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(43,272 posts) Thu Jun 9, 2022, 02:45 PM Jun 2022

J.D. Vance and Peter Thiel Accused of 'Secret Website' Shenanigans

A new complaint alleges that J.D. Vance’s campaign was illegally coordinating with billionaire backer Peter Thiel’s super PAC.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/jd-vance-and-peter-thiel-accused-of-secret-website-shenanigans

https://archive.ph/VIhfm

According to a new legal complaint, investment banker J.D. Vance knowingly received unlawful support from a super PAC funded by his friend and billionaire backer, Peter Thiel.

The complaint, which watchdog groups Campaign Legal Center and End Citizens United filed with the Federal Election Commission on Monday and shared exclusively with The Daily Beast, alleges that the Vance campaign and the Protect Ohio Values super PAC coordinated for months through a secret website, where the PAC posted hundreds of pages of valuable information—including strategic assessments, messaging proposals, opposition research, video footage, internal polling data, and even a draft script the campaign adopted in for a late-game ad.

The deal was mutual, according to the filing, pointing to pages of evidence that the Vance campaign accepted and used the material to the candidate’s benefit, helping him land ex-President Donald Trump’s endorsement and leapfrog past competitors he had trailed for months. Federal law prohibits coordination between campaigns and super PACs. And the watchdogs lay out a remarkably brazen scheme that spanned several months, accusing the groups of unlawful coordination, reporting violations, and impermissible in-kind donations with a value in the millions of dollars.

“This abuse is perhaps one of the clearest and most flagrant examples of a candidate and a super PAC skirting campaign finance laws,” End Citizens United president Tiffany Muller said in a statement. “Protect Ohio Values PAC and JD Vance’s campaign completely disregarded the law as the super PAC essentially served as an all-inclusive and paid-for arm of the campaign. Wealthy donors danced around the law to prop up their preferred candidate, who will inevitably be indebted to them. People in Ohio—or anywhere else—don’t want billionaires buying elections, and are fed up with it. The FEC should immediately investigate this matter and hold all parties accountable.”

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