FBI investigating militia-loving Las Vegas councilwoman for possible Trump-related campaign fraud

Federal authorities are investigating the campaign finances of right-wing Las Vegas city councilwoman Michele Fiore.

FBI agents showed up last week at City Hall, where they openly questioned council members and others as part of an investigation into the Republican former state lawmaker, who was accused last year of using city resources to campaign for Donald Trump's re-election, reported KNTV-TV.

"I can confirm that they were at City Hall and that they interviewed me about Fiore," city councilwoman Victoria Seaman told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Seaman, a former close ally before a falling out with Fiore, declined further comment, but sources told reporters that FBI agents were investigating the councilwoman's campaign finance, although their focus is not clear.

"As a matter of policy, the FBI can't confirm or deny investigations," an FBI spokeswoman said.

FBI agents executed a search warrant in January at Fiore's home in northwest Las Vegas, where a neighbor said they seized a box of paperwork.

A complaint was filed in July 2020 about Fiore's campaign activity for Trump, and she survived a recall effort but stepped down in June 2020 as mayor pro tem over racist remarks she made at a Clark County Republican Party event.

"She says that 'If there's a job opening and my white ass is more qualified than somebody's black ass, then my white ass should get the job,'" said Niger Innis, a Black conservative activist and occasional Fox News guest who attended the event.

Fiore, who is Nevada's national GOP committeewoman, continued to express her support for the former president in the days after the Jan. 6 insurrection in both statements and wardrobe.

"I surely embrace President Trump," Fiore said two days later at the Republican National Committee's winter meeting, where she wore a vest with Trump's name on it.

"History will remember President Trump as our greatest, as one of our greatest presidents," she said on Inauguration Day.

Fiore, who has hinted she will run for Las Vegas mayor, played a key role in helping to wind down the 2016 occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge she had supported.

Her spending practices have frequently pushed the boundaries of Nevada's campaign finance laws, the Review-Journal reported, with records showing nearly $200,000 going toward gasoline, Uber rides, travel, restaurant and grocery store tabs, furniture and her own businesses.

Fiore told the newspaper her Future for Nevadans PAC primarily pays for "constituent services."

She also transferred $140,000 in campaign and PAC money to her own consulting firm, Politically Off The Wall, and another $10,000 into her political magazine, Truth in Politics.

The former state legislator also reportedly failed to report at least $91,000 in tax liens related to a house in Colorado.