Lawsuit: Federal government is slow-walking investigation into Trump campaign 'shell company'
- A complaint accuses Trump's presidential campaign of hiding its spending.
- The Campaign Legal Center said the FEC has failed to respond.
For nearly two years, federal election regulators have failed to respond to allegations that Donald Trump's campaign skirted disclosure requirements by laundering hundreds of millions of dollars in spending through firms closely tied to the former president, a watchdog group said in a court filing Tuesday.
In a 16-page complaint filed in federal district court, the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center said the Federal Election Commission has abdicated its duty to investigate claims that the Trump campaign routed funds through two firms — American Made Media Consultants and Parscale Strategy — to conceal its spending in the 2020 presidential election.
The Campaign Legal Center also alleged that the Trump campaign had failed to keep an "arm's length relationship" with American Made Media Consultants, citing Insider's reporting that Trump's son-in-law and close advisor, Jared Kushner, approved the firm's creation.
The nonpartisan watchdog group said that, to its knowledge, the FEC had taken no action in response to its July 2020 complaint with the agency or a supplement filed in January 2021.
"Accordingly, even as likely 2024 hopefuls — including former President Trump — are already beginning to lay the groundwork for presidential election campaigns, [Campaign Legal Center] and voters remain in the dark about how the Trump campaign spent its money in 2020," the nonprofit group's lawyers argued in the court filing.
The Campaign Legal Center's lawyers asked for a court order requiring the FEC to respond within 30 days. If the FEC does not act within 30 days, the lawyers said, federal election law allows the Campaign Legal Center to sue the Trump campaign to address the alleged violations.
The group said that the FEC's failure to enforce disclosure requirements undermines voters' ability to make informed decisions at the ballot box.
"Moreover, the commission's prolonged inaction in this matter encourages future campaigns — including any 2024 Trump presidential campaign — to seek to evade the Act's reporting requirements by similarly laundering payments through a small number of reported vendors," Campaign Legal Center's lawyers argued.
Complex cases before the FEC, the nation's bipartisan, civil law enforcement authority for federal campaign laws, sometimes take years to review and investigate ahead of a commission vote. The FEC may issue fines to political committees determined to have violated campaign finance laws, although the agency's six commissioners regularly deadlock along ideological lines on high-profile cases.
The FEC and a representative for Trump's post-presidential political committees did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
'Merely as a conduit'
In the complaint, the Campaign Legal Center said Trump's campaign funneled millions of dollars to American Made Media Consultants and Parscale Strategy, which then paid sub-vendors.
In addition to Kushner's involvement, the lawsuit notes Insider's reporting that American Made Media Consultants' board included family members of Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence. The other firm, Parscale Strategy, is run by former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale.
"The effect and apparent goal of routing the campaign's spending through conduits was to disguise the Trump committees' ultimate payees, and the amounts, dates, and purposes of such payments, in violation of the reporting requirements," the lawsuit states.
The two firms each acted "merely as a conduit" for the Trump campaign's spending, the lawyers added. Parscale Strategies, for instance, "pay salaries for individuals working under the direction and control of the committee," including Trump's daughter-in-law Lara Trump and Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former Fox News host who's now engaged to Donald Trump Jr.
The Campaign Legal Center originally filed its original complaint with the FEC in July 2020, then filed a supplement in January 2021.
The Campaign Legal Center was not alone in raising concerns about the Trump campaign's relationship with American Made Media Consultants and Parscale Strategy.
In December 2020, Insider reported that the Trump campaign and its affiliated committee with the Republican National Committee spent more than $600 million through American Made Media Consultants. At the time of the firm's formation, Kushner picked Lara Trump and Pence's nephew John Pence to serve on the board.
In response to the reporting, two House Democrats called on the FEC and FBI to investigate whether the Trump campaign and American Made Media Consultants violated public disclosure requirements and laws barring the spending of campaign cash for personal use.
"As former prosecutors, we know that this conduct, if true, violates multiple laws," Reps. Ted Lieu and Kathleen Rice wrote in their letter to the FBI. "We respectfully request that you open investigations into whether or not Mr. Kushner and members of the Trump family violated federal campaign finance or other statutes."