{"id":593573,"date":"2021-07-16T13:06:12","date_gmt":"2021-07-16T17:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=593573"},"modified":"2021-07-16T13:06:18","modified_gmt":"2021-07-16T17:06:18","slug":"received-a-fundraising-call-that-seemed-like-it-was-from-trump-it-could-be-from-this-scam-pac-operator-who-has-placed-3-8-billion-of-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/received-a-fundraising-call-that-seemed-like-it-was-from-trump-it-could-be-from-this-scam-pac-operator-who-has-placed-3-8-billion-of-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Received A Fundraising Call That Seemed Like It Was From Trump? It Could Be From This \u2018Scam-PAC\u2019 Operator Who Has Placed 3.8 Billion Of Them"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">50<\/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%2Freceived-a-fundraising-call-that-seemed-like-it-was-from-trump-it-could-be-from-this-scam-pac-operator-who-has-placed-3-8-billion-of-them%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=593573&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\/07\/GettyImages-1230641838-trump-cardboard-scaled-1.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>A 34-year old from Texas is behind two political action committees that raised millions of dollars purporting to help Donald Trump, but which instead funded a life of luxury for the PACs\u2019 operator.<\/p>\n<p>Groups called \u201cSupport American Leaders\u201d and \u201cCampaign to Support the President\u201d have made literally billions of robocalls in the last several years. Many play audio clips from former president Trump, which are spliced together from various real statements, and ask listeners to help him. Only at the end do they play a sped-up Disclaimer acknowledging that solicitation is actually for a third-party group.<\/p>\n<p>The two organizations have raised $3.4 million \u2014 most frequently from retirees \u2014 but none of it has gone to Trump\u2019s campaigns, and $738,000 has gone to Matthew Tunstall, who has flaunted the Gucci rings, designer apparel, and other riches funded by impersonating the Trump campaign, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2021\/07\/15\/politics\/kfile-pac-trump-robocall-operation\/index.html\">CNN<\/a> reported. It wrote:<\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"15\">\n<p>Throughout and after the 2020 presidential election cycle the PACs urged call recipients to help \u201csave President Trump from impeachment,\u201d and&nbsp;re-elect the President.<\/p>\n<p>And later, after Trump lost the 2020 election, the PACs\u2019 robocalls\u2019 began to echo Trump\u2019s lies that the election was fraudulent and stolen. A&nbsp;\u201cI\u2019m Donald Trump\u201d robocall&nbsp;in November and December 2020 opens with a recording of Trump asking people for \u201cemergency support\u201d to help \u201cthe campaign,\u201d and to help President Trump stop Democrats attempts to \u201csteal this election.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Adav Noti, a campaign finance expert at the Campaign Legal Center, told CNN that groups were typical of what\u2019s known as a \u201cscam PAC,\u201d one that \u201cexists primarily to raise money that is then paid to the PAC\u2019s own operators.\u201d In short, it places robocalls to pay for more robocalls.<\/p>\n<p>Even as the groups interrupt countless Americans\u2019 dinners with phone calls, there is no way to contact them: their listed phone numbers are not operational, CNN reported.<\/p>\n<p>The PACs received administrative fines from the Federal Election Commission last year for not reporting their financials on time, but it paid only $5 of the fines.<\/p>\n<p>And hundreds of thousands of dollars are unaccounted for in public filings, CNN said.<\/p>\n<p>Scam PACs harm the politicians whose names they invoke by draining the cash of people who might otherwise give to them.<\/p>\n<p>In February 2020, Scott B. Mackenzie, who operated dozens of scam PACs gobbling up conservative retirees\u2019 money without helping politicians \u2014 such as one called Conservative StrikeForce \u2014 was <a href=\"https:\/\/publicintegrity.org\/politics\/scam-pac-scott-mackenzie-court-justice-prison\/\">sentenced<\/a> to a year in prison. A prosecutor said scam PACs pose a \u201cvery real, menacing threat to our society.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 2013, Republican Ken Cuccinelli \u2014 who went on to serve in the Trump administration \u2014 lost the race for the Virginia governor\u2019s mansion by less than three percent. Cuccinelli might have had the resources needed to put him over the top if Mackenzie\u2019s PAC hadn\u2019t raised $500,000 in his name while only forwarding him $10,000, <a href=\"https:\/\/richmond.com\/news\/local\/government-politics\/cuccinelli-hopes-settlement-deters-scam-pacs\/article_71f677ee-dcca-51e1-afc9-336be2a56eba.html\">according<\/a> to a federal lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p>In 2014, Mackenzie\u2019s business partner Michael Centanni was sentenced to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/fundraiser-whose-firm-took-millions-from-conservatives-faces-child-porn-charges\">prison<\/a> for child porn.<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/m.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2011\/oct\/30\/operatives-raise-cash-for-cain-themselves\/\">2011<\/a>, when this reporter pointed out the group\u2019s track record, it wrapped itself in the banner of conservativism, claiming that anyone who criticized it was a liberal.<\/p>\n<p><i>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&nbsp;<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><i>member<\/i><\/a><i>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A 34-year old from Texas is behind two political action committees that raised millions of dollars purporting to help Donald Trump, but which instead funded a life of luxury for &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-593573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593573","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=593573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}