The Patriot Legal Expense Fund Trust was set up in late February as a political committee to help defray the legal costs of “eligible persons” involved in the investigations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.
[The Office of Government Ethics] released a draft agreement for the trust in January, but the trust’s official filings with the Internal Revenue Service and the Delaware secretary of state offered little insight as to how it will vet donors and provide transparency about the contributors who finance the effort.
Lawmakers noted that those documents showed that the trust “was reviewed by your office in just 31 minutes. It is unclear whether OGE reviewed previous versions and if so, why those versions were not released.”
“The structure of the Fund appears to allow secret donations to these individuals, and it raises serious concerns about whether it complies with ethics, tax, and elections laws, as well as OGE guidance,” lawmakers wrote, echoing concerns various ethics experts raised after the draft agreement for the trust was made public.
1 comment:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2018/04/02/house-democrats-seek-more-information-about-trump-aides-legal-defense-fund/?utm_term=.573079c307e8
The Patriot Legal Expense Fund Trust was set up in late February as a political committee to help defray the legal costs of “eligible persons” involved in the investigations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.
[The Office of Government Ethics] released a draft agreement for the trust in January, but the trust’s official filings with the Internal Revenue Service and the Delaware secretary of state offered little insight as to how it will vet donors and provide transparency about the contributors who finance the effort.
Lawmakers noted that those documents showed that the trust “was reviewed by your office in just 31 minutes. It is unclear whether OGE reviewed previous versions and if so, why those versions were not released.”
“The structure of the Fund appears to allow secret donations to these individuals, and it raises serious concerns about whether it complies with ethics, tax, and elections laws, as well as OGE guidance,” lawmakers wrote, echoing concerns various ethics experts raised after the draft agreement for the trust was made public.
Post a Comment