Posted on 11/04/2011 3:39:28 PM PDT by Qbert
Liberal attack-dog organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission Friday over allegations that Prosperity USA, a nonprofit advocacy corporation run by Herman Cain campaign manager Mark Block, paid for iPads and travel related to Cain’s presidential campaign. If true, says CREW, the Cain campaign — and Block personally — would be guilty of violating at least two federal election laws.
The allegations were first reported in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on October 30, based on internal financial records the newspaper said it obtained. The Journal Sentinel reported the following day that the Cain campaign had launched its own internal investigation.
The CREW complaint alleges that the Wisconsin-based Prosperity USA made illegal corporate in-kind contributions to Cain’s campaign “by using $40,000 to buy iPads and pay for campaign trips to Iowa, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Houston and Dallas in February and March of 2011,” according to a press release from the group. (SEE ALSO: News organizations refuse to identify Herman Cain’s accusers)
“The complaint also alleges Mr. Block personally violated the Federal Election Campaign Act by authorizing the illegal corporate contributions as president of Prosperity USA, and then by accepting the illegal contributions as treasurer of Friends of Herman Cain. This makes Mr. Block the first person in the history of the Act to have both given and received the same illegal contributions.”
The Center for Public Integrity reported Thursday that Americans for Prosperity, a right-leaning political advocacy group, also was investigating at least one contribution it made to Prosperity USA. That transaction was also disclosed in the internal financial records obtained by the Journal Sentinel.
Before taking the helm of Cain’s presidential campaign, Mark Block was Americans for Prosperity’s Wisconsin state director.
Nonprofit organizations are generally prohibited from using funds for ”electioneering” purposes, and also prohibited from supporting or opposing candidates for office at any level. Prosperity USA is registered as a not-for-profit corporation in Wisconsin, but neither the Internal Revenue Service nor the Guidestar nonprofit directory lists the group as having federal tax-exempt status.
“As hard as Mr. Cain is trying to prove himself a different kind of candidate, he still has to play by the same rules as everyone else,” CREW executive director Melanie Sloan said in the group’s press release. “It is not sufficient for the Cain campaign to investigate itself.”
Block did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Caller.
A political action committee run by Christine O’Donnell, the former Republican U.S. Senate candidate from Delaware, launched a campaign targeting CREW in late October, linking the group to the well-known liberal financier George Soros and challenging its tax-exempt status. “CREW is nothing more than a front group for an ultra-liberal socialist, political agenda, and is not a so-called charitable organization.”
Melanie Sloan- the same bozo who brought the complaint against Christine O'Donnell, which was recently dismissed...
Hey Melanie - will you be investigating the use of Air Force 1 by Jerk the Wonder Prez and the First Heifer to attend hours of fundraising on the pretext of a 10-minute “policy” speech?
CREW??? BWAAAAAH! Absolutely hilarious. One Soros agent (Politico) EPIC FAILS, and another one takes over with even more pathetic claims.
In other news, I heard that someone in Cain’s camp double parked.
Partisan mud-slinging.
Nothing to see here and its time to move on.
Off with his head!
Good point.
This woman and her CREW operation are beyond disgusting ~ they are thoroughly fascistic.
Have these commies EVER filed a complaint about THEIR comrades running for office? Cain’s boys need to turn around and file a suit against THEM for harassment and stalking. I’m getting tired of these little commie piggies.
Liberal attack-dog organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW
Now aint that some sh##! We have here an organization that investigates criminality other than the criminality they are ingaged in. This is getting way to funny, the insane are truley running the insane asylum.
Nice of the RomneyBot Daily Caller to dutifully report this garbage as if it is real news. When it comes to anyone but Romney, The DC might as well be HuffPost.
Notice the same tactics were used against Sarah Palin. The objective is to “make the charge”, no matter if its true or not.
I will continue to support Mr. Cain even if he is charged up to murder and, depending on the purported victim, I would/could forgive that!
Somebody please post the “NOT THIS SHIT, AGAIN” picture.
Doesn’t Sloan know it’s all Perry’s fault?
Knowing CREW, without a doubt they’ll be filing some ridiculous complaint and the media will make a huge deal out of it supposedly being “yet another Cain scandal”- so if it’s not “news” yet, the MSM will do their best to make it so.
And in doing so, they dinged my car....and didn't even leave a note!!!
Soros’ CREW.
If it's not tax-exempt what the hell is going on?
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