Why big-time politicians are surrendering gobs of campaign cash to an unlikely source
More than 30 federal political candidates and party committees have together surrendered at least $160,000 worth of donor dollars to the U.S. Marshals Service in recent weeks, according to a Raw Story analysis of federal campaign records.
It’s an all-but-unprecedented relinquishing of precious campaign cash to a government agency best known for hunting down suspected criminals, and even veteran election officials say they’ve never seen anything quite like it in U.S. politics.
But this isn’t any routine situation: Most of these “disgorgements” stem from contributions made by executives of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, including former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, Raw Story’s analysis indicates. And the Department of Justice is urging campaigns to give the money up....