"A company owned by the wife of Brad Parscale, President Donald Trump's campaign manager, has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the President's flagship political action committee, which is barred from coordinating with the campaign."https://t.co/O1QF8Yvrqs
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 30, 2019
… Federal Election Commission records indicate that Red State Data and Digital has received $910,000 from America First Action, the super PAC formed in 2017 to support the Trump-Pence agenda and fellow Republican candidates.
After CNN initially published a story about Parscale’s wife, Candice, being an owner of Red State, her husband contacted CNN and acknowledged he owns the company even though she is listed on legal paperwork. “I am the owner of Red State,” Parscale told CNN.
Parscale said he hadn’t originally wanted to disclose his ownership publicly because there are no available records connecting him to the company…In a series of texts with CNN, after initial publication, Parscale said that “so, legally we both own it,” and “she is on the paperwork yes.” He also said that “she is my wife and I allow her to file and be on my companies because I trust her. It depends on how you look at it. But no. It is all my company.” Then later he said, “I own the company solely,” and that his wife “listed it incorrectly” on the incorporation document, speaking of her being named as a “member.” “She just checked the box of what she was. I’m the owner.” …
Super PACs can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money on behalf of federal candidates, but they are barred from coordinating spending decisions with those campaigns, among other limitations.
Brad Parscale and his wife both insist their arrangement is legitimate and that there is no coordination.
Still, experts in federal election law consulted by CNN said earlier that the appearance of a connection between the President’s main super PAC and a firm set up by his campaign manager’s spouse that handles political ads walks right up to the line.
“It calls into question the independence of the super PAC,” said Larry Noble, the former general counsel to the Federal Election Commission and a CNN contributor. “One would hope a watchdog agency would investigate allegations of coordination.”
Noble said the FEC has been “lax” about enforcing coordination rules. The FEC was further weakened by the resignation of one of its commissioners this week, reducing the number of sitting commissioners to three and thereby stripping it of its power to enforce campaign finance laws. Federal law requires four or more commissioners to approve new rules or take actions to punish those who violate election law…
As Trump’s campaign manager, Parscale has come under scrutiny over the amount of money he’s made off his political companies. According to a source close to the company, Parscale was rattled by recent negative press, particularly criticism among his Republican peers over a $13,500 fee he was paid for a speech to the Republican Party of Seminole County, Florida.
Parscale has returned the money to the campaign, according to a source close to the company. In the wake of the criticism, he has begun downsizing, according to the source, who said he had let three employees go from Parscale Strategy in the past week. A Trump campaign spokesman declined to comment about whether Parscale had returned the money to the campaign.
The America First Action super PAC made its last payment to Parscale Strategy on March 13, 2018, and its first payment to Red State eight days later, on March 21.
In 2018, America First paid Red State a total of $837,000, according to FEC records. That makes it the fifth biggest recipient of money from the group last year, according to Open Secrets…
This story and the headline have been updated to include additional information given to CNN by Brad Parscale after publication.
More detail, none of it exculpatory, at the link. That’s the GRU’s problem — it’s easy enough to find glibertarian tech geeks to figurehead your foreign-influence vote-rigging campaigns, but hard to find any with the patience not to grab every coin out of the tip jar… or the experience to lie about their grabbiness with any plausibility. Heck, look at the trouble their high-dollar ‘Occupant’ is giving them, with what should be an easy glide to ‘reelection’!
As best anyone can tell most money donated to Trump campaign and PAC flows into either the pocket of Trump Family or @parscale or other close associates, or is spent on digital ads to raise more money. Everything @parscale has said about @cnn story just makes him look more guilty
— David Rothschild (@DavMicRot) September 1, 2019
Worse than the obvious campaign fraud and corruption: @parscale is obviously as unhinged as his boss. This tweet targeting a specific journalist is dangerous.
— David Rothschild (@DavMicRot) September 1, 2019
germy
Dorothy A. Winsor
Maybe it’s good news that they’re ripping the money off for themselves rather than spending it on an effective compaign.
joel hanes
I’m sure that the FEC will get right on it.
Oh wait … the FEC currently does not have a quorum of appointed and confirmed members, and cannot act until it does.
I’m sure it’s just a coincidence.
Good thing there isn’t a consequential major election campaign shaping up any time soon.
skerry
OT: I’m on vacation in Hatteras, NC. Just announced mandatory evacuations begin Tuesday noon for visitors, Wednesday 0600 for residents.
Thanks, Dorian
MattF
The Grift is strong in him.
More seriously, it’s the political version of crony capitalism.
Jess
This is somewhat creepy; I was reading the Wikipedia entry about the 1943 film Keeper of the Flame, and came across this in the plot summary:
The Business Plot lives on like a hydra…
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@skerry:
Sorry to hear that! I remember ten years ago I was on vacation in Florida and a tropical storm ruined the entire week I was there. Didn’t have to evacuate though. Stay safe!
