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The Federal Election Commission has warned a Trump-affiliated political action committee.
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The FEC said the Make America Great Again PAC made several mistakes in its most recent April quarterly report.
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Trump’s campaign and political committees have faced numerous allegations of error and misconduct.
A political action committee affiliated with President Donald Trump is under tighter scrutiny by federal officials over apparent discrepancies in its financial disclosures.
Trump’s Make America Great Again PAC made several errors in its first quarter 2022 financial report, including discrepancies in reported cash in addition to accounting errors, according to a July 6 letter sent to the commission by the Federal Election Commission.
Make America Great Again PAC, which served as Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign commission until early 2021, has until August 10, 2022 to respond to the FEC’s letter and will not be given a reprieve. If the PAC does not respond in time, the FEC says it could lead to an audit or “enforcement action.”
Starting March 31, Make America Great Again PAC reported with about $5.5 million in cash. It is one of several political committees within Trump’s post-presidency political operation that remains make a run for president 2024 again.
A Trump spokesperson did not respond to Insider’s request for comment.
Such warning letters are not uncommon for large political committees that raise and spend a lot of money and sometimes make accounting mistakes. Just ask former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang, whose longtime presidential campaign committee got one earlier this month†
But accounting errors and financial weaknesses can lead to federal fines and bad headlines, like when the FEC beat President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign with a $375,000 fine for reporting violations. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, along with the Democratic National Committee, fines paid earlier this year. In April, the companies of Canadian billionaire Barry Zekelman also paid FEC fines in connection with allegations that they made illegal contributions to a pro-Trump super PAC.
And Make America Great Again PAC’s seemingly less-than-perfect math is the latest in a series of questions, concerns and anomalies arising from the Trump campaign and related PACs, including a case involving whether Trump’s 2020 campaign hundreds of millions laundered of dollars in expenses.
In the past six years, at least 43 Trump-related cases have been referred to the FEC for possible violations.
As The everyday beast previously reported, the bipartisan FEC, which has civilian powers to enforce federal campaign finance laws, has acted in none of the cases due to repeated standoffs by its commissioners — in any case, the three Republican commissioners did not vote against Trump.
It takes four or more votes to confirm a decision on the six-commissioner FEC, and 3-3 deadlocks are common in high-profile cases.
In June, Insider reported that Commissioner Trey Trainor, one of three Republican commissioners at the FEC, spoke at a Texas GOP event where he was announced as a member of the “Trump election team.” Trainor told Insider that he was not aware of his billing.
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