I swear I don't know who gave me that money.
For real! (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)
Michael Isikoff:
A mystery company that pumped $1 million into a political committee backing Mitt Romney has been dissolved just months after it was formed, leaving few clues to who was behind it.
The existence of the million-dollar donation — as gleaned from campaign and corporate records obtained by NBC News — provides a vivid example of how secret campaign cash is being funneled in ever more circuitous ways into the political system.
The company, W Spann LLC, was formed in March by a Boston lawyer who specializes in estate tax planning for “high net worth individuals,” according to corporate records and the lawyer’s bio on her firm’s website.
The corporate records provide no information about the owner of the firm, its address or its type of business.
Romney's campaign would not comment on whether they knew the source of the donation:
(A Romney campaign official said by email that Restore Our Future is an “independent entity” and therefore the campaign could not comment on its contributions. “Mitt Romney follows both the letter of the law and the spirit of the law in all circumstances,” the official said.)
Despite their silence, it's a stone-cold lock that Mitt Romney or someone in his organization knows exactly who made the donation, and why. People don't pump a million dollars into a presidential campaign without letting themselves be known to the people that matter.