DOJ Scrutinizes Scam Campaign Donation “Matching”

Axios reports:

A little-noticed line in a recent criminal filing suggests federal prosecutors consider a popular political fundraising tactic to be legally questionable.

Fundraisers often boast of “5x” or other contribution matches to coax small-dollar donations. The Justice Department indicated in a court filing Monday this could amount to “material misrepresentations” if, as critics often contend, there’s no evidence the match ever occurs.

Donald Trump’s re-election campaign and its allies at the Republican National Committee exploited it to extreme degrees last year — promising up to 900% matches.

Read the full article. As was previously reported, the Trump campaign’s donation matching scheme sometimes resulted in the same donor being charged over and over again. Earlier this year it was revealed that the campaign was forced to refund at least $122 million after complaints.

More: DOJ signals scrutiny of the popular—and bipartisan—”XX% match” fundraising gimmick https://t.co/NsTGWcoWqr

— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) May 18, 2021