Posted on 05/11/2017 3:18:47 PM PDT by blueyon
The FBI just carried out a raid on the Annapolis office of a Republican party fundraising firm called Strategic Campaign Group, leading to widespread questions about what connection the raid might have to the FBI’s ongoing investigation of the Donald Trump campaign. Palmer Report’s research team determined that the firm in question is in fact connected to Trump campaign advisers Paul Manafort and Roger Stone.
(Excerpt) Read more at palmerreport.com ...
The ‘connections’ are imaginary from what’s actually known.
The firm that was raided has worked for a number of individuals including Ken Cuccinelli, so no public source can say why the Bureau conducted the search.
The good news is that Reagan fired Comey while he was in FL giving a speech and couldn’t wipe his computer or shred his files.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/fbi-raids-maryland-republican-political-consultants-office-47356970"
>>Trump was masterminding the Russian’s involvement in that race too, was he?<<
They must have found those misprinted “Cuccinelski for Virginigrad” signs.
The Palmer Report?
Seriously, freepers, if we can’t post from POLITICO, we can’t post from the PALMER REPORT!
bkmk
This is about a guy named Kelly Rogers keeping PAC money raised in the Virginia governor campaign for cuccineli.
We had a lot of discussion here at FR during that campaign about how the Republicans abandoned cuccinelli during that race.
Kelly is also a seriously flaming pole smoker.
Kelley Rogers, president of Strategic Campaign Group, said a half-dozen FBI agents arrived at his Main Street office at about 8:30 a.m. with a warrant to search and seize records.
An FBI spokeswoman confirmed the agency conducted "law enforcement activity" along Main Street in Annapolis but would not be more specific.
Agents on the scene, dressed in plainclothes, confirmed they were with the FBI but referred all other questions to a spokeswoman. They left the building shortly after 4 p.m., carrying files and a computer with them.
Rogers, whose firm has worked with campaign committees for Maryland Senate and House of Delegates candidates, said the FBI investigation concerns work the firm performed during the 2013 Virginia gubernatorial campaign of former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, a Republican.
According to Rogers, his firm settled a civil suit brought by the Cuccinelli campaign after the candidate lost the 2013 Virginia governor's race to Democrat Terry McAuliffe. Rogers said the investigation appears to stem from allegations brought in that suit.
The Cuccinelli suit alleged that Strategic Campaign Group and the associated Conservative Strike Force Political Action Committee — an independent group not affiliated with the candidate — raised about $2.2 million by assuring donors it would spend that money to help elect the GOP candidate. But the suit alleged the PAC and Strategic Campaign Group failed to follow through on promises of an extensive media campaign on Cuccinelli's behalf.
In the suit, Cuccinelli accused the firm of false advertising, breach of contract and unauthorized use of his name and image.
Cuccinelli said in a statement that he had not spoken to federal law enforcement officials about the consulting firm but is "curious" to see where the case goes.
"It was my hope when we brought our lawsuit to cast light on the dark practices of scam PACs. I think we did that successfully," Cuccinelli said. "Any cleaning up of these practices would be good for our political system."
Rogers praised the professionalism of the FBI agents and predicted the investigation would clear his name and that of the firm. "The truth shall set you free," he said. "I think it was frivolous then. I think it was frivolous now."
Rogers said agents arrived without notice and presented a search warrant. He said they took records and downloaded other information from the firm's computers.
FBI spokeswoman Lindsay Ram said the investigation is being conducted through the bureau's Washington field office, which has jurisdiction in the District of Columbia and Northern Virginia. She said agents from the office sometimes cross over into other jurisdictions when the entity they are investigating has offices in multiple locations. She declined to provide more details.
Another story from The Hill: FBI raids office of GOP consulting firm in Maryland
Strategic Campaign Group worked for Conservative Strikeforce, which was formed during the 2008 presidential election cycle and lists Scott B. Mackenzie as its treasurer. Dennis Whitfield, a senior advisor at Strategic Campaign Group, is chairman of the political action committee (PAC).
Whitfield has held many senior roles in Washington, including serving as executive vice president of the American Conservative Union (ACU), senior vice president at the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), and as chief of staff for the U.S. Trade Representative and as deputy secretary of the Labor Department during the Reagan administration.
