The Dispatch reports that federal investigators are currently looking into possible criminal campaign finance misdeeds at American Conservative Union during Schlapp’s tenure. The ACU is the sponsor of CPAC conferences in the U.S. and all over the world, including the most recent conference in Brazil, where Trump toady Jason Miller was taken into custody briefly.
Excellent news.
It will not be a surprise to discover that Schlapp and CPAC tried to funnel money to their preferred candidates illegally. According to the report:
As part of the investigation, the FBI has interviewed former and current ACU employees about the financial dealings of the organization and its leaders—and in particular, as one source said, about their “knowledge of the events leading up to the endorsement of Brian Kelsey.”
Brian Kelsey is a Tennessee State Senator who has been under federal investigation since 2019 for alleged campaign violations while running for Congress. Apparently the money trail indicates some straw donations laundered through several organizations, including the ACU. The Tennessean lays it out:
The letter and the complaint relied on The Tennessean’s investigation that highlighted how in July 2016 Kelsey’s state campaign account gave $106,000 to The Standard Club PAC, the political arm of the club.
The PAC later gave $37,000 to a federal political action committee called Citizens for Ethics in Government, which was founded by Andy Miller, a conservative political donor.
Citizens for Ethics in Government then gave $36,000 to the American Conservative Union, a national political group. At the same time, The Standard Club PAC gave $30,000 to the American Conservative Union.
In the end, the American Conservative Union spent $80,000 on radio ads supporting Kelsey’s bid for Congress.
Whether ACU skirts real consequences legally because of the five-year rule is immaterial. If found guilty, Schlapp and anybody affiliated with CPAC and the American Conservative Union should be barred from TV at the minimum.
Meanwhile, Schlapp should be under investigation for his many lies about the 2020 presidential election , especially with his work to throw Nevada into chaos.
"We have literally 9,000 people who voted in this election who don’t live in Nevada," American Conservative Union chair Matt Schlapp told Fox News on Nov. 8, wrongly claiming the election has seen widespread "fraud" and "illegality" but offering no proof to support his allegations.
He's lying scum, pure and simple. MSNBC and CNN should have stopped kowtowing to his lies years ago.
I understand people can change, but when they are making millions of dollars being a serial liar with no repercussions, change is hard to come by.
While the FBI is at it, they should investigate the rest of these sorry conservative non-profits and their money laundering schemes. Don't stop with Schlapp. How about some investigation of Ginni Thomas and her gang of tax-privileged democracy destroyers?
Karoli Kuns contributed to this article
