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For more than four years U.S. Senator Ted Cruz has been hosting his right-wing political podcast, “Verdict,” and promoting it via social media. He’s insisted he makes no money from the podcast and does not benefit financially, but recent reports reveal the Texas Republican lawmaker’s Super PAC has been getting hundreds of thousands of dollars from the company that produces his daily show.
Now, a government watchdog has filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC), alleging Senator Cruz, who is running for re-election in a “tough” race against Democratic U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, a former NFL linebacker, has violated federal campaign finance laws.
“The complaint, filed Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission, alleges Cruz may have improperly directed radio distribution and marketing firm iHeartMedia to send over $630,000 to the Truth and Courage PAC, a group dedicated to Cruz’ reelection effort. The amount would exceed the $5,000 limit an officeholder is permitted to solicit for a super PAC,” The Texas Tribune reports. “The Campaign Legal Center filed another complaint against Cruz in 2022 when iHeartMedia picked up his podcast, asserting it violated rules barring lobbyists from giving gifts to senators. The company, headquartered in San Antonio, spent over $4 million in lobbying that year.”
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A portion of the complaint reads: “By soliciting or directing $630,850.08 of iHeartMedia’s corporate funds to or on behalf of TCP in connection with his 2024 election, Cruz appears to have brazenly violated these federal campaign finance laws.”
“Because the overall facts support the conclusion that iHeartMedia is sending this ad-based ‘digital revenue’ to TCP at the request or direction of Cruz,” the complaint also alleges, “there is reason to believe Cruz has violated federal campaign finance laws that prohibit federal candidates and officeholders from soliciting or directing ‘soft money’—including money from corporations, which are categorically prohibited from contributing to candidates—in connection with his 2024 reelection efforts.”
The Campaign Legal Center (CLC), a non-profit government watchdog founded by the Republican former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, Trevor Potter, and the political action committee End Citizens United (ECU) filed the complaint.
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Cruz first launched the podcast in January of 2020, he said, to record his daily thoughts on the Senate’s impeachment trial of then-President Donald Trump. Days later, The New York Times reported Sen. Cruz’s “impeachment podcast is the No. 1 podcast on iTunes, surpassing ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ and the New York Times’ ‘The Daily.’”
On Tuesday, The Daily Beast also reported it “has uncovered new information, with campaign finance records showing tens of thousands of dollars in iHeart lobbyist contributions going to the Cruz campaign. Since the podcast deal was inked in late 2022, the Cruz campaign has received donations from at least seven lobbyists registered to represent iHeartMedia’s interests before the federal government, records show, raising even more questions about the nature of the deal.”
“Cruz is also the highest-ranking Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, which oversees communications, media and broadcasting,” The Daily Beast added. “While legal experts cited in those reports have floated serious potential campaign finance issues with the arrangement, it appears that Cruz—a notorious Federal Election Commission troll—may have landed upon yet another seemingly unprecedented loophole in election laws: He’s turned a super PAC supporting him into a media company—and is funding it himself.”
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