Texas AG Ken Paxton Calls on FCC to ‘Immediately’ Tighten Campaign Finance Rules Following ActBlue Investigation

Ken Paxton

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) announced Monday that he has petitioned the Federal Election Commission (“FEC”) to take immediate action to “close fundraising loopholes that jeopardize American election integrity” following his investigation into the Democrat fundraising platform ActBlue.

In a press release, Paxton said that suspicious actors appear to be using ActBlue “to make a large number of straw political donations.”

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ActBlue’s Security Measures Don’t Address Fundraising Loophole Flagged by GOP Lawmakers

credit card

Security measures implemented by the largest payment platform used by Democratic candidates to process political donations failed to address GOP concerns that spurred the payment processor to respond in the first place.

In 2023, Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Republican Wisconsin Rep. Bryan Steil both raised concerns that ActBlue not requiring users to input a credit verification value (CVV), the three numbers on the back of credit cards, when making donations increased the risk of fraudulent contributions being made. ActBlue has since required that donors using debit or credit cards on their platform input CVVs. The requirement, however, can be easily circumvented by donating through PayPal, Google Pay or Venmo, all of which are still options on ActBlue.

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Commentary: Trump’s Toughest Foe Could Be Harris Lawyer Marc Elias

If Donald Trump gets past Kamala Harris on Nov. 5, he’ll likely face a fiercer opponent in court – her campaign attorney, Marc Elias, who has vowed to fight the election outcome in every close state she loses.

The longtime Democratic Party lawyer has already filed more than 60 preelection lawsuits to stop Trump from becoming president again by combatting what he calls Republican “voter suppression” efforts such as requiring voters to provide identification at the polls. Echoing a standard Democratic talking point, Elias maintains that such requirements are “racist” strategies designed to make it harder for minorities to vote.

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Elon Musk Makes His Largest Known Political Donation Ever to Boost House Republicans

Elon Musk Congress Spending

The National Republican Congressional Committee reported in a Friday filing with the Federal Election Commission that Elon Musk increased his political contributions in August with his largest-known donation to date, Politico reported.

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) reported a contribution of $289,100 from Musk, aimed at bolstering the Republican efforts to maintain their majority in the House, according to Politico. This donation was funneled through a joint fundraising committee associated with Republican California Rep. Ken Calvert, earmarked primarily for the NRCC’s convention and headquarters activities.

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Trump Campaign Raked in Nearly $140 Million in July

Donald Trump Rally

Former President Donald Trump announced Thursday his campaign has raised nearly $140 million for July.

Within an fundraising update for the month of July, Trump’s campaign stated they’ve pulled in a total of $138.7 million, thus providing a cash on hand total of $327 million. The new numbers come after Trump was confirmed as the GOP’s presidential nominee at the Republican National Committee in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and notably after the failed assassination attempt against him in Butler, Pennsylvania.

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While Trump Faces Felony Charges, New York-Based Clinton Campaign Only Faced Fines for Its Records Issue

Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton’s New York-based presidential campaign was hit with an administrative fine by the Federal Election Commission following the 2016 election when the FEC found the campaign misrepresented campaign expenses by describing the opposition research that produced the discredited Steele Dossier as a “legal expense.” The Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee paid $113,000 to settle the charges, the Associated Press reported.

Yet, Donald Trump faces felony charges for allegedly falsifying business records to conceal campaign violations in the same state, echoing the alleged violations in the Clinton case and indicating a double standard in how the violations were handled by investigators.

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Swing State Democrats Receive Money from America’s Largest Lobbying Firms

Senate Democrats

Vulnerable Senate Democrats, who often try to distance themselves from Washington, D.C., have emerged as favorites among employees at the nation’s largest lobbying firms.

Sens. Jon Tester of Montana, Jacky Rosen of Nevada, Bob Casey Jr. of Pennsylvania and Sherrod Brown of Ohio were among the top recipients of donations from people working at the ten firms with the highest lobbying income, a Daily Caller News Foundation review of public records has found. Tester received the second most money of any candidate from America’s top lobbying firms, Rosen was third, Casey was fourth and Brown was fifth, Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show.

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Trump Is Crushing the Field in Small-Dollar Donations

Former President Donald Trump has been leading his Republican presidential nomination rivals in small-dollar donations by a large margin, underscoring the breadth of his support, experts tell the Daily Caller News Foundation.

A small donor contributes less than $200 to an individual candidate’s campaign, out of a maximum of $3,300 for the 2023-2024 electoral cycle, per the Federal Election Commission (FEC), with a greater number of small donations — as a share of total fundraising — indicating a larger base of support. Currently, 81.8% of donations to Trump’s campaign have been made by small donors, according to an Axios assessment of FEC data.

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Commentary: Will the Sketchy Donor Scheme Uncovered by O’Keefe be Allowed to Stand?

The Federal Election Commission owes Americans an explanation.

In late March, muckraking journalist James O’Keefe of O’Keefe Media Group (OMG) knocked on the doors of a few older and unemployed Americans, to ask them about their campaign donations, which were nothing less than extraordinary: Some were donating thousands of times, adding up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

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AOC Concealed Thousands in Campaign Spending, Ethics Complaint Alleges

Democratic New York U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez concealed thousands of dollars in campaign spending, an ethics complaint exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation alleges. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) complaint cites more than $9,600 in reported campaign credit card expenditures that lacked information on the purpose of the charges. Dan Backer filed the complaint on behalf of the Coolidge Reagan Foundation, a nonprofit organization that’s levied similar complaints.

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New York Times Quietly Updates Report After Calling Hunter Biden Laptop Story ‘Unsubstantiated’

Hunter Biden

The New York Times quietly removed its assertion that the New York Post’s reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop prior to the 2020 election was “unsubstantiated” from a story published Monday about a Federal Election Commission complaint related to the matter.

The Times reported Monday that the FEC ruled in August that Twitter did not violate any laws by temporarily blocking users from sharing the Post’s Oct. 14 story on a “smoking gun” email from Hunter Biden’s laptop showing that an executive of a Ukrainian gas company had thanked him for an introduction to then-Vice President Joe Biden. The Times called the story “unsubstantiated” when its article on the FEC’s decision was first published early Monday afternoon.

“The Federal Election Commission has dismissed Republican accusations that Twitter violated election laws in October by blocking people from posting links to an unsubstantiated New York Post article about Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s son Hunter Biden, in a decision that is likely to set a precedent for future cases involving social media sites and federal campaigns,” Times reporter Shane Goldmacher stated in its original version of his report Monday.

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RNC Files FEC Complaint Against Twitter

The Republican National Committee has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission against Twitter after the platform censored a New York Post expose on Hunter Biden published earlier this week. In a letter to the FECs general counsel on Friday, the RNC accused Twitter of violating federal campaign finance laws: “Through its ad hoc, partisan suppression of media critical of Biden, [Twitter] is making illegal, corporate in-kind contributions as it provides unheard-of media services for Joe Biden’s campaign.”

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Ilhan Omar Has Paid Her Husband’s Firm Over $1.1 Million, New Records Show

Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar’s total campaign payments to her husband’s consulting firm now exceed seven figures after reporting additional funds paid to the company in the second quarter of 2020.

Omar’s campaign reported payments totaling $228,000 to E Street Group, the consulting firm run by her husband, Tim Mynett, in a filing with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) released Tuesday, bringing her total payments to the company to more than $1.1 million since August 2018.

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