Campaign finance watchdog cracks down on untraceable super PAC donations

[brooklynite]

Source: Politico

The Federal Election Commission signaled Friday that it will take steps to uncover some types of virtually untraceable donations to super PACs, a potentially significant shift in the enforcement of campaign finance law.

The move came as the FEC released documents resolving a complaint about a pair of 2018 donations to DefendArizona, a super PAC that supported then-Rep. Martha McSally’s (R-Ariz.) Senate bid.

The complaint, originally filed by the nonprofit watchdog group Campaign Legal Center, alleged that a pair of donations to the super PAC were not properly disclosed. The money came in from two limited liability companies, but there was no indication of who was actually behind the money before it went into the LLC.

Straw donations to super PACs run through anonymous LLCs have become increasingly common in recent years, as some wealthy political donors look to shield their contributions from the public by routing them through other entities first. The FEC has been frozen for years on what to do about these donations, effectively blessing them by not policing requirements that would have forced further disclosure.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/04/15/campaign-finance-watchdog-cracks-down-on-untraceable-super-pac-donations-00025664

[Farmer-Rick]

1. It's what Robert's corrupt Supreme Court wanted

He and his junta of right wing crazy judges want untraceable money in politics. How else could Putin control the US? That's what the Citizen United decision was all about.

Then there are all those other corrupt world leaders who can just buy a president, senator or even a Governor or 2.

[OneCrazyDiamond]

3. That includes the ACLU.

They support CU.
https://www.aclu.org/other/aclu-and-citizens-united

[Farmer-Rick]

5. Well, how did that turn out for them?

Not so well, because the dark money from foreign sources so overwhelmed anything the ACLU could spend.

Sometimes, union leadership is their own worse enemy.

[BumRushDaShow]

4. They might be using this as a template for how to proceed

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142815227
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142893624
https://upload.democraticunderground.com/10142894521

And in the above case, in the 1st OP, I had a reply post here - https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=2815246 with this -

I had found and posted this in the earlier thread anticipating this indictment - https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=2815003

(Ack! Omaha Steve self-deleted his OP - https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142814993 apparently because it hadn't happened yet - until now)

But here is what I had about the Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire behind the scenes funneling the money -



The DOJ settlement doc is here - https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/lebanese-nigerian-billionaire-and-two-associates-resolve-federal-probe-alleged

I was trying to find out what other campaigns he gave to and found this - https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2021/04/straw-donor-scheme-foreign-billionaire/



The original articles were mentioning "4 GOP" members involved but had only mentioned 2 names - Fortenberry & Terry. OpenSecrets also included Rmoney and Issa as the other 2.

So this was a textbook case of straw donors to PACs. And that case went back to 2016 so if they are looking at thie OP's 2018 situation, they might be able to uncover who the "billionaire(s)" in that case are/were funneling into that Super PAC (and probably others to boot).

[yaesu]

6. You can bet a lot of russia, china & other foreign gov money is finding its way to GOP pacs. nt

[cstanleytech]

7. Donations who's source cannot be traced have been a blight upon our nation.

[ancianita]

8. My ad nauseam complaint: the FEC is structurally set up to be a worthless regulatory agency.

Thanks to BumRushDaShow for her post.

It makes sense to me that BRDS's excellent tracking effort would invite someone to think that the FEC might want a template.

But I just can't, given this:

The FEC signaled Friday that it will take steps to uncover some types of virtually untraceable donations to super PACs.

This lingo is the tell. It's disgusting.

And Americans are supposed to want to vote in spite of this shambolic agency that neither prevents nor even crisis manages campaign corruption?

Hard as it is, ferreting out straw donor money should have been built into FEC operations by now. Already. But its record of campaign finance enforcement is set up to be so poor, so deadlocked, so absent, that the agency might as well be subsumed as a recordkeeper section of the FBI and DOJ.


The FBI has done some money collection, I see...

to resolve a federal investigation

to resolve allegations

making illegal conduit contributions

a deferred prosecution agreement

deferred prosecution agreement ... also resolves a criminal investigation into his alleged tax violations

https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/lebanese-nigerian-billionaire-and-two-associates-resolve-federal-probe-alleged


I find it easy to believe that most Americans don't know about the this kind of problem. If they did, they couldn't help but think the FEC exists to enable the oligarch and corporate slapping of American voters in the face.

How a democratic republic gets run by fascists -- through the appearance of enforcement -- is to give the appearance of government while enforcers fundraise to justify their existence.

Republican leadership is fine with that; I hope Republican voters aren't, but I digress from my bitter rant.