• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

NRCC being investigated by the FBI

fff

Well-known member
Could things get any worse for the National Republican Congressional Committee? The Dems are outraising them by leaps and bounds and now there are apparently some serious accounting problems.

Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas), a certified public accountant, had pushed for months for an internal audit of the National Republican Congressional Committee, according to GOP members, but the committee’s treasurer at the time was reluctant.

Finally, at a recent meeting, the now former NRCC treasurer, Christopher J. Ward, relented, giving Conaway what was supposed to be an official internal audit from 2006. That document was a fake, the GOP members said. Even the letterhead on which it was sent was a forgery.

Revelations about the falsified document touched off an unfolding scandal that has rocked the NRCC and spurred a criminal investigation by the FBI into the committee’s accounting procedures.

Fearing the fallout from the discovery, the NRCC informed its principle lender, Wachovia, of potential accounting problems. Wachovia, which declined comment Thursday, had lent the committee $9 million in 2006, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Knowing the bank was required by law to notify federal investigators of any “suspicious activity,” the NRCC also alerted the FBI, Republican insiders confirmed.

At the same time, NRCC officials notified the FEC that the committee may have filed inaccurate disclosure statements.

Since the accounting irregularities were first uncovered in late January, NRCC Chairman Tom Cole (R-Okla.) has retained an outside law firm, Covington & Burling, to advise the committee and hired the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers to review the committee’s finances, the chairman told members during a closed-door briefing in the Cannon Caucus Room on Thursday.

But it may take four to six weeks for a forensic audit of the NRCC to be completed, one senior Republican lawmaker said, and until then, it is unclear what, if any, wrongdoing occurred or the scope of potential losses to the committee.

Thursday’s session was Cole’s first chance to address a large number of Republican colleagues since the investigation began, and he sought to reassure them that the irregularities would not hamstring the party in this fall’s elections, despite concerns they could add to the GOP’s pre-existing money woes.

Cole told his colleagues that he wasn’t sure if the committee had done a real audit since 2001, and that could open the door for a lengthy and expensive review of the committee’s financial records.

Cole spoke to members with notes detailing what he could — and could not — say, according to one member present. Conaway and Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.), who chairs the committee’s management team, also spoke.

But none gave members any more details about the alleged transgressions. And no one mentioned Ward’s name.

The former treasurer signed every FEC report the NRCC submitted from 1993 to 2003, and he was also affiliated with dozens of other Republican campaigns and leadership political action committees, some of which have already begun their own internal audits.

Ward has not responded to repeated attempts to seek comment.

In an effort to calm some of the most anxious Republicans, Cole said they could set up a private briefing with the committee’s general counsel, Don McGahn, to learn more, members said after the briefing. That way, lawmakers would be protected by attorney-client privilege.

But most members and aides have shown a distinct unwillingness to learn much more about the investigation for fear of getting ensnared in it.

The acknowledgment that the committee’s financial records might be inaccurate or falsified opens the possibility that the accounting problems could run much deeper than initially suggested in Cole’s original public statement on the matter.

Campaign committees are not required by law to perform an internal audit each year, a group of election lawyers said. But most corporations and large campaign committees do perform regular reviews to ensure their numbers match the reports they file with the FEC.

Cole, Conaway and Kline were careful not to suggest in the briefing that the committee had lost any money, members said. The NRCC, Conaway and Kline all refrained from public comment.

In the short term at least, House Republicans have rallied around Cole and his NRCC team, giving him a warm ovation during Thursday’s briefing.

“Tom Cole and the audit committee at the NRCC are doing everything to get to the bottom of it,” House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) told reporters after the briefing.
 

fff

Well-known member
Sandhusker said:
If you think both parties aren't doing the same crap, you're dangerously naive.

That's an interesting statement since we don't know what the Republicans are doing in this instance. That's why the FBI is investigating.
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
fff said:
Sandhusker said:
If you think both parties aren't doing the same crap, you're dangerously naive.

That's an interesting statement since we don't know what the Republicans are doing in this instance. That's why the FBI is investigating.

You forget all the Chinese money the DNC got? Both parties are as dirty as the other with payoff money.
 

fff

Well-known member
Sandhusker said:
fff said:
Sandhusker said:
If you think both parties aren't doing the same crap, you're dangerously naive.

That's an interesting statement since we don't know what the Republicans are doing in this instance. That's why the FBI is investigating.

You forget all the Chinese money the DNC got? Both parties are as dirty as the other with payoff money.

Is that what's being investigated? Strange, I thought the problem was "accounting errors", not illegal donations. :lol:
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
fff said:
Sandhusker said:
fff said:
That's an interesting statement since we don't know what the Republicans are doing in this instance. That's why the FBI is investigating.

You forget all the Chinese money the DNC got? Both parties are as dirty as the other with payoff money.

Is that what's being investigated? Strange, I thought the problem was "accounting errors", not illegal donations. :lol:

Yep-- Thats what this is- an accounting "error"....Looks like the air of corruption has gotten so bad in the country that the Repubs don't even mind ripping themselves/each other off...

Like a pack of coyotes fighting over a bone- but what can you expect when this Administration has promoted an era of "anythings OK to earn a fast buck, as long as you don't get caught" :???: ....
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
Accounting "errors", illegal "donations", it all belongs in the same file. It's money grubbing by corrupt politicians and we all lose.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Sandhusker said:
Accounting "errors", illegal "donations", it all belongs in the same file. It's money grubbing by corrupt politicians and we all lose.

But this time it isn't where the money came from they are looking at-- its where (and for who's benefits) did it go....

Nothing like a little fraud and embezzlement within the party ranks-- But don't worry if it helped a GW crony- then there is already a commutation or pardon waiting :wink: :lol: :lol: .....
 
Top