Kushner helped create shell company that spent $617M of Trump campaign funds, paid president's family: Report
According to a new report, Jared Kushner allegedly created a shell company that secretly paid President Donald Trump's family members, and spent over $600 million of his relection campaign money. The shell company — incorporated as American Made Media Consultants Corp. and American Made Media Consultants LLC (AMMC) — allowed Trump’s campaign to bypass federally mandated disclosures. The tactic could attract scrutiny from federal election regulators.
The shell company spent almost half of the Trump campaign's $1.26 billion war chest, while keeping the financial details from public scrutiny. According to an insider quoted in the Business Insider report, $617 million of the campaign money was spent through this company and included payments to the Trump family and top advisors. Trump's campaign staff was kept in the dark about its operations. Trump's campaign leaders even launched an internal audit of the shell company and its operations but the results of that review were never reported.
However, how the shell company was being used to pay the Trump family and those close to the 'First Family' might have been a bit of an open secret. An anonymous source quoted in the report, and who was familiar with AMMC, said: "They like to say they don't know, but that's not true. What they wanted was excuses so they could blame other people. If they thought that, why did they keep using it?" Campaign-finance records showed Trump's reelection effort and its affiliated committee with the Republican National Committee spent more than $600 million through American Made Consultants since its formation.
Kushner and the Trump campaign have yet to respond to the allegations. There is also the possibility of potential money laundering and conspiracy charges if investigators find that the Trump family wasn’t just trying to skirt campaign finance laws, but were engaging in even more serious criminal activity. Kushner reportedly helped establish the company in April 2018 and had Trump's daughter-in-law Lara Trump installed as the president and vice president Mike Pence’s nephew, John Pence, as vice president. Trump's campaign CFO Sean Dollman was its treasurer and secretary.
Trump campaign Communications Director Tim Murtaugh responded to the allegations saying: "Lara Trump and John Pence resigned from the AMMC board in October 2019 to focus solely on their campaign activities, however, there was never any ethical or legal reason why they could not serve on the board in the first place. John and Lara were not compensated by AMMC for their service as board members".
However, if the federal government suspects there has been a "knowing and willful" violation of election law, the Department of Justice can open a criminal investigation into AMMC's operations and how it spent the $617 million.