Listen: https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/americandemocracyminute/episodes/2022-05-19T07_54_35-07_00
Today’s Links:
- Articles: Business Insider, Associated Press, Campaign Legal Center
- Organizations fighting political corruption: Campaign Legal Center, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), Public Citizen
You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping your government by and for the people.
One of the many reforms in the S. 1 For the People Act, which stalled in the U.S. Senate earlier this year, would have fixed the Federal Elections Commission. Over the last two decades, the bipartisan members of the FEC routinely deadlock on campaign corruption and misdeeds complaints, using their role not to uphold the rules, but to protect their own parties.
In a report by Business Insider, the FEC has apparently deadlocked again, this time over sketchy 2020 payments made from former President Trump’s campaign to even sketchier LLCs and holding companies set up by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
The Make America Great Again PAC was accused by the Campaign Legal Center for misreporting the payees of secret payments made to American Made Media Consultants, LLC, set up by Kushner, and which included Vice President Pence, Lara Trump, and Kushner as board members, among others. American Made Media Consultants was reported to have been paid $617 Million dollars from the Trump campaign coffers. Parscale Strategy, LLC, headed by Brad Parscale, former Trump campaign manager, was also accused of having received misreported payments.
Even though the FEC deadlocked, it’s not yet over. Campaign Legal Center filed a federal lawsuit on this matter in March after its complaint in January to the FEC.
We have more information and links to organizations fighting corruption at our website, AmericanDemocracyMinute.org/
Granny D said, “Democracy is not something we have, it’s something we DO.”
For the American Democracy Minute, I’m Brian Beihl.