How’s this for a headline that you, along with the rest of America, may have missed?
"The Hillary Clinton campaign effectively laundered $84 million during the 2016 election." At least that’s the allegation made in a lawsuit filed in a DC federal court last week by a group called the “Committee to Defend the President.”
If you haven’t heard of this, it’s probably because last week’s priority lawsuit was the one filed by Democrats against the Trump campaign, WikiLeaks and Russia. But, to be fair, it’s hard to squeeze in potentially bombshell news about Hillary Clinton’s campaign corruption with so much Comey, Russia, Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels updates to cover.
Basically, here’s how campaign finance is supposed to work...
A person is only allowed to give $2,700 to any candidate, $10,000 to any state party committee and (during the 2016 election) $33,400 to a national party. Oftentimes, a donor will give one lump sum --- let’s say $100,000.
If that person wrote a check for $100,000 to the Hillary Victory Fund (which was Clinton’s joint fundraising committee), under campaign finance law, the Hillary Victory Fund would have to distribute that money in the allowed amounts to the Hillary Clinton campaign ($2,700) and the DNC ($33,400). Then, the remaining $63,900 would be disbursed to the state party committees. But no more than $10,000 to any one state committee, as permitted by law.
The Hillary Victory Fund apparently did not follow the rules.
Well, shocking newsflash, the Hillary Victory Fund apparently did not follow the rules. I know, pick up your jaw off the floor, especially if you’re driving, because that’s dangerous. The Hillary Victory Fund frequently received a big donation, like our $100,000 example, and would transfer (at least on paper) the correct amounts to state committees.
But then, the exact same amount was magically transferred back to the DNC either on the same day or the next day. The DNC then contributed most of those funds to Hillary for America (which was Hillary’s campaign committee).
It’s the darnedest thing --- the state committees often don’t have records of having either received or sent funds in those amounts. Crazy, right? Who would do that?
Quoting from the lawsuit: “public statements from both the then-Chairwoman of the DNC, Donna Brazile, and Hillary for America’s Chief Financial Officer, Gary Gensler, confirm Hillary for America controlled the DNC’s finances, strategy, and expenditures. That is, the funds raised through the Hillary Victory Fund ended up under the direction and control of Hillary for America.”
That’s the illegal part. Money going from state party committees back to the national party committee is commonplace --- both Republicans and Democrats do that. But money at the DNC then flowing directly to Hillary for America is against the law.
For a year prior to Election Day, the DNC also made at least 59 coordinated expenditures with the Clinton campaign, which campaign finance law treats as contributions to Hillary for America. Those expenditures only totaled $22.8 million.
Yet, the media is losing its mind over Michael Cohen’s $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels and whether it qualifies as a campaign contribution.
Donna Brazile laid out much of this in a Politico magazine article last November, but the media just yawned and went back to checking Trump’s Twitter feed.
According to the lawsuit, these allegations are built entirely on the Federal Election Commission reports filed by the Hillary Victory Fund, the DNC and the state Democratic parties. Politico magazine also reported on this scheme --- way back in June of 2016.
If there’s one thing the Clintons are really good at, it’s manipulating the flow of millions of dollars into their own pockets.
But mainstream media didn’t bat an eyelid, because they were in full-on Trump panic mode. Even Bernie Sanders accused the Clinton campaign of “money laundering” prior to the Democratic National convention, so the current lawsuit is not just another partisan attack.
So, what does all this mean? It means that once again, mainstream media is barking up the wrong tree. If there’s one thing the Clintons are really good at, it’s manipulating the flow of millions of dollars into their own pockets, their organizations, or both.
They’re masters at it. Actually, the masterful part is their amazing ability to avoid ever being held accountable.
