Melania Trump, Mr. Trump’s wife, for a speaking engagement.
The Trump campaign did not respond to questions about the fine.
In its complaint about Red Curve, the Campaign Legal Center cited similar violations of campaign finance law. The watchdog group found that Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee in 2016 used a law firm that made payments to the firm Fusion GPS to conduct research against Mr. Trump – research that was used in the so-called Steele dossier . The Clinton campaign and the DNC agreed to pay $113,000 in fines to resolve an FEC investigation into campaign spending disclosures.
“It is similar to this situation,” Mr. Ghosh said of the Fusion GPS case. “There was, you know, a lack of transparency about who was getting paid. What is the payment for?”
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2024-04-26 00:16:19
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