JARED Kushner approved the creation of a Trump campaign shell company that paid family members and spent $617million in re-election funds.
The shell company was allegedly used to shield financial and operational details from the public eye, according to a report from Business Insider.
It functioned as a “campaign within a campaign,” according to the outlet.
Insider reportedly spoke to a person familiar with the operation, who said that the company – dubbed American Made Media Consultants Corporation and American Made Media Consultants LLC (AMMC) – was created in April 2018.
President Trump‘s daughter-in-law Lara Trump – who is married to Eric Trump – served as president of the shell company, while Vice President Mike Pence‘s nephew, John Pence, served as VP.
Trump campaign CFO Sean Dollman served as treasurer and secretary, according to Business Insider’s source.
Campaign finance records show that Trump’s re-election effort and the Republican National Committee spent more than $600million through the company, but even top advisors to the president admitted to Insider that they didn’t know how the company actually functioned.
Kushner and the others involved have yet to issue any response to the story.
Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh told the outlet that the relatives of the president and vice president have since stepped down from the company, and their serving was not illegal.
“Lara Trump and John Pence resigned from the AMMC board in October 2019 to focus solely on their campaign activities, however, there was never any ethical or legal reasons why they could not serve on the board in the first place,” he said.
“John and Lara were not compensated by AMMC for their service as board members.”
This is not the first time Trump campaign activity has raised the eyebrows of campaign law experts.
The Campaign Legal Center, led by former Republican FEC Chairman Trevor Potter, filed a civil complaint against over the summer accusing the Trump campaign of “disguising” around $170million worth of campaign spending using the shell company.
The center’s director of federal reform, Brandan Fischer, called the payments to AMMC a “scheme” and a “shield to disguise the ultimate recipients of its spending,” according to Insider.
According to reports, Department of Justice officials may have already been discreetly looking into Trump’s re-election campaign – before the AMMC story broke.
The DOJ has the power to open a criminal investigation into the Trump campaign if they suspect a “knowing and willful” violation of election law has occurred.
