In February, it was reported that Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) paid over half-a-million dollars to the sister of her former ally and colleague Tulsi Gabbard for security -- an arrangement that raised red flags in regards to transparency that Sinema never fully addressed.
Now, according to The Daily Beast, her latest federal campaign finance filing "offers a clear answer to the question of whether the senator has reconsidered her security arrangement or her obligation to be more transparent about it."
Sinema’s campaign was reporting itemized payments to Gabbard's sister Vrindavan Bellord''s TOA Group for travel expenses. But after the Beast's story was published in February, her campaign changed how it reported the expenses, making it impossible to determine what expenses of Bellord’s were covered by Sinema’s donors.
Sinema’s campaign paid TOA Group a total of over $450,000 to provide security, and over $310,000 to cover Bellord’s travel or other expenses since 2021.
“Since [the initial Daily Beast] story, there’s been more spending and less transparency, and that is very concerning,” said Brendan Fischer, executive director of the watchdog group Documented. “Over the last two reporting cycles, fully 20 percent of Sinema’s campaign spending has gone to a single firm run by a close associate. I’ve never seen anything like that.”
“I would expect both Sinema’s donors and her constituents have a right to know how she is spending campaign funds,” he continued.
As The Beast points out, it's not unusual for a high-profile politician to pay a lot of money for security. What's unusual is paying a "single entity with no other political clients."
"Those factors, along with the eye-popping dollar amounts and lack of transparency in Sinema’s latest campaign finance filing, continue to underscore how abnormal the pattern of the senator’s spending on security is."
Read the full report over at The Daily Beast.
