All posts tagged "Craig Holman"

The Federal Election Commission on Thursday defeated a proposal — introduced by a Donald Trump-nominated commissioner — that would have allowed some political donors to remain anonymous.

All three of the six-member FEC’s Democratic commissioners were unwilling to adopt a temporary measure proposed by Commissioner Allen Dickerson, which Raw Story first reported earlier this month.

Dickerson wanted to give any political donor the right to request the speedy removal of identifying information — such as one’s name, address, employer and occupation. He also wanted his FEC colleagues to quickly approve a temporary process for donors to withhold disclosure while the commission gave full consideration to the issue....

Wire fraud. Tax evasion. Money laundering. Sexual abuse. Child pornography. Since 1980, more than two dozen members of Congress have been indicted for such crimes, some spending years in prison.

But because of a series of legal loopholes, not a single former federal lawmaker who has applied for retirement benefits has ever lost their taxpayer-funded congressional pension, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management told Raw Story.

Pensions for congressional felons have cost taxpayers about $3.7 million between 2007 and 2022, according to research from the nonpartisan taxpayer research organization, the National Taxpayers Union Foundation. ...

Two Republican members of Congress violated a decade-old financial disclosure and conflicts-of-interest law by reporting personal financial transactions months late, according to federal financial documents reviewed by Raw Story.

Both Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA) and Rep. Ron Estes (R-KS) violated the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act when they were up to four months late disclosing several personal stock transactions valued at between $1,001 and $15,000 each.

The STOCK Act requires key government officials, including members of Congress, to publicly report within 45 days most purchases, sales and exchanges of stocks, bonds, commodity futures, securities and cryptocurrencies. ...

By Richard Cowan

Republican commissioners who don’t want to enforce campaign finance law have made Federal Election Commission a useless agency, according to the advocacy group Public Citizen.