A government watchdog has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission against Trump-endorsed Republican failed U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker, after a Daily Beast article alleged he solicited a half-million dollar donation and kept it in his company’s business bank account.
“We just filed a major campaign finance complaint against Herschel Walker. This case really stands out,” Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) announced Friday afternoon. The Daily Beast also reported CREW’s complaint.
“Emails show Herschel Walker solicited hundreds of thousands of dollars for his own business from a billionaire donor, with the donor believing he was giving to Walker’s campaign,” The Daily Beast reported Thursday. The donor was “billionaire industrialist and longtime family friend Dennis Washington.”
The Daily Beast’s Roger Sollenberger, who also broke the stories about Walker’s secret children, reports that “unbeknownst to Washington and the billionaire’s staff, Walker’s request was far more out of the ordinary. It was something campaign finance experts are calling ‘unprecedented,’ ‘stunning,’ and ‘jaw-dropping.’ Walker wasn’t just asking for donations to his campaign; he was soliciting hundreds of thousands of dollars for his own personal company—a company that he never disclosed on his financial statements.”
CREW alleges, “Herschel Walker appears to have violated the law by soliciting $600,000 to help his campaign from donor Dennis Washington, then directing more than $500,000 of it to his business, according to a complaint filed today with the FEC by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.”
The complaint says CREW is “seeking an immediate investigation and enforcement action against Herschel Walker and HR Talent, LLC, for direct and serious violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act (‘FECA’).” HR Talent is the name of Walker’s company.
It wants the Dept. of Justice involved should an investigation find criminality.
CREW is asking “that the FEC conduct an investigation into these allegations; declare the respondents to have violated the FECA and applicable FEC regulations; impose sanctions appropriate to these violations, and take such further action as may be appropriate, including referring this matter to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution should the investigation reveal that criminal laws were violated.”
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The Daily Beast’s report notes that Walker “had been schooled on campaign finance rules.” Walker ultimately requested and received a refund after “a third party informed a Washington Companies executive that the money couldn’t be used for political purposes.”
CREW president Noah Bookbinder calls the scheme “breathtaking in its pure brazenness.”
Experts appear to agree.
“According to the legal experts who spoke to The Daily Beast for [its] article, this scheme appears to not just be illegal—it appears to be unparalleled in its audacity and scope. The transactions raise questions about a slew of possible violations. In fact, these experts all said, the scheme was so brazen that it appears to defy explanation, ranking it among the most egregious campaign finance violations in modern history.”