Violating straw donor ban speaks to Donalds' lack of integrity and disregard for rule of law

Trump and Donalds share a passion for disregarding the community and skirting campaign finance laws

As Election Day nears, voters want to elect men and women into office that they can trust to act on their behalf and for the greater good of their community. Byron Donalds is not one of those trustworthy candidates. In fact, his whole campaign is funded on lies.

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) works to enforce campaign finance laws throughout nationwide United States Elections. Back in August, the Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the FEC in regards to Byron Donalds’ mismanagement of campaign funds between various political action committees.

The legality of Donald’s actions have recently come into question. Donalds did not want anyone finding out about this. He was hoping it would be just swept under the rug and forgotten about. “This is a sleazy maneuver and they thought no one would figure it out until after the election,” said Brett G. Kappel, a Washington D.C. attorney for political law.[1]

Over the last year, money has been transferred repeatedly between multiple PACs, including Conservatives for Effective Government, Trusted Conservatives, and Friends of Byron Donalds, of which Donalds claimed to have no involvement with after withdrawing from them back on January 3rd. However, suspiciously enough, merely four days after dropping out of those PACs, the money began to move.

On January 7th, Friends of Byron Donalds contributed 87,000 dollars towards Conservatives for Effective Government. On January 9th, Donalds filed a federal campaign notice, officially beginning his run for a Florida’s District 19 House of Representatives seat.

Two months later, the Conservatives for Effective Government sent over one hundred thousand dollars back over to Friends of Byron Donalds, who then took that money and donated it to Trusted Conservatives. That money was used by them to make media buys in favor of Donalds and attack his primary opponents.

If Donalds coordinated with the groups in moving the funds over from the PACs into his federal campaign, it would be in violation of the law, and the FEC could be forced to act.

Regardless, the movement of funds between the three PACs raises questions over the existence of a potential “straw man scheme” being used to avoid campaign contribution limits.

Donald Trump, who has endorsed Donalds, also has an active FEC complaint alleging his campaign laundered 170 million dollars through companies controlled by his former campaign manager, Brad Parscale. Parscale experienced a very public health episode resulting him to be taken into custody for his own safety under the Baker Act shortly after news of the complaint hit the media.

There is one lesson to take from this: Byron Donalds cannot be trusted to be the voice of our community on the federal stage. He has lied about his past and has lied about his campaign funding. How can we trust him to deliver on his promises to Southwest Floridians?

[1] Naples Daily News, August 13th, 2020