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Chuck DarwinIn 2020, the <a href="https://c.im/tags/Trump" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Trump</a> campaign reported paying hundreds of millions of dollars to two companies, one set up by a former campaign manager and the other by campaign officials. Neither the campaign nor the companies themselves reported specifically what the money was being spent on. The <a href="https://c.im/tags/Campaign" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Campaign</a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Legal" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Legal</a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Center" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Center</a> filed a complaint to the F.E.C., accusing the Trump campaign of using the companies as “<a href="https://c.im/tags/conduits" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#conduits</a>” to <a href="https://c.im/tags/conceal" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#conceal</a> other vendors. The commission’s <a href="https://c.im/tags/general" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#general</a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/counsel" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#counsel</a> recommended that the F.E.C. find that the campaign had broken the law by misreporting payments, and begin an <a href="https://c.im/tags/investigation" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#investigation</a> into the Trump campaign’s relationships with vendors and subvendors. But the commission <a href="https://c.im/tags/deadlocked" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#deadlocked</a> last year in a vote on the matter, which meant no action could be taken. The Campaign Legal Center sued the commission, but a federal judge — while expressing sympathy for the desire of transparency — dismissed the case late last year, saying that the commissioners had discretion. “It is a lot easier to follow the money when you have a paper trail,” the judge opened his opinion. The Campaign Legal Center has appealed. <a href="https://campaignlegal.org" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://campaignlegal.org</a>

Chuck DarwinThe campaign of Gov. Ron <a href="https://c.im/tags/DeSantis" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#DeSantis</a> of Florida made two payments last quarter, totaling more than $480,000, for “travel” to a company in Athens, Ga. The company was set up around the time he entered the race, and lists Paul Kilgore — a Republican political operative — as a manager. Neither Mr. Kilgore nor the DeSantis campaign responded to requests for comment. Former President Donald J. <a href="https://c.im/tags/Trump" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Trump</a>’s 2020 campaign was the subject of litigation over its use of <a href="https://c.im/tags/limited" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#limited</a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/liability" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#liability</a> companies run by campaign staff and family members that were allegedly <a href="https://c.im/tags/conduits" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#conduits</a> for hundreds of millions of dollars of spending. His campaign defended the practice, saying the intermediary companies were acting as the primary vendors. “The idea of disclosing payments in this way defeats the whole purpose of campaign finance disclosure law,” said Saurav Ghosh, a former F.E.C. lawyer and the director of federal campaign finance reform for the Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit campaign ethics group that sued the F.E.C. over the 2020 Trump campaign’s actions. He added, “It’s been a problem for a while, but like most that go on unaddressed, it has a tendency to get worse, and I think this one is getting worse.”

Chuck DarwinThe Federal Election Commission has allowed committees to not itemize subvendor payments when those payments are an extension of the original vendor’s work. But in recent years, this interpretation of the law has widened into a gaping <a href="https://c.im/tags/loophole" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#loophole</a> that campaigns are exploiting. Experts say it is illegal for campaigns to pay campaign staff members through <a href="https://c.im/tags/limited" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#limited</a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/liability" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#liability</a> companies, or for vendors to serve merely as <a href="https://c.im/tags/conduits" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#conduits</a> to hide the ultimate recipient of campaign money.In recent years, the <a href="https://c.im/tags/FEC" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#FEC</a>., whose six commissioners are <a href="https://c.im/tags/deadlocked" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#deadlocked</a> between the parties three to three, has essentially allowed campaigns to get away with minimal disclosures.

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