Updates on Checks & Imbalances’ previous reporting
The campaign of former Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) spent $598,000 on legal services in the first three months of 2022. In March, Fortenberry was found guilty of lying to federal investigators. He resigned from Congress the following week.
Fortenberry has now directed a total of $778,000 of campaign funds to the law firm that represented him in his trial. As of March 31, his campaign has $50,000 of cash on hand and $60,000 in outstanding debts. His sentencing is scheduled for June 28. Each of the three felony counts he was convicted of carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
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Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) changed campaign treasurers, according to a filing it made with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday. In recent months, the campaign made a couple of high-profile gaffes, namely using political funds to pay for Boebert’s personal rent and filing a report that mistakenly said she represented Utah. Boebert replaced her campaign’s compliance support in January. A spokesperson for Boebert’s campaign did not respond to inquiries.
***** The campaign of former Director of National Intelligence and Congressman John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) continued to pay his wife to manage its sleepy books last quarter. It appears she may have taken a pay cut though.
Starting in March 2021, the campaign began paying Michele Ratcliffe $3,000 a month for compliances services. The $3,000 payments continued into January 2022, according to a report filed on Friday, but the campaign didn’t report any disbursements to Michele in February and just $1,500 in March.
Payments to Mrs. Ratcliffe comprised 71% of the campaign’s spending in the first three months of the year. A partner at the Rockwall, Texas law firm of Lamberth Ratcliffe Covington, her total take from her husband’s campaign over the past year is $34,500.
Also, the campaign did not report any additional payments to Telegraph Design last quarter. In 2021, Ratcliffe’s committee reported paying $11,000 for “website design” to that technology firm, which created a site for his private-sector ventures.
Neither Ratcliffe responded to an inquiries.
**** Former President Trump’s Make America Great Again, Again! PAC reported paying four people in a cost-share agreement with the pro-Trump dark money group MAGA Policies, Inc. last quarter: former acting members of Trump’s cabinet Richard Grenell and Matthew Whitaker, former Florida Attorney General and Trump advisor Pam Bondi and Cassidy Kofoed, the 24-year-old daughter of Richard Kofoed, a major Trump donor who lived large despite having financial difficulties.
Both Richard and Cassidy were on the private flight Richard booked that whisked Trump advisor and Don Jr.’s girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle out of D.C. on January 6, reported ProPublica. All told, the pro-Trump groups have paid Cassidy at least $32,000 since October. Richard Kofoed denied any knowledge of what work his daughter performs for the groups or how she landed the job. "I have nothing to do with my adult daughter’s employment," he wrote in an email. "I am not privy to any information related to her position nor do I discuss this with her." Spokespeople for Trump did not respond to inquiries.
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