Pro-Trump College Group Won't Tell the Feds What the Hell It's Doing

[DonViejo]

The FEC has sent Students for Trump nine letters requesting info on who its donors are and what the group is funding. It has gotten no response.

LACHLAN MARKAY
02.27.18 5:24 AM ET

A political group founded by Trump supporters in college has ignored repeated efforts by federal regulators to collect information on its political activities and financial backers.

Students for Trump, a political action committee founded during the 2016 campaign, conducted social media advocacy and campus organizing around the country in support of President Donald Trump’s campaign, and remains an active PAC today. It’s legally distinct from the Trump campaign itself, but they have coordinated as SFT tried to craft a youth turnout operation on Trump’s behalf.

Despite that activity, Students for Trump has disclosed almost no information to the Federal Election Commission, in an apparent violation of federal laws that require regular reports detailing a political group’s fundraising and expenditures. The FEC has sent the group nine letters since its formation in July 2016 requesting legally-required financial disclosure reports, to no avail.

Asked about those reporting problems, the group blamed its former treasurer.

“As you will see, all records are under John Lambert, who is no longer with SFT and hasn't been with us for some time,” Students for Trump spokesperson Mia Chamberlain told The Daily Beast in an email.

more
https://www.thedailybeast.com/pro-trump-college-group-wont-tell-the-feds-what-the-hell-its-doing

[Cary]

1. Russian money finds its way to traitors

[riversedge]

2. you can only hide for so long.

I do hope the FEC gets on their case.


.....The group enjoyed the backing of Guido Lombardi, an Italian real estate developer who served as the Trump campaign’s middleman with various prominent figures in right-wing political parties in Europe. Students for Trump’s website previously listed Lombardi as its national director. He did not respond to questions about his involvement with the group.

SFT’s campus activism earned it some media attention during the election, and got Fournier in the door with a number of high level administration and campaign officials. His Instagram account is peppered of photos of him posing with Attorney General Jeff Sessions, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, and the president’s son, Eric Trump.

Fournier told Newsweek in 2016 that SFT had more than 5,000 student members at hundreds of chapters in roughly 40 states. Since Trump’s election, he has announced plans to form a new nonprofit group called Generation Onward. But IRS records indicate that group hasn’t received tax exempt status, and its website, which once hosted nothing but a donation page, is now inactive.