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MUR#Nb5 • •• ^ W' 2S Fil I! 03 MUR#nb5 • •• ^ W' 2S fil i! 03 October 24,2016 VIA FEDEX Office of General Counsel Federal Election Commission 999 E Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20463 RE: Complaint 4 Complainant: Tuckerman Babcock, Chairