Felony charges for Trump fundraising committee recommended by bipartisan ethics commission
The bipartisan Wisconsin Ethics Commission this week recommended felony charges for one of former President Donald Trump's fundraising committees for allegedly skirting campaign finance laws.
As reported by Wis Politics, the commission concluded there is probable cause to believe that the pro-Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee, along with Wisconsin GOP State Rep. Janel Brandtjen, committed felonies in their efforts to fund the campaign of Adam Steen, the Trump-backed candidate who unsuccessfully challenged Wisconsin House Speaker Robin Vos.
"The commission alleges the participants sought to take advantage of Wisconsin laws that place no caps on the size of donations political parties may receive and allow them to make unlimited transfers to candidates," writes Wis Politics.
"The heart of the effort was an arrangement between Steen, the county parties and others to send donations to the Langlade County GOP, the investigation found. Steen and campaign aides told those who wanted to give more than the $1,000 limit on individual donations for Assembly candidates to send the additional contributions to the Langlade County GOP."
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From there, the commission alleges, the Langdale County GOP would funnel the funds to Steen's campaign, as all donations to the party intended for Steen were marked with the number "63" in the checks' memo lines, a reference to the Wisconsin legislative district represented by Vos.
Trump turned on Vos back in 2022 when the Wisconsin Republican refused to annul the results of the 2020 election in his state, even after Vos tried very hard to explain to Trump that such a move would be completely unconstitutional.
"I explained it's not allowed under the constitution," Vos said at the time. "He has a different opinion."
Trump then decided to back Steen as a challenger to Vos in a bid that came just under 300 votes of succeeding.