Trump appointee appears to have used old campaign cash to buy personal website — and could face legal troubles

Former Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX) quit his job in Congress to join former President Donald Trump's administration as the Director of National Intelligence, but he could be facing some campaign finance problems.

Forbes on Tuesday provided evidence that Ratcliffe used campaign cash leftover from his days in office to build a personal online presence.

"More than a year after stepping down from his role in Congress ... he dipped into that stash to pay a company named Telegraph Creative. But Forbes found no evidence that Telegraph Creative did work on behalf of Ratcliffe’s old campaign. Instead, it seems more likely that the money went toward the cost of creating a personal website for Ratcliffe—even though federal regulations prohibit candidates from using campaign money for personal expenses."

Ratcliffe spent $11,000 for what was labeled "website design," but the date of the expenditure was over a year after he left Congress.

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The new revelations come six months after Ratcliffe was outed for paying his wife $3,000 a month to maintain the books for his campaign that was no longer active even after he was no longer in the Trump administration.

Forbes showed a screen capture (below) of Ratcliffe's personal website showing his "private sector" experience and promoting his latest appearances on the Fox network as a former Trump official. There's nothing on the site to indicate it's paid for by the campaign, nor does it ask for campaign donations or cite a district.

The report also revealed that the domain name for Ratcliffe's website was registered just 12 days after he left office. The first payment for the website design was $4,250 in July, and the other two disbursements were the exact same amount in Aug. 2021 and Nov. 2021.

Read the full report from Forbes.

See the site screen capture below: