The Indiana Democratic Party filed a complaint today against Rep. Braun and his campaign accusing him of hiding $250,000 in additional loans in the final days of the GOP Senate primary. The Democrats also allege that Braun broke the law by failing to file all of his loans with the FEC, the latest in a string of lies and illegal moves related to his fundraising.
In a complaint sent to the FEC today, IDP Chairman John Zody alleged that Rep. Braun broke campaign finance laws by failing to file a legally required 48-hour notice report after loaning his campaign an additional $250,000 on April 23, two weeks before the contentious GOP Senate primary election.
By law, campaigns are required to report any campaign contributions to the FEC made within twenty days of an election in a 48-hour window after that contribution is made. Rep. Braun included the loan on his second-quarter FEC report in July, but he failed to file the legally required 48-hour notice, even though he filed such a report for a separate six-figure loan made the same day.
“Rep. Braun seems to have no regard for the rule of law or anything that prevents him from extracting every last ounce of benefit for himself from a situation. It’s not enough to dump a last-minute infusion of cash into his campaign funded by selling Chinese auto parts — he had to illegally hide it from his opponents and Hoosiers,” said John Zody, Chairman of the Indiana Democratic Party. “Rep. Braun filed a 48-hour notice the same day as his illegal contribution, so this is no rookie mistake. It’s simply that he doesn’t believe legal or moral rules apply to him so long as he benefits.”
The Braun campaign disputes the Democrats’ claim and said the filed the appropriate paperwork in a timely manner.
“This loan was granted on April 23 and timestamped paperwork proves notification was provided on April 25 to the FEC and to the Secretary of Senate,” Braun spokesman Josh Kelly said. “Donnelly and his Democrat party bosses are just trying to distract Hoosiers from the ethical mistake of using his taxpayer-funded staff to provide video to create political commercials surrounding the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh – who Donnelly will ultimately support once he receives approval from the liberal-wing of his party.”
Earlier this week the Indiana Republican Party filed an ethics complaint against Democratic U.S. Senator Joe Donnelly regarding YouTube footage of his appearance U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. The GOP accused Donnelly of producing the footage in such a way that it could be used in campaign ads which is against Senate Rules.
The Donnelly campaign denied the allegation.