However, critics labeled the Conservative Strikeforce a "Scam PAC" — a political action committee that raises large sums and spends very little on campaigns, candidates or the causes it espouses. All of that is totally legal, though, as there are no federal guidelines for how unaffiliated PACs ought to spend their war chests.
"At the Conservative StrikeForce PAC we are dedicated to replacing the Obama administration with a strong conservative willing to make the difficult decisions necessary to steer our country in the right direction," its website declares. The PAC "assists candidates in two ways. We make direct cash contributions and we do independent expenditures on behalf of selected conservative candidates whom we support."
From 2010 to 2016, Conservative Strikeforce raised $12 million, with only a small circle of firms receiving the cash. Strategic Campaign Group earned $579,000 from the PAC during that time, and the PAC spent more than $8 million on efforts to raise more funds. It gave $320,000 to state and federal candidates over the last seven years.
In 2014, Ken Cuccinelli, who had just waged a campaign for governor in Virginia, slapped the group with a lawsuit. The former Virginia attorney general alleged that it had used his name to fundraise without authorization. The PAC ultimately settled with the Republican politician, including paying $85,000 and handing over its distribution lists.
The Virginia lawsuit said Strategic Campaign Group is a part owner of the PAC, and Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show that the Conservative Strikeforce paid Strategic Campaign Group $10,000 in 2015 for "reimbursement for legal settlement."
Strategic Campaign Group's client list also includes a PAC called Conservative Majority Fund, which also lists Mackenzie as a treasurer.
It ran ads during former President Barack Obama's 2012 reelection campaign questioning the authenticity of Obama's birthplace and perpetuating claims that the president "is not who he says he is."
From 2012 to 2016, Conservative Majority Fund raised $8.4 million, and spent more than $3 million on its fundraising efforts during that time, according to records tallied by The Hill.
It spent roughly $13,000 on donations to campaigns in those four years, and paid the firm Infocision Management more than $7 million, according to both FEC records and the Center for Responsive Politics. Strategic Campaign Group, meanwhile, earned just less than $256,000.
Last November, the PAC donated $5,000 to President Trump's campaign, but FEC records show the check was returned without being cashed.
I read earlier that a donation from this company to the Trump campaign was returned to them, uncashed.
Komrade Songbird
Could be...
I will say this now, if the left ever get there way and they manage to topple trump and his administration there will be another civil war and they will be on the loosing end
e, VTenigma wrote: I smell a rat, and his name is McCabe.
You know you may have something there
About time for TRUMP camp to fight back and reverse that dhimmyrat’s hoax on the russian influence in the recent electoral process and result !
It’s a distraction again , a way to create confusion and make people forget how the MSM utterly supported H Clinton after B Obama !
I am wondering WHERE is the inquiry on Clinton , the DNC , their fundings , their link with MSM and some foreign countries ....
It’s about time to fight back , to keep the lead and give the pace instead of only trying to answer to accusations and to justify.....It will be endless and that’s what the libtard whant
The VA Governor’s race in 2013 featured Clinton buddy Terry McAuliffe.
And that brings us back to McAuliffe’s huge donation to Jill McCabe, wife of the FBI’s Andrew McCabe.
Cuccinelli sued Strategic Campaign Group in 2014, alleging that the company and a political action committee duped donors. Cuccinelli said the Conservative StrikeForce PAC raised $2.2 million in 2013, largely by promising donors the money would help Cuccinelli in his ultimately unsuccessful Virginia campaign against McAuliffe.
The PAC only gave $10,000 to Cuccinelli’s campaign, which was heavily outspent by McAuliffe.
Cuccinelli’s lawsuit described the StrikeForce PAC as being “controlled by” Strategic Campaign Group. The company and the PAC settled with Cuccinelli in 2015, agreeing to pay his gubernatorial campaign $85,000.
-——http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/05/12/fbi-raids-gop-consultant-over-2013-virginia-governors-race.html
Linked above
FBI raids GOP consultant over 2013 Virginia governor’s race
Published May 12, 2017
Associated Press via FOX
Interesting blurb at the end is that Rogers is linked to the infamous White House gate crashers from that big tent party Obama had on the WH lawn, the Salahis... Tareq Salahi... now THAT is interesting...
The President of Strategic Campaign Group is Kelly Rogers according to that link... and as a consultant of Salahi.
Wonder if Kelley Rogers is related to Desiree Rogers ...Desiree is Obama’s social secretary who let the gate crashers the Salahis into the party
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