Lauren Boebert Accused Of Illegally Spending $60,000 During Campaign

Lauren Boebert has been hit with a complaint filed against her to the Federal Elections Commission, alleging that she spent $60,000 on "voter outreach" but never reported the expense. The money was allegedly from Boebert personally, not from the campaign, which would make the failure to report it an illegal, in-kind campaign contribution - much like what Donald Trump was recently hit with criminal charges over. Farron Cousins explains what's happening.

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*This transcript was auto-generated. Please excuse any typos.

Republican representative Lauren Bobert has been hit with a complaint filed against her by the Group End Citizens United, filed with the Federal Election Commission alleging that Bobert in her 2022 reelection race illegally spent $60,000 out of her personal leadership political action committee. This money, according to the complaint, was used for text messages and robo calls, basically a get out the vote effort, which there's nothing illegal about that as long as you're not giving out incorrect information about when and where to vote, which she wasn't as far as we know. So spending money to do that kind of thing is not illegal. What is illegal is using your personal leadership pack to give your campaign more than the legally allowed $5,000, even if it's a in-kind campaign contribution, which is what in Citizens United is alleging this expenditure should be considered under federal law. A personal leadership pack is basically the same as your own money to a degree in Citizens United is saying that Mar uh, excuse me, Lauren, BT, they all run together at this point.

Um, Lauren BT was basically using this pack as her own personal piggy bank. Some of that's allowed, some of it's not. But when sh when she used it to, uh, help her campaign, then it becomes a campaign contribution, even if you're only spending it to help your campaign and not physically giving the cash. That's an in-kind campaign contribution and I'm sure everybody is very well versed at this point on in-kind campaign contributions because that is pretty much what got Michael Cohen, uh, sent to prison in New York and what Donald Trump was recently indicted as part of. So Lauren Bobert is now basically being accused of doing the same thing. I mean, obviously she wasn't paying hush money to somebody, but she was using money illegally spent over the legal amount, which legal amount is 5,000. She spent 60,000 and did not report it on her campaign filings. Obviously this is not the first time that Lauren Bobbitt's campaign finance expenditures have, uh, become an issue for her. There was at one point a federal investigation into her alleged misuse of campaign funds. Part of that investigation was looking into the 8,712 miles that she

Reimbursed herself for during her first campaign to the tune of $22,000, which also just happens to be the exact amount that her restaurant needed in order to remain open and pay their bills. And immediately after she got that reimbursement, the restaurant made the payment on the, I think 21 some odd thousand dollars that they owed. So, eh, I mean look, obviously we can't say that something definitely happened, but it sure as hell looks like something happened with that and she found a way to save a restaurant, at least for a while. Um, and it's weird too because if you look up like what happened in that investigation, there's nothing like, there's nothing, there's no resolution, there's no, oh, we determined nothing hap like that investigation just straight up disappeared. So we don't even know. So part of me wants to think that, okay, based on what's happening to Trump in New York, obviously authorities are kind of maybe gonna crack down on the in-kind campaign contributions cuz it is technically illegal. But then again, you look at Bobbitt's history and it's like, well the Feds have investigated this before and then just stopped. So chances I think of her actually being held accountable for this, if what in Citizens United is alleging is true, chances of her being held accountable. Unfortunately, I'm gonna have to go with Slim to none at this point. Hopefully I'm wrong, but bobber own history with campaign finance tells me I'm probably right.