Feds Launch Probe of House Democrat’s Campaign Spending
The Federal Election Commission confirmed it opened an investigation into Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., for allegedly taking illegal campaign contributions and attempting to conceal them from required federal reporting. The FEC is responding to a complaint from conservative advocacy group the Coolidge Reagan Foundation based on a separate investigation done by an internal congressional watchdog. The complaint is under review and will be “referred to the Enforcement Division of the Office of the General Counsel,” wrote Wanda D. Brown, assistant general counsel for complaints examination and legal administration at the FEC, in an Aug. 19 letter to the foundation. The FEC review is in addition to a pending House Ethics Committee probe of the Florida congresswoman stemming from the same internal congressional watchdog investigation. “Money has moved around a web of entities with a bunch of family members on the boards [of those entities],” Dan Backer, a Washington lawyer representing the Coolidge Reagan Foundation, told The Daily Signal. In its FEC complaint, the foundation alleges 12 violations against Cherfilus-McCormick. Click here to read the full news story.