Is it illegal to spend campaign funds on things other than your campaign?

Election laws have been so weakened (during the Trump and earlier years) that I imagine you can get away with almost anything.

None of us are lawyers here, and as I understand it the election and funding laws are so arcane thar you would need several lawyers to interpret them, and even then they would disagree on the finer points.

I think you’re asking about the news article that Trump’s legal fees are being paid by his campaign committee. I can only say the following: Contributors to Trump don’t care. If they are smitten enough to send the fraudster money, they don’t care how it is spent.

This may help. I haven’t read it through, yet, but GQ, and I’m planning to.
https://www.fec.gov/help-candidates-and-committees/making-disbursements/personal-use/

I always heard that once a campaign ends, a candidate can keep the money and do what he or she wants with it, so that’s why they try to stay in the game as long as possible and encourage people to keep sending funding.

I know why you’re asking and I’m very interested to know, as well!

I was wondering the same thing when I heard that a certain politician that remains to be nameless has $40 Million in legal fees and is using mom and pop donations.
We live in a land of illusion

^Perfect video.

It’s supposed to be illegal but that equates to OK for certain politicians!!

No. I can only speak from my experience in my state. All dollars are accounted for down to the last penny and that is required. You also keep that paperwork for years afterward.
My last funds were used for additional marketing and the ‘I won’ watch party.

A lawyer friend of mine said the politicians can spend it all on cheeseburgers if they want. He seemed to be saying there are very few rules and laws about it. You give your money to your favorite politician, and they use it how they see fit. Maybe there is a difference between contributing to an official campaign fund and other funds given to candidates. I wonder if you have to read the fine print.

@JLeslie Who is the reporting agency? Ours is the Missouri Ethics Committee and they do not mess around. Very surprised at what you were told.

The money Trump is spending on lawyers and such is a PAC (Political Action Committee), which I believe, is not audited by election officials.

@KNOWITALL I’ll ask him more about it. I asked once on facebook, let me see if I can find it.

@JLeslie Super PAC’s likely do have different rules but all politicians are subject to ethics violatios, from what I understand.

I hope there are some rules guided by ethics. I’ll ask him again.

There is a scandal in FL regarding the Florida Disaster Fund. DeSantis’ wife I guess has it in her name? I was going to look that up too regarding donations and politicians. I assume she has a nonprofit set up and maybe she runs it? It doesn’t mean she is stuffing money in her pocket so I wanted to see. The DeSantis’ have become superwealthy while in office. The money in politics is mind boggling and harmful. Democrats make money too, I’m not looking at just one party.

I just googled “laws on campaign finance” and there’s all kinds of stuff. Ballotpedia has an article, https://www.bing.com/search?q=laws+on+campaign+spending&cvid=8a7cf6ab68624f329eb07ec53b03a494&aqs=edge..69i57j0l8.4682j0j4&FORM=ANAB01&DAF1=1&PC=LCTS

here’s the Wikipedia which is always good for solid details, too:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_finance_in_the_United_States

Here’s the National Conference of State Legislators:
https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/campaign-finance-laws-an-overview

Apparently there are also state laws, so there’s a lot involved as far as details.

^Enough to bog down the judicial system for years should they want to pursue this matter.

This was my friend’s reply to me:

My memory is not clear on it, but I suspect I had not been referring to pure campaign money, in that Trump got donations when he was not running for office. Maybe this will help: https://www.fec.gov/help-candidates-and-committees/making-disbursements/personal-use/

Yes I believe that non campaign expenses are rescrited.

I would like to know if personal expenses, like McDonald’s for the campaign staff are ok?

What about a nice suit to debate with? Also teeth whitening?

@JLeslie Good information. Thank you. There are other laws surrounding campaign finance that might apply as well. It has to do with how the funds are handled after they are received. AOC is currently being looked at hard because she got a whole lot of campaign funds and then put them into a separate account which removed the names/information about the donors. My understanding is that if they don’t show who gave them money, it would allow a person to give more than legally allowed to a candidate and there would be no record of it.

