[FlameOn]

Surprise Surprise. Trump has laundered at least $170 million from his election campaign into private companies run by his former campaign manager Brad Parscale according to a new complaint filed with the Federal Elections Commission. GOP also deliberately screwed oversight by preventing the FEC from being fully staffed.

President Donald Trump's reelection campaign has "disguised" nearly $170 million of campaign spending by "laundering" the funds through companies led by former campaign manager Brad Parscale or created by Trump campaign lawyers, according to a new complaint with the Federal Election Commission.

The 82-page complaint, filed Tuesday by the Campaign Legal Center, contends the Trump campaign's spending practices have the practical effect of masking payments — in violation of federal campaign transparency rules — to various advertising contractors and senior Trump campaign staff and family members, including Lara Trump, wife of son Eric Trump, and Kimberly Guilfoyle, girlfriend of son Donald Trump Jr.

"Voters have a clear right under the law to know how campaigns are spending money to influence elections," said Trevor Potter, the Campaign Legal Center's president and a former Republican chairman of the FEC. "Without this information, they certainly should be asking, 'what is the Trump campaign hiding?'"

Much of the Campaign Legal Center's complaint focuses on American Made Media Consultants, a Delaware-based company formed in 2018 and supported by the Trump campaign to specifically coordinate its massive ad buying program.

Having an in-house ad buying company helps the campaign save money on commissions it might otherwise pay. But it also helps the campaign shield the identities of subcontractors that American Made Media Consultants uses.

By running the majority of their expenditures through two companies that senior campaign officials seem to run themselves, the Trump team’s network is able to hide exactly how they are operating and who they are paying.

It’s unclear how the FEC—which is known for being cautious and currently lacks the 'quorum' of four commissioners it needs to fully enforce laws or close loopholes—will handle the complaint

https://www.documentcloud.org/docume...Complaint.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/28/comp...-spending.html