The FBI is having a really difficult time keeping up with all of the Democrat scandals this election cycle. Just yesterday we noted another raid of a democrat “advocacy group” in Delaware County, PA that was allegedly submitting falsified voter registration forms and, of course, we’re all intimately familiar with Hillary’s assorted investigations.
Now, according to The Hill, the FBI has also been forced to open another election-related investigation tied to the Florida Senate Race between Marco Rubio (R) and Patrick Murphy (D). The investigation is related to whether a long-time Murphy friend, Ibrahim Al-Rashid, utilized an illegal “straw donor” fundraising scheme to funnel money from his wealthy Saudi family to the Murphy campaign. The scheme effectively attempts to skirt federal election laws governing campaign contributions by making donations in the name of other citizens.
The FBI is investigating an alleged illegal donation scheme involving a wealthy Saudi family that supports Democratic Florida Senate candidate Patrick Murphy.
The allegation — originally submitted by a Republican super PAC run by a former top aide to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) — is that Murphy’s high school friend and major political donor, Ibrahim Al-Rashid, coordinated a “straw donor” scheme to boost Murphy.
A straw donor scheme occurs when a wealthy donor skirts legal limits on political donations by funneling money into campaigns using other people’s names.
For any charges to be backed in the Al-Rashid investigation, the FBI must prove that the person or people running the scheme reimbursed donors without their permission. It would also be illegal to agree to be the named donors using somebody else’s money.
The GOP super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, claimed in its June complaint to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) that 11 donors in Texas, Pennsylvania and Florida “participated in an unlawful scheme to funnel Ibrahim Al-Rashid’s contributions, or were used by Al-Rashid to funnel contributions without their knowledge.” A total of $24,050 was involved.
Al-Rashid is the son of a powerful and politically connected Saudi billionaire. He’s been a major financial benefactor of Murphy’s, giving almost $400,000 to his campaigns and to outside groups supporting the Florida congressman.
While the Murphy campaign denies any wrongdoing, some of the facts surrounding the case are rather suspicious. For example, one $300 donation was made in the name of a woman whose federal donation forms claimed she was the owner of a Texas-based company named Limestone Property Management. Unfortunately, a quick search of public records reveal that the woman is not associated with the Texas business. Moreover, a 2012 police report from the Miami-Dade Police Department reveals that the donor was actually Al-Rashid’s cleaning lady.
Of course, the fight for control of the Senate between democrats and republicans make this and all races around the country very important. The most recent Real Clear Politics polling average shows Rubio with a 5.6% advantage though Murphy had pulled to within 2 points just a couple of weeks ago.
Of course, the Murphy campaign denied any wrongdoing linking the complaint to a “Republican super PAC willing to say anything to elect Marco Rubio.”
The Murphy campaign noted that a conservative
super PAC earlier this year filed a complaint on the issue that the FBI
is looking into.
“This complaint was written by a
Republican super PAC willing to say anything to elect Marco Rubio,” said
Murphy campaign spokesman Joshua Karp. “Neither Patrick nor any current
or past employees have ever been contacted regarding this matter, and
we are confident an examination of the facts will result in its dismiss
Though it certainly doesn’t help Murphy’s cause that he recently was forced to return donations tied to Boston’s Thornton Law Firm after the Boston Globe revealed another illegal donation scheme earlier this week.
In an unrelated development on Monday, Murphy and other Democratic Senate candidates returned thousands of dollars they received from another alleged illegal donation scheme.
After reading an investigative report about Boston’s Thornton Law Firm, published Saturday by the Boston Globe Spotlight team and the Center for Responsive Politics, Murphy decided to return the $21,800 he received from a Thornton fundraiser in January.
“The Globe’s investigation has revealed troubling details about these donations,” Karp told The Hill on Monday. “We’ll be donating it to the U.S. Treasury, because that is the right thing to do.”
Silly question, but aren’t Republicans supposed to be the party with unlimited money flowing in from evil corporations, wall street and shady wealthy donors?
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