It seems like every other day there is a new story about how President Donald Trump, or someone in his office, has been doing something that toes the line of legality. One issue Trump clearly gives zero importance to is copyright infringement, as he often includes music in his campaigns that he has no rights to use, much to the chagrin of the artist in question. Just the other day, we saw the Reagan foundation demand that Trump cease using the former president's likeness for his personal campaign fundraising. The other week, it was Linkin Park, who forced Trump to stop using their song "In The End" for his campaign purposes. It's also happened with The Rolling Stones and Tom Petty -- and these incidents were from the past two months alone.
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Nonetheless, using a song without permission may seem like small fry compared to the latest accusation against Trump's campaign. The Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint on Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission that claims Trump's campaign "'disguised' nearly $170 million of campaign spending by 'laundering' the funds through companies led by former campaign manager Brad Parscale or created by Trump campaign lawyers," Business Insider states.
The Campaign Legal Center concludes that Trump is in violation of federal campaign transparency rules, because he is essentially hiding payments that are being made, not only to members of his family, but to advertising contractors and senior staff, as part of his campaign spending.
Trevor Potter, the Campaign Legal Center's president and a former Republican chairman of the FEC, says of the matter:
"Voters have a clear right under the law to know how campaigns are spending money to influence elections. Without this information, they certainly should be asking, 'what is the Trump campaign hiding?'"
We'll have to see what comes of this latest complaint with the FEC.
