Election watchdog groups filed a formal complaint with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday alleging that President Donald J. Trump's campaign and affiliated political committees concealed $7.2 million in legal fees through an unrelated shell company in violation of campaign finance laws. filed a complaint.
The complaint from the Campaign Legal Center centers on Red Curve, the company that received the payments. The company is run by Bradley Kreit, who is also the financial director for the Trump campaign and four related political committees named in the complaint, as well as 200 other candidates and committees.
The Election Legal Center said in its complaint that Trump's political committee used Red Curve, which does not appear to provide legal services, “as a conduit to hide payments for legal services.” The group filed the complaint hours after The Daily Beast published an article about the Red Curb payments.
Representatives for Red Curve and the Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
“However, this apparent payment scheme violates the reporting requirements of the Federal Election Campaign Act,” the complaint states. “The Federal Election Campaign Act's reporting requirements require commissions to provide detailed information about who they are paying and how much they are paying for their services.”
The complaint also says Red Curve is prepaying legal fees to the Trump committee as part of its payment plan, potentially violating campaign finance laws that prohibit companies from giving money to candidates. Ta.
“What Red Curve was doing was basically a donation,” said Saurav Ghosh, director of federal campaign finance reform at the Election Legal Center. It's illegal,” he said. ”
He added: “If it's an unincorporated organization for campaign financing, its contributions will exceed the amount allowed under federal law.”
Trump has spent more than $100 million in legal fees and other legal costs since leaving office in 2021, relying almost entirely on political donations. Red Curve was the largest recipient of these payments, receiving $7.2 million, according to records filed with the FEC.
The FEC also fined a pro-Trump super PAC $6,075 on Wednesday in a negotiated settlement for failing to disclose $150,600 in in-kind contributions in its April 2022 quarterly report. The super PAC (“Make America Great Again, Again, Again”) was once Mr. Trump's dominant fundraising arm. Last year, Trump came under intense scrutiny for paying Trump's wife, Melania Trump, an unusual $155,000 for a speaking engagement.
The Trump campaign did not respond to questions about the fine.
In its complaint regarding Red Curb, the Election Legal Center cited similar violations of campaign finance laws. The watchdog group noted that in 2016, Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee used a law firm that paid Fusion GPS to conduct an investigation against Trump. This research was used in what later became known as the Steele Dossier. . The Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) have agreed to pay a $113,000 fine to resolve an FEC investigation into campaign spending disclosures.
“It's similar to this situation,” Ghosh said of the Fusion GPS incident. “You know, there was a lack of transparency about who was getting paid. What is the payment?”
