Another fake presidential campaign started, this time for Ron DeSantis — feds won't stop it

WASHINGTON — A number of fake presidential committees have been formed over the last year, and the Federal Election Commission still won't do anything about it.

Last year, a fake campaign committee was formed for former Vice President Mike Pence, sending news reports and speculation swirling.

“Former Vice President Mike Pence did not file to run for President today,” Pence spokesperson Devin O’Malley wrote on Twitter. When The Washington Post reached out for comment, O’Malley confirmed the tweet and added: “You’ll have to reach out to the FEC for answers about the filing.”

Earlier this year, a fake Joe Biden presidential campaign committee was formed as well.

"It has come to the attention of the Federal Election Commission that you may have failed to include true, correct, or complete candidate information," FEC senior campaign finance analyst Jacqueline Gausepohl wrote in a letter to "Mr Joseph R Biden Jr" in a letter obtained by Raw Story.

"Mr Joseph R Biden Jr" filed documents with the FEC on March 31 listing the mailing address as an office in a medical building in Washington, D.C.

It's easy to spot a fake when a committee already exists for Biden.

Now a new filing has revealed Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) got the same treatment. The dead giveaway for this one is that the DeSantis committee doesn't capitalize the first "s" in his name. Similarly, it also names the running mate as Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD). Running mates aren't typically named until someone actually wins their party's nomination.

Raw Story reached out to DeSantis' office for comment, but on Easter Sunday, there was no answer. DeSantis is stronglyconsidering entering the 2024 GOP presidential primary field, which former President Donald Trump is leading in the race's early months. But while a DeSantis run seems likely, he has not yet made a formal announcement.

The largely toothless FEC hasn't done much about any of these cases to attempt to rid their committees of the fraud. There hasn't been any public investigation or announcement of an internal investigation either.

It takes little time and effort to create a federal political committee, at least on paper. But once done, a federal record is automatically generated and posted publicly to FEC.gov, the agency's website.

The FEC notes that "knowingly and willfully making any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation to a federal government agency" is a violation of federal law, and the FEC is "authorized to report apparent violations to the appropriate law enforcement agencies."

But the FEC, an independent, bipartisan civil regulatory agency that only has the power to seek civil penalties against suspected bad actors, rarely asks the Department of Justice to pursue such matters.

The most it's likely to do, as noted in a letter to the fake Biden committee, is removing the fake presidential candidate filing from the FEC's main public database "and placing the filings under the unverified filings database on the Commission's website."