Friday, April 06, 2018

Guns and money (the lawyers distribute the latter, making a completed Zevon story).

Politico. Linking here. The homepage?

https://www.opensecrets.org/

The lead story there, today, selling hate by financing it. Strib, a local Minnesota slant.

More guns and money.

Stormy weather:

In fact, in-kind contributions, which the Federal Election Commission (FEC) defines as “gifts of goods or services,” are more commonly associated with event catering, website design and travel expenses.

Less than two weeks before the 2016 election, President Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid Stormy Daniels $130,000 in what some watchdog groups and campaign finance experts have deemed was a political gift to the Trump campaign aimed at covering up an alleged affair Daniels and the candidate had in 2006.

Adav Noti, who spent 10 years working for the FEC, is now senior director of the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center. He said the payment, which kept potentially damaging information about Trump from the public, amounted to an in-kind contribution.

“It was a payment made to influence the election,” Noti said.

The FEC regulates in-kind donations the same way as monetary contributions, and they can violate campaign finance laws in a number of ways.

“It becomes an issue when they either exceed the limits on contributions that can be made to candidates or political parties or PACs, or when they are not properly disclosed,” he said. “The Michael Cohen situation involved both.”

What is there to not like about that website?

_______________UPDATE_______________
A chart showing a history, spending in the red.

Related links: here, here and here.
[FURTHER: Two more, here and here.]

TPM. WaPo.

Robert Mercer's yacht. His dog.

Don't go hungry tonight. Don't get foreclosed.