The Mysterious Shell

Yesterday, Business Insider and the New York Times concurrently broke the startling story (link here and here) that Donald Trump's reelection campaign laundered at least $600 million to $700 million into a mysterious shell company created by Jared Kushner, the President's son-in-law. The company was controlled by the President's daughter-in-law and the Vice President's nephew.

Those hundreds of millions represent half or more of the $1.26 billion in donations it received from Trump's supporters for the 2020 election.

In violation of federal law, the company was created to avoid required reporting of campaign spending to the Federal Election Commission. It also paid Trump's family members as well as some of his top advisors, but the amount of those payments as well as the exact number and identity of recipients is unknown.

The shell company was so mysterious that top-level campaign officials didn't even know its function or what it was doing.

Whether it spent money prudently is also unknown as well. During the final months before the election, Trump's campaign cancelled tens of millions in advertising because it was running out of money.

Per the linked Insider article: "Campaign-law experts have long accused the Trump team of using a corporate pass-through to hide payments. The nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center [in a legal complaint filed with the federal government in July accused] the Trump campaign of 'disguising' about $170 million worth of campaign spending in large part 'by laundering the funds' through] the shell company. After that complaint was filed, roughly $400 million more was laundered through the mysterious shell company.

A Campaign Legal Center official said money laundered through the shell company was a "scheme to evade telling voters even the basics on where its money is really going" and a "shield to disguise the ultimate recipients of its spending."

The Federal Election Commission could fine Trump and his campaign for this tactic. And if the Justice Department suspects that a "knowing and willful" violation of the law occurred, it can open a criminal investigation and, ultimately, file criminal charges against those responsible.

This raises the question of why would a candidate use a secretive shell company in a presidential campaign if it wasn't deliberately designed to hide something in violation of the law? By its very nature it suggests both something illegal was going on and those atop the campaign went out of their way to hide it.