Pro-Clinton PAC returns banned donations

[DonViejo]

Source: The Hill

A super-PAC supporting Hillary Clinton has refunded $200,000 in contributions from a company that The Hill discovered had contracts with the federal government.

In a statement, Suffolk Construction said Priorities USA had returned the donation. “Based on our internal accounting, the contract appeared to be completed as the project was over four years ago," Dan Antonellis of the Boston-based company said in a statement to The Hill. "We notified the Committee of this ambiguity and they decided to return their contribution.”

-snip-

Companies that hold contracts with the federal government are banned from making political contributions. The ban on contributions from federal contractors is a longstanding law meant to prevent pay-to-play deals between companies receiving taxpayer money and public officials. But the prohibition is often ignored by contractors and campaign committees because the Federal Election Commission is plagued by partisan gridlock and unlikely to take action against infractions.

The Hill found that ignoring the ban has become a common practice, with super-PACs for Republicans also taking money from companies with federal contracts.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/286259-pro-clinton-pac-returns-banned-donations

[floriduck]

1. Must have been an FEC violation we hear about occasionally.

[annavictorious]

2. Sanders returned banned funds last month as well.

I wonder why the right leaning source didn't mention that?

[floriduck]

3. Let's have an independent investigation and find out.

[George II]

4. Some comments - first, it was ONE donation from ONE source, the

...headline (not yours) gives the impression that it was multiple donations.

Second, the committee thought that the contracts in question had expired since they were four years old.

Finally, this is nothing like the situation mentioned elsewhere in this thread. On the one hand, again, it was a single donation from a single entity, made to a PAC. On the other hand, the other violations mentioned above were several hundred or even thousands of donations accepted by a CANDIDATE committee, not a third party.

So no, this is not like those other FEC violations that we've heard about more than occasionally.