Campaign finance laws are very much like any business expense in our country. You can legally write certain things off but not others as business expenses. The problem with that is how you categorize things. Take your family and some friends out to dinner, have a short conversation about how the business (or campaign) is going and call it a business dinner. Sleazy but legal in many places. You could not take just your family out, but you could say you are introducing your family to prospective donors.

@seawulf575 I remember now that my same friend said that it’s not just Republicans, there are Democrats that do it too, but I have no idea about AOC so I can’t respond about her specifically.

I think the point is people give money to Trump and other politicians when there is no election happening, and the candidates can use that money for whatever they want. Why would anyone give their hard earned money to someone who is so rich? A guy making $50k is tithing to Trump or a Trump sympathetic organization even a day after Biden first took office? He’s being played. Let Trump sell a golf course to pay for the trouble he is in.

@JLeslie Probably because they believe in his message. Remember we got checks during Trump, gas was low, food was affordable. People are really hurting under Biden, which only makes Trump seem a better option.

@KNOWITALL There are aspects that trump did right. But the bad outweighs the good IMHO. He seems to create a path of hate and destruction wherever he goes.

@KNOWITALL Trump’s very loyal fanatics were sending money to him all along.

A few weeks ago some guy on facebook quoted to me the gas prices in April 2020. Why would anyone think that gas prices in April 2020 means anything? I agree gas is high right now, but as far as gas prices being “up” we can’t be comparing against a shut down for a contagious disease.

Gas prices have been high and low during most presidencies in the last 25 years. I’m not sure it’s a good barometer. During Bush gas prices got crazy high, Republicans didn’t seem to care. Most of them don’t remember it. They got high at one point during Obama too, I’m not just picking on Republicans.

Prices were coming back down a little in supermarkets, but now gas is up again so maybe some of those savings will go away again.

I blame Trump for these sky high housing prices and rents. Talk about not being able to live, it’s ridiculous. Part of it was the covid circumstance, but part was ridiculously low interest rates encouraging investors and encouraging people to move.

@JLeslie Sigh.. It’s the perception of the American people, I’m not starting an argument about that poor old man.

My point is many felt Trump cared, and they see Biden and Congress send more than 75 billion in assistance to Ukraine while people are paying almost $10 for freaking cauliflower here. Whomever is in office always gets blamed when times are tough at home.

On the news in June, 2023, they said gas prices were going to go up in July due to OPEC cutting production. Here’s just one of many articles from June that discusses:

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/how-opec-deal-cuts-oil-supply-until-end-2024-2023-06-05/

This isn’t due to any current President of the US. I’m no fan of Biden but he’s not to blame for this one.

@KNOWITALL I agree about the perception part, but for the most part everyone is being spoon fed what to perceive.

Don’t buy the cauliflower. I “boycott” food when it’s ridiculously expensive.

I just googled my local supermarket and cauliflower is on sale, 1.99, regularly 2.49:

https://www.shoprite.com/sm/pickup/rsid/3000/results?q=cauliflower%20

Sorry – just checked the link I posted and it gives cauliflower in a bag but I had cut and pasted the search for the store, showing a regular head of cauliflower for 1.99, regularly 2.49.

I rarely buy cauliflower so I had no idea the price. If the price is much lower in another store or another part of the country, even more reason not to pay a gouging price.

I just went grocery shopping and prices weren’t bad. Some things have been too expensive for 5 years so I’m not counting that. Like 90¢ for a lemon!

I always heard that once a campaign ends, a candidate can keep the money and do what he or she wants with it,

That was true in the past. It is not true anymore in the US.

The political action committees spending 10s of millions for Trump’s swamp of criminal behavior is different from his campaign.

They are separate legal entities with different limits/obligations.

But people fooled into donating think they are contributing to the campaign when they are actually funding his criminal defense.

Washington Examiner – June 25, 2023 – Trump diverting more donations from PAC to pay for mounting legal fees

And part of the thing about people giving money before the person declares the candidacy is that they are not bound by the FEC rules for that money. I believe that once a person declares a candidacy, then the rules kick in.

@seawulf575 is correct. A declaration means creating the legal campaign entity, like “Seawulf for President”, opening a bank account, registering with the FEC (or the state for local elections), and agreeing to abide by campaign finance laws.