The Campaign Legal Center (CLC) is a campaign ethics watchdog group, which notified the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) on Wednesday that it has new evidence of illegal contributions made from a Mercer funded Trump super PAC to Steve Bannon during the 2016 campaign. In a closely related story, there is evidence of Steve Bannon's failure to register his motion picture production company, "Glittering Steel" as a dba in the State of California, despite the millions of dollars in payments made to Glittering Steel at a California address, from the Make America Number 1, superPAC, which FEC filings show. The CLC also filed a letter with California's attorney general and secretary of state asking for a review of Glittering Steel's compliance or lack thereof with state law. Here are the details:
The FEC letter provided new evidence that the Mercer super PAC illegally compensated Steve Bannon’s work as Donald Trump’s campaign CEO, and that the super PAC and campaign engaged in unlawful coordinated spending by using the common vendor Cambridge Analytica. The letter is a follow-up to the complaint filed by CLC on Oct. 6, 2016.
“The evidence suggests that the Mercer-backed super PAC secretly subsidized Bannon’s work for the Trump campaign by payments to ‘Glittering Steel,’ which we now know has been chaired and is owned by Bannon and which paid him a monthly consulting fee,” said Brendan Fischer, director of the federal and FEC reform program at the Campaign Legal Center.
Additionally, Fischer added, “both Bannon and Make America Number 1’s leadership owned and were on the board of Cambridge Analytica, and news reports indicate that the Trump campaign hired Cambridge Analytica at the urging of Make America Number 1’s head, strengthening the inference that Cambridge Analytica was used as a means of sharing information between the campaign and super PAC, in violation of federal law.”
CLC also filed a new letter with California’s Attorney General and Secretary of State asking for a review of Glittering Steel LLC’s compliance with state law. Glittering Steel never registered to do business in California, but Make America Number 1’s FEC filings show millions in payments to Glittering Steel at a California address, and Bannon on his personal financial disclosure stated that he was paid by Glittering Steel through his California-based consulting firm. Entities engaged in intrastate commerce in California must register and publicly disclose their board membership, and may be subject to taxation.
“Bannon’s company appears to have dodged the California disclosure requirements that would provide more public information that could inform whether it broke federal campaign finance law,” said Fischer.
In November, 2016 The Huffington Post broke the news that the Democratic coalition had filed an FBI complaint against Bannon, alleging that he had violated a federal campaign finance law coordinating Super PAC activities with the Trump campaign, and received payments from it after becoming officially part of the campaign.
“Over the course of the Trump campaign, Bannon was paid $950,090 by pro-Trump Super PAC, Make America Number 1, through his company Glittering Steel LLC, both before and after Bannon assumed his role as campaign CEO. [...] According to federal campaign finance law, it is illegal for Super PACs to coordinate operations with campaigns.
Additionally, there is a 120-day “cooling off” period for when Super PAC employees leave to work on the campaign their PAC was supporting to avoid any potential coordination. Steve Bannon was paid by Make America Number 1 on August 8, 2016, and then became Trump campaign CEO on August 17, 2016, directly violating the 120-day cooling off period. Additionally, Bannon was paid by the PAC after he became campaign CEO, which likely means there was coordination."
Nothing ever came of the FBI complaint. It just seemingly vanished and Steve Bannon went on about his business. However, with yesterday's developments, the spotlight may once again be turned where it belongs on Steve Bannon and the Mercers' flagrant disregard for both federal campaign finance laws and state business regulations.
These developments cannot have come at a more propitious time when Bannon is already on the ropes because of his travails with Jared Kushner. It would be interesting if the corruption which exists between the mega-donor Mercers and Steve Bannon is exposed. Maybe this will be the turning point for Steve Bannon. He’s on thin ice as it stands and if he stays there something will take him down, it’s only a matter of time.
In any other administration this would be a big enough scandal to depose a chief strategist. In all events, Bannon will have a harder time blowing past this matter a second time than he had blowing past a recent government ethics office violation and the voter registration matter in Florida, which was dismissed for lack of evidence. Steve Bannon’s Teflon days may be over.