Rosie O'Donnell Caught Red-Handed Making Illegal Donations to Dems
It’s somewhat ironic that the specter of possibly illegal campaign contributions (that had nothing to do with campaign money, mind you) have become the last refuge of the Democrats in their move to impeach Donald Trump.
I say this not because this is all a part of an investigation that was supposed to be about Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election, not whether a private non-disclosure agreement with a flaky porn star arranged by Trump’s lawyer met requirements for declaring campaign loans. I say this because there’s also a chance Rosie O’Donnell ends up getting nailed for campaign finance violations too.
Yes, Trump’s eternal bête noire might be in a bit of trouble after it was discovered the liberal celeb went over campaign donation limits to her favorite party.
“Rosie O’Donnell made illegally over-sized campaign donations to at least five Democratic federal candidates, according to a Post analysis of campaign filings,” the New York Post reported Saturday.
“The liberal comedian has regularly broken Federal Election Commission rules limiting the total any one person can give to an individual candidate at $2,700 per election. The limit applies separately to primaries, runoffs and general elections.”
“Nothing nefarious,” Rosie wrote in an email to the Post. “I was not choosing to over donate.
“If 2700 is the cut off — (candidates) should refund the money,” the email continued. “I don’t look to see who I can donate most to … I just donate assuming they do not accept what is over the limit.”
O’Donnell said she’s a frequent contributor on the liberal donation platform ActBlue, which may have been why she over-donated; she insisted that she assumed the site “limits donations to the max allowed.”
“My anxiety is quelled by donating to those opposing trump (and) his agenda — especially at night — when most of these were placed,” O’Donnell wrote.
Hmm. Maybe she can claim she was sleep-donating? Happens all the time to me. I wake up and I find, bam, I’ve donated another $4,200 to Ted Cruz when I only meant to type in $2,700! I think it’s the Ambien.
However, there was evidence to indicate she was actively trying to avoid detection.
“Filings show O’Donnell gave a combined $5,400 in contributions over the limit to the five candidates, and used five different New York addresses and four variations of her name,” the Post reported.
Among those receiving donations over the limit were Alabama Sen. Doug Jones ($4,700); Pennsylvania Rep. Conor Lamb ($3,600, plus another $1,000 for his run for a full two-year term in a different district this fall); Illinois congressional candidate Lauren Underwood ($4,200); Omar Vaid, described by the Post as “a little-known congressional candidate in Staten Island and Brooklyn” ($3,450); and Rep. Adam Schiff, the House Intelligence Committee’s ranking Democrat ($2,950). All, in case you are wondering, are Democrats.
When asked how much she donated to Vaid, Rosie said, “I have no idea.” She also insisted her brother Tim handled her money.
However, it’s unlikely that O’Donnell — who has given more than $90,000 in donations during the 2017-2018 cycle — will even face fines from the Federal Elections Commission for over-donating, even though her changing addresses and variations on her name might have been proof of intent.
“Donors are rarely fined for excess contributions and then only if they are hiding the donations from the recipients,” Jan Witold Baran, a Washington, D.C., campaign finance lawyer, told the Post.
“Campaigns generally are not penalized for isolated contributions over a limit. However, multiple excessive donations may lead to an investigation … Fines could result in such cases.”
Only Lamb’s people returned comment, and they said they would advise O’Donnell that the additional $900 could be refunded or put toward Lamb’s 2018 primary.
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