Mike in NC
Maybe Jared Kushner helped Parscale to improperly fill out his paperwork. At the same time, the Trump Crime Family naturally attracts crooked dirtbags the way cow shit draws flies.
germy
@Jess:
The screenplay was written by Donald Ogden Stewart, who was later blacklisted and left the country.
?BillinGlendaleCA
So the campaign manager(or his wife) has no coordination with the campaign? Sure, sounds plausible. //
waratah
The active supporters on Beto’s commentary call some of the trolls who get there before any one else Parscale trolls. Parscale let his trolls out is a common comment. He must be spending some of the money from somewhere. I am not sure how much damage he is doing as most people that use Twitter know what they are doing, but the face book commenters may be more susceptible.
NotMax
@waratah
Assumes facts not in evidence.
Redshift
I’m happy to learn that money donated to Trump campaign arms is mostly going to line the pockets of cronies.
And I’m happy this story is getting lots of coverage, because there are few things Trump hates more than people who work for him lining their own pockets instead of his. Parscale getting fired would make the Trump campaign even more of a chaos storm, and that would be a good thing.
Shorter: Trumpists doing a smash and grab on the federal government, bad. Trumpists doing a smash and grab on the GOP and its donors, great!
John Revolta
Look guys, it’s okay! They’re just walking up to the line is all. Imean that’s what it’s there for, for walking up to, amirite?
Lapassionara
What is it with the fascists and their beards. Just so gross!
germy
@Lapassionara: I remember seeing Brad on the CBS morning show. He was interviewed at the roundtable, and after the interview he winked at both the female interviewers. A weird, exaggerated wink, like you’d see from a drunk at a bar.
Kristine
One thing we learned in corporate ethics training–which the entire company was required to take after someone up the line screwed up–was that if it looks bad, you don’t do it. Even if it’s not illegal. Even if you’re not doing anything wrong. There should be no question in anyone’s mind that what you’re doing isn’t on the up and up.
I just want these people gone. Nothing but grifting garbage, the lot of them.
debbie
This is how campaign managers talk?
Lapassionara
@germy: ewwww!
debbie
@Lapassionara:
At first, I thought he had it bound up like a ponytail, then realized that was his tie. :-/
Anne Laurie
@Redshift:
I’m working under the assumption that Trump can’t fire Parscale, because Brad was an early important Russian hire too. But we can at least keep tormenting the Oval Office Occupant with stories about how his ’employee’ is ripping off funds that only Tang the Conqueror should be allowed to rip off!
Anne Laurie
@debbie:
Parscale’s like the dork hanging around the edges of a high school party in his bathrobe, because he thinks it’s a ‘smoking jacket’ and it makes him look mature & edgy.
Even more than the guy he theoretically reports to, Brad’s thrilled with the idea that now he’s a Big Swinging Dick whose tuff-guy banter totally owns all those snobby media kids, yes it does. You’d almost think it was deliberate that the Russians hired such a low-quality tool to subvert our government… but IMO it’s only that it’s hard to find good hires trolling in a trailer-park septic tank.
debbie
@Anne Laurie:
Ah, so then a cross between Richard Spenser and Milo Yiannopoulos. //
germy
germy
debbie
@germy:
A cry for attention. I don’t know who that Brit Twit is that he’s quoting, but it’s pathetic.
Yarrow
Seems awfully familiar. I’m sure Parscale knows how this sort of thing works.
JPL
@Yarrow: Watching Love Actually this holiday season won’t be enjoyable.
zhena gogolia
@JPL:
Because Hugh Grant isn’t PM?
moops
get ready for Brexit gov.uk.brexit
official £100 million ad campaign launched.
prostratedragon
@Jess: From just a few years before that, Meet John Doe, in which a sinister businessman takes over a rather cynical but innocuous newspaper stunt for the same purposes. Directed by Capra. (Clips, including part of Ann Mitchell’s wardrobe sequence.)
Yarrow
@moops:
We’ll see if they can keep it going.
gene108
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
They’re counting Putin & Fox News to manage the campaign.
J R in WV
@germy:
OK, here you go, and don’t say I never taught you anything.
Always put some opaque tape over your laptop’s camera!!
Jay
trnc
@joel hanes:
I’m sure people here would be shocked to learn that a candidate who stands to gain by not having a quorum is the elected* official currently not nominating a member AND that the party that also stands to gain is currently sitting on the last nomination made.
jonas
Shit, last time Trump made six-figure payoffs to porn stars in order to benefit his campaign and nobody did anything. So why not just go balls to the wall this time around? Clearly nothing matters anymore.*
*…provided you’re a Republican, of course.
jonas
@Jay: Any Catholic monsignor worth his seminary education should know that the half-assed fake Latin in Harry Potter couldn’t conjure shit. Don’t anyone take the education this guy provides seriously.