Blue America Hires A Forensic Specialist To Look Over Bachmann's Crooked Dealings

You've probably seen that right-wing extremist Michele Bachmann (R-MN) has been in trouble with federal regulators regarding monkey business with the huge flows of cash into and out of her political campaigns. The semi-independent Office of Congressional Ethics is investigating how she's been using her campaign funds, similar charges that forced Jesse Jackson, Jr. to resign and get sentenced to prison. She's now using her campaign funds to hire the biggest, most well-connected, most expensive-- and most people Inside-the-Beltway admit the absolute shadiest-- law firm in DC, Patton Boggs, to keep her out of jail.

Peter Waldron, who served as Bachmann’s national field coordinator in the 2012 presidential race, has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that the lawmaker’s campaign improperly used leadership PAC funds to pay presidential campaign staff. Consultant Guy Short, he alleges, was paid with MichelePAC funds. He also charges that payments to Bachmann’s Iowa campaign chairman, state Sen. Kent Sorenson, were concealed due to ethics rules that bar legislators from being employed by campaigns. Both Bachmann and Sorenson have denied those allegations.

...Waldron has also filed a complaint against Sorenson with the Iowa Senate ethics committee, citing the testimony of Eric Woolson, who managed Bachmann’s Iowa campaign.

Bachmann’s presidential campaign came under fire in 2011 for sending two e-mails to a Network of Iowa Christian Home Educators (NICHE) list, in violation of the group’s non-profit status. Woolson testified in a sworn affidavit that Sorenson took the e-mail list and that Bachmann acknowledged that she was aware of the alleged theft. Bachmann’s campaign said at the time that the use was inadvertent, a characterization Woolson’s testimony appears to contradict. Barb Heki, who worked on Bachmann’s campaign, is suing the congresswoman and former senior aides over the misappropriation of the list, alleging that staffers stole it off her computer and then blamed her when the misuse went public. She has also filed a criminal complaint, which Urbandale police are investigating.

In January Waldron accused Bachmann’s team of not paying Iowa staffers and of attempting to force them to sign non-disclosure agreements that would prohibit them from discussing any immoral, unethical or criminal behavior with the media, the police or an attorney. Woolson says that all staffers were paid in full.

Blue America's own forensic expert has started dissecting Bachmann's FEC reports and has already come up with some interesting and hard to explain data-- right out in the open. She claims to have paid her credit card processor, Edonations, an exclusively right-wing operation out of Alexandria, VA, $928,528 during the last election cycle. Other than former Democrat Joe Lieberman, the company works exclusively with Republicans-- and mostly with Republicans with notorious records for sleazy dealings like Vern Buchanan (R-FL), Jim DeMint (R-SC), Richard Burr (R-NC), Ben "Brock Landers" Quayle (R-AZ), John Boehner (R-OH), Connie Mack (R-FL), Denny Hastert (R-IL), Dirty Dick Pombo (R-CA), Star Parker (R-CA), SarahPAC, and the group that handled the shady Mormon cash that financed California's Prop 8. This appears to be the same company as another right-wing bunch of GOP operatives, "Campaign Solutions," to which she paid another $186,091 and whose website brags: "We've raised more online money for Republican candidates, ballot initiatives, non-profit organizations, and public affairs clients than any consulting firm in history. But that seems like an awful lot of money for credit card processing, don't you think? Hopefully, the Office of Congressional Ethics will look a little more closely into what kind of "credit card processing" Edonations does that merits over a million dollars.

Last year Bachmann spent $11,946,232 towards reelection against Democrat Jim Graves, who spent $2,279,384). Graves, who got no help from the DCCC, was narrowly defeated by Bachmann 180,131 (51%) to 175,923 (49%), beating her in the district's biggest county, Stearns, 34,842 (56%) to 27,860 (44%). District-wide, Bachmann underperformed Romney significantly. Romney beat Obama in the MN-06 56.5- 41.5%, his best results, by far, in the state of Minnesota (which Obama won handily). There's no question that Bachmann would have been defeated if the DCCC had intervened in the race on Graves' behalf.