Maxine Waters has landed herself in hot water with the FEC!
She’s been slapped with a MAJOR violation after she was busted funneling millions of campaign funds to her daughter.
From Zero Hedge:
The scheme managed by Karen Waters has raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars from California politicians who pay to be included in her “slate mailers” – sample ballots mailed out to around 200,000 Los Angeles voters which promote who Waters endorses.
Since 2004, the campaign in turn reportedly has paid $750,000 to the congresswoman’s daughter, Karen Waters, or her public relations firm Progressive Connections for help producing them.
A government watchdog in July filed the first of two complaints with the Federal Election Commission asking for a full audit of the Citizens for Waters campaign. –Fox News
Waters, the California Democratic State Central Committee and Sen. Kamala Harris are all named in the first complaint. Of note, Harris is a likely 2020 Democratic presidential contender.
Legally, the payments are considered “reimbursements” for the state mailer, rather than a campaign contribution – which is currently limited to $2,700 to a candidate’s committee and $5,000 to a PAC, so the mailer scheme is more or less a giant loophole.
“This certainly violates the spirit of campaign finance laws, but the FEC doesn’t seem to think it violates the letter of the law,” said John Wonderlich, executive director of the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan watchdog group that first reported on the practice by the Waters campaign in 2010 and the connection with her daughter.
“In this case, is it a question of enrichment for a family member?” Wonderlich added. “How much of the money passes through to cover postage and printing? It may be unsavory but not corrupt. Much of it hinges on the extent to which the money passes through.”
