Leading establishment Republican Dan Crenshaw found himself in hot water on Friday. The Federal Elections Commission (FEC) discovered the congressman illegally fundraised during the 2020 election cycle and hit him with a major fine.
The agency said the Crenshaw campaign and its treasurer, Paul Kilgore, broke federal law by “knowingly accepting excessive and prohibited corporate contributions” totaling $223,460 during the 2020 election.
Meanwhile, the Democrats who received millions from FTX are not being targeted by their government.
From the document:
“The Committee received excessive and apparent prohibited contributions aggregating $223,460.26 for the 2020 primary and general elections from 125 individuals, one non-qualified political action committee, one qualified multicandidate committee, four corporations, and three LLCs.
As an authorized campaign committee, the Committee was limited to accepting $2,800 per election from individuals, $5,000 from multicandidate committees, and was prohibited from accepting any corporate contributions. The Committee, however, received $223,460.26 in excessive and apparent prohibited contributions across four disclosure reports:
The Committee does not dispute its failure to make timely refunds, but asserts that since the filing of the Referral, it has now refunded all excessive contributions.”
Team Crenshaw claims they paid back all the money and cited human error as the excuse for the violations. They also promised to implement “internal controls” to prevent a reoccurrence.
This is not the first time Crenshaw has been in trouble. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, Crenshaw decided to purchase stock and failed to disclose his activities as required by the STOCK Act. He illegally profited from the worst global pandemic in over a century. Crenshaw cashed in while people died.
When asked earlier this year about members of Congress trading stocks, the Texas McCain gave a shocking answer:
“If you want only millionaires and billionaires to run for Congress, then keep making sure we can’t raise our pay,” he said. “Just keep in mind that no one will run for Congress because you have no way to better yourself.”
Crenshaw’s actual excuse is some members need to trade stocks because $174,000 per year is not enough to serve the public. He of course ignores the inherent conflicts of interest with members profiting off stocks while legislation is under consideration.
Crenshaw strongly supports campaign finance reform, much like his late Arizona soulmate. In 2020, the same year he accepted the illegal contributions, Crenshaw allied himself with radical left congresswoman Katie Porter to bring forth a bill in order to clamp down on so-called “scam PACs.” (The same year Crenshaw neglected to disclose his stock trades.) They re-introduced the legislation in August.
With few exceptions, politicians view their office as a place to enrich themselves rather than serve their constituents. This is precisely what Donald Trump ran against in 2016 and tried to correct once he became president.
The public must drain the swamp. America will then have a government of and by the people.