CREW: FEC: Regarding Donation to US Treasury by Sen. Landrieu's Campaign Committee

On November 20, 2009, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) against Sen. Mary Landrieu’s (D-LA) campaign committee, Friends of Mary Landrieu, Inc. The complaint concerns a mysterious $25,300 “donation” to the U.S. Treasury made last year by Sen. Landrieu’s campaign. According to reports filed with the FEC, the senator’s campaign made the donation on August 7, 2008. The campaign committee likely discovered it had accepted illegal contributions. In such cases, campaigns generally return the contributions to the original donors. In this case, however, the committee chose to turn over the contributions to the U.S. Treasury. When asked about the payment to the Treasury, campaign committee lawyer Marc Elias refused to explain the circumstances, insisting the campaign was protecting the identity of the contributors who “are private citizens who in most instances may not have done anything wrong . . . .”