A progressive anti-Trump coalition actually spent most of its donation money on hiring consulting firms and salaries for employees, according to a Wednesday report.
The Democratic Coalition, a group reportedly dedicated to taking on the president as part of the “Resistance,” raised roughly $500,000 in 2017, reports the Daily Beast.
During that year, $130,000 of that money went to senior advisor Scott Dworkin’s consulting firm, the Bulldog Finance Group. In 2016, when the group promised it would do whatever it took to stop then-candidate Donald Trump from reaching office, 90 percent of the money went to employee salaries or consulting firms, according to The Daily Beast.
“He is conning people into giving him small-dollar donations so he can pay himself and sustain an organization that gains him credibility,” one top party operative about the coalition told The Daily Beast. “It’s a fucking abomination.”
The group describes itself as the “largest grassroots Resistance organization” that is dedicated to helping elect more Democrats and fighting the Trump administration.
As of now, not many laws dictate how much money a PAC must put towards employee salaries or other expenditures, with donors being the main check on where the money goes. Both conservative and liberal organizations have done similar things as the Democratic Coalition, promising to fight the opposition, but not actually spending their money on fighting for or against an agenda.
“We’ve done a ton of work online—much more of it organic social media than paid social media—so most of it hasn’t been the kind of things that get itemized in a FEC report. Instead, they’re expenses paid directly out of consulting fees,” Chuck Westover, a senior advisor, told The Daily Beast. “The whole picture isn’t in there.”
The group did not return The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment in time for publication.
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