Did you see this breaking news story from the Associated Press? It's pretty shocking stuff:
Alek Skarlatos, a hero soldier-turned-Republican congressional candidate, started a nonprofit shortly after his 2020 defeat in a western Oregon race, pledging to advocate for veterans "left high and dry" by the country "they put their lives on the line for."
The group, which Skarlatos seeded with $93,000 in leftover campaign funds, has done little since then to advance that cause.
What it has nurtured, though, are Skarlatos' political ambitions, providing $65,000, records show, to his 2022 bid for a rematch with longtime Democratic Rep. Peter DeFazio in a district stretching from the college town of Corvallis to the Oregon shore. It's a seat that Republicans are targeting in their quest to win back the House. ...
"You can't do that," said Adav Noti, a former lawyer for the Federal Election Commission who now works for the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center in Washington. "There's serious corruption potential. The law contemplates that." ...
Though the transfer of $65,000 from Skarlatos' nonprofit to his campaign was listed as a "refund" in filings, that likely doesn't square with the law, said Noti, the former FEC attorney.
"You can't, months later, send a different amount from a nonprofit company to a campaign and say it was a refund for a larger amount that was transferred much earlier," he said.
Skarlatos has collected payments from his campaign in the past.
During the 2020 campaign, Skarlatos paid himself more than $43,000 in mileage reimbursements, rent and expenses vaguely listed as "contractor campaign staff," records show.
Team DeFazio
