President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for transport minister, former congressman Sean Duffy, just dipped into older campaign funds to pay expenses at the Ritz-Carlton hotel large, records show.
” Sean Duffy will be a tremendous Secretary of Transportation”, said Karoline Leavitt, the spokesperson for the Trump change. ” This is a non-story”.
However, news of the payment could give ammunition during Duffy’s confirmation sessions for Democrats willing to link Trump’s nominees to admitted ethics issues. Past politicians like Duffy are permitted to use plan funds to support non-profit organizations, political parties, and other candidates, but they are not permitted to do so for personal gain.
” Several former associates have been fined by the FEC for using extra strategy funds to pay for private travel”, Brett Kappel, a campaign finance lawyer in Washington, D. C., told the news channel.
A left-leaning watchdog organization’s director of the federal campaign finance reform program, Saurav Ghosh, said,” A person who is no longer serving or seeking elected office would not be able to use campaign funds to pay for travel, meals, or other expenses in connection with a campaign or official duties.” ” The nexus that’s required to use campaign funds simply is n’t there”.
Duffy served in Congress from 2011 to 2019 before he joined K Street to lobby and co-host Fox News. According to Lee Goodman, a former FEC chairman who was given access to an interview by the Trump transition, at least one of Duffy’s Ritz-Carlton bills required him to attend a fundraising retreat held by the National Republican Congressional Committee.
” The dollar figures at issue here are not large, and the circumstances are all defensible”, said Goodman. The attorney added that he is “certain the Federal Election Commission would not pursue enforcement action over them” despite the fact that “even if there were questions about personal use” were posed.
Dan Backer, a Republican campaign finance attorney, views the scrutiny of the Ritz-Carlton payments as unserious.
” This is a particularly desperate attempt by Democrats to pass off a White Castle nothing burger as prime porterhouse, but, all too typically, it’s just a little bit of sizzle and no substance”, Backer told the Washington Examiner.
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Duffy recently joined the lobbying firm BGR Group as a member of its advisory board in 2019. His clients, among others, have included S&, P Global and Gramercy Funds Management, an investment group based in the ultra-wealthy town of Greenwich, Connecticut.
Duffy, 53, also served as the district attorney of Ashland County, Wisconsin, from 2002 to 2008.
