{"id":124835,"date":"2021-02-11T15:46:25","date_gmt":"2021-02-11T20:46:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=124835"},"modified":"2021-02-11T15:57:52","modified_gmt":"2021-02-11T20:57:52","slug":"report-anti-trump-lincoln-project-facing-questions-over-spending-practices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/report-anti-trump-lincoln-project-facing-questions-over-spending-practices\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Anti-Trump Lincoln Project Facing Questions Over Spending Practices"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Freport-anti-trump-lincoln-project-facing-questions-over-spending-practices%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=124835&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/GettyImages-1229280078.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>The embattled anti-Donald Trump group, the Lincoln Project, is facing questions over how it spent millions in donations, according to the Associated Press.<\/p>\n<p>In a report published Thursday about a growing \u201ccrisis\u201d within the group\u2019s ranks, stemming from allegations that one of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/lincoln-project-co-founder-admits-to-sending-inappropriate-messages-to-men\">its founding members harassed Lincoln Project employees,<\/a> the Associated Press indicates that the Lincoln Project directed millions of dollars meant to derail President Donald Trump\u2019s re-election on work done by firms connected to members of the group\u2019s hierarchy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf the $90 million Lincoln Project has raised, more than $50 million has gone to firms controlled by the group\u2019s leaders,\u201d the AP reported.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSince its creation, the Lincoln Project has raised $90 million,\u201d the outlet continued. \u201cBut only about a third of the money, roughly $27 million, directly paid for advertisements that aired on broadcast and cable, or appeared online, during the 2020 campaign, according to an analysis of campaign finance disclosures and data from the ad tracking firm Kantar\/CMAG.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat leaves tens of millions of dollars that went toward expenses like production costs, overhead \u2014 and exorbitant consulting fees collected by members of the group,\u201d the AP ultimately concluded. \u201cThe vast majority of the cash was split among consulting firms controlled by its founders, including about $27 million paid to a small firm controlled by [founder Reed] Galen and another $21 million paid to a boutique firm run by former Lincoln Project member Ron Steslow, campaign finance disclosures show.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A campaign finance expert told the outlet that the spending raised \u201cquestions about where the rest of the money ultimately went\u201d because typically, \u201ca major super PAC\u201d would \u201cspend a majority or more of their money on advertisements and that\u2019s not what happened here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The AP suggests that the Lincoln Project took swift action against John Weaver, the founder accused of making inappropriate contact with staffers, because it was concerned that fundraising could dry up. Indeed, now that Trump is out of office, the group\u2019s purpose is not as clear; recent reports from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/news\/2021\/01\/never-trump-dark-money-group-to-spend-millions-backing-pro-impeachment-republicans\/\">Open Secrets indicate<\/a> it was planning to pressure Republicans into voting to convict Trump during his second impeachment trial, and then partner with another anti-Trump Republican organization to bolster Republicans that ultimately voted against Trump in the Senate.<\/p>\n<p>The Lincoln Project\u2019s Steve Schmidt denies the two are connected, though he told the AP he would not open its books, deflecting blame back on Trump and prominent members of the former president\u2019s campaign and family.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe fully comply with the law,\u201d Schmidt told the outlet. \u201cThe Lincoln Project will be delighted to open its books for audit immediately after the Trump campaign and all affiliated super PACs do so, explaining the cash flow of the nearly $700 million that flowed through their organizations controlled by Brad Parscale and Jared Kushner.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson went a step further, calling the Associated Press\u2019s Thursday report a \u201chit story\u201d commissioned by \u201cTrump world,\u201d on Twitter, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/lincoln-project-rick-wilson-dismisses-weaver-report-trump-world\">per Fox News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Thursday\u2019s AP expose, though, is not the first deep dive into the Lincoln Project\u2019s finances. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jacobinmag.com\/2020\/11\/the-lincoln-project-donald-trump-gop-2020-elections\">Progressive outlet Jacobin<\/a>, no fan of President Donald Trump, suggested that the money leftists spent bankrolling the Lincoln Project might have been better used to organize.<\/p>\n<p><em><span>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<\/span><\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em><span>member<\/span><\/em><\/a><em><span>.&nbsp;<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The embattled anti-Donald Trump group, the Lincoln Project, is facing questions over how it spent millions in donations, according to the Associated Press. In a report published Thursday about a &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1893227,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[6430,4528,4145,4146,4245,3819],"class_list":["post-124835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-anti-trump","tag-facing","tag-lincoln","tag-project","tag-questions","tag-report"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1893227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}