Name: Shell companies and ‘dark money’ may hide details of Trump ties to DC protests
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Shell companies and ‘dark money’ may hide details of Trump ties to DC protests

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CloseFormer President ’s presidential campaign aides played key roles orchestrating a rally protesting certification of President-elect ‘s victory in the 2020 presidential election before of rioters breached the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.&nbsp;&nbsp;But the full extent of the Trump campaign’s ties to the protests may not be not fully known due to its use of shell companies that hide details of its financial dealings and the central role “dark money” played in the protests.Multiple individuals listed on the worked for Trump’s presidential campaign, as first reported by the over the weekend. That raises new questions about the Trump campaign’s lack of spending transparency and the unknown extent of the event’s ties to Trump aides.Trump’s campaign disclosed paying more than $2.7 million to the individuals and firms behind the Jan. 6 rally. But FEC disclosures do not necessarily provide a complete picture of the campaign’s financial dealings since so much of its spending was routed through shell companies, making it difficult to know who the campaign paid and when.The lists the rally’s “VIP Lead” as Maggie Mulvaney, a niece of former top Trump aide Mick Mulvaney, who quit his position as Trump’s special envoy to Northern Ireland after the Jan. 6 events. Maggie Mulvaney’s shows her current position as the Trump campaign’s director of finance operations and manager of external affairs. Trump’s 2020 campaign paid her at least $138,000 through November 2020.One of two operations managers on the rally is Megan Powers, whose says she was the Trump campaign’s director of operations as recently as this month. Powers was paid around $290,000 by Trump’s campaign while on its payroll from February 2019 through at least November 2020, FEC records show.&nbsp;Caroline Wren, a veteran GOP fundraiser, is listed as a .” Wren received at least $20,000 from the campaign each month as its national finance consultant for its joint fundraising committee with the , totaling $170,000 from March through November.&nbsp;James Oaks, the rally’s , received $126,000 in salary from the Trump campaign through at least November.&nbsp;Trump’s campaign paid Ronald Holden, the rally’s backstage manager, around $72,000 for payroll and consulting in early 2020. The campaign started paying William Wilson, also listed in the permit, in October 2020 with around $6,000 in payments for advanced consulting through November 2020 alone. The rally’s production manager is listed as Justin Caporale, the Trump campaign’s advance director who received more than $144,000 in direct payroll payments from the campaign in the one-year period leading up to November 2020.&nbsp;Caporale’s business partner, Tim Unes, was the rally and was paid more than $117,000 by the Trump campaign through at least November 2020. Event Strategies Inc., their , was paid more than $1.7 million from Trump’s campaign and joint fundraising committee.&nbsp;Trump-affiliated dark money group paid the firm another $2.1 million from to , the most recent years for which data is available. America First Policies’ show it also provided funding to Women for America First, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit that submitted the rally’s to the National Park Service.Trump’s top 2020 campaign vendor was , a firm created by Trump campaign aides to act as a clearinghouse for its spending. The firm routed more than $759 million of the campaign and its joint fundraising committee’s spending, hiding information about the identities of some individuals being paid by the campaign, how much money changed hands and when those payments took place.&nbsp;&nbsp;“The Trump campaign’s FEC reports really only provide a snapshot of who was paid by the campaign,” Brendan Fischer, the director of federal reform at the Campaign Legal Center, told OpenSecrets. “Using FEC reports to identify Trump campaign aides involved in the January 6 riot has its limits, because we don’t fully know who the campaign was paying.”Federal campaign finance law requires political groups to disclose spending to the FEC but imposes few restrictions on merely disclosing payments to opaque firms or shell companies that channel money to ultimate vendors whose identities remain hidden.&nbsp;Following OpenSecrets into the Trump campaign’s use of shell companies, the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center filed a July 2020 asserting that the Trump campaign and its joint fundraising committee may have violated federal election reporting rules by “laundering the funds through firms” of the campaign’s financial dealings.&nbsp;Trump’s implicit endorsement of this could have repercussions beyond his 2020 campaign as other groups across the political spectrum begin to deploy similar tactics with increased frequency.&nbsp;On Dec. 23, Trump former Ron Paul campaign aides for charges tied to in a 2012 by paying a vendor who then paid a subvendor — one of few cases showing consequences for violating the FEC’s ultimate vendor disclosure rules.Trump’s pardons may be “,” excusing and so long as the purported perpetrator remains to Trump, according to reporting by multiple media outlets. If that is indeed the case, Trump’s John Tate and Jesse Benton pardons seem to send a very effectively excusing alleged wrongdoing in one of the few high-profile cases where enforcement of the FEC’s ultimate vendor rules resulted in significant consequences.&nbsp;Dark money groups that hide their funders and disclose minimal other information at best played a major role in organizing the rally, further obscuring detail of its financing and ties to operatives in Trump’s orbit.Women for America First submitted the permit to the National Park Services and other 501(c)(4) nonprofits from to the also helped organize and promote the rally. Since these groups only report minimal information about their financial dealings, information on who they pay and who provides their funding remains hidden.The Trump campaign did not respond to request for comment prior to publication.Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit OpenSecrets. For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact OpenSecrets:Read more OpenSecrets News &amp; Analysis:Support Accountability JournalismAt OpenSecrets.org we offer in-depth, money-in-politics stories in the public interest. Whether you’re reading about 2020 presidential fundraising, conflicts of interest or “dark money” influence, we produce this content with a small, but dedicated team. Every donation we receive from users like you goes directly into promoting high-quality data analysis and investigative journalism that you can trust.OpenSecrets is a 501(c)(3) non-profit. Your donation is tax-exempt.Anna is OpenSecrets' Editorial and Investigations Manager. She is also responsible for OpenSecrets' dark money research and researches foreign influence as a part of Foreign Lobby Watch. Anna holds degrees in political science and psychology from North Carolina State University and a J.D. from the University of the District of Columbia School of Law.Want first access to OpenSecrets' investigations and data features? .Sign up for our newsletter to track money’s influence on U.S. elections and public policy.A 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, charitable organization,(202) 857-0044Except for the Revolving Door section, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License by OpenSecrets.org. To request permission for commercial use, .

CloseFormer President ’s presidential campaign aides played key roles orchestrating a rally protesting certification of President-elect ‘s victory in the 2020 presidential election before of rioters breached the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.&nbsp;&nbsp;But the full extent of the Trump campaign’s ties to the protests may not be not fully known due to its use of shell companies that hide details of its financial dealings and the central role “dark money” played in the protests.Multiple individuals listed on the worked for Trump’s presidential campaign, as first reported by the over the weekend....

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Anna Massoglia

The most comprehensive, nonpartisan money-in-politics resource around. Formerly the Center for Responsive Politics & the National Institute on Money in Politics

Shell companies and ‘dark money’ may hide details of Trump ties to DC protests

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