Report: Hillary Transferred $150K In Leftover Campaign Cash To Her Own LLC

Brittany M. Hughes | May 14, 2018
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For all she writes books about "What Happened," the same could be asked of Hillary Clinton's sketchy comings and goings on a near-daily basis.

The latest: a new report claims Clinton may have violated campaign finance law by funneling tens of thousands of dollars from campaign donations into her own limited liability company used to manage income from her book tour and speaking events.

According to the Washington Free Beacon's analysis of Clinton’s financial report filings, Clinton shuffled $150,000 in leftover donation money from her presidential campaign committee to an LLC set up to manage her book and speaking income.

The Free Beacon found payments being made from Hillary for America to ZFS Holdings LLC, which records show Clinton had set up after leaving the State Department "'to manage her income,' a spokesperson acknowledged during the 2016 presidential campaign."

Eight payments, each marked as “rent” and ranging from $9,617.87 to $36,369.39, were transferred from the campaign fund to the LLC starting six months after Clinton lost the presidential race to Donald Trump.

“The rent payments were directed to Clinton's LLC despite the campaign making no such payments — or any other payments — to the entity throughout the entirety of the 2016 election cycle, according to filings,” the Free Beacon added.

Speaking with experts on the subject, the Free Beacon explains there’s no requirement for failed candidates to shut down their committees after a loss, but there are plenty of restrictions on what they can do with all their leftover cash. While the money is often used to pay off campaign debts or donated to charity, another candidate’s campaign, or party activities, there are heavy restrictions on using it for personal stuff.

Like, say, someone’s personal bank account that they use for book income.

"The only disbursements allowed for the Clinton or any other losing campaign are for winding down the campaign," Cleta Mitchell, a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Foley & Lardner LLP, told the Washington Free Beacon. "So the question is whether this is really for rent or whether the payments are to this entity for other types of work for Hillary, which would be personal use if it isn’t specifically tied to the winding down of the campaign."

"Personal use is illegal under federal campaign finance law," she added. "There are a number of questions that need to be answered to ensure that the campaign is using leftover campaign funds for a legally, permissible purpose."

Given the national hooplah over whether Trump may have violated campaign finance law by reimbursing his lawyer, Michael Cohen, $130,000 to pay off a porn star he’d allegedly slept with over a decade ago, it’ll be interesting to see whether this latest potential Clinton scandal gets the same amount of media attention.

I won’t hold my breath.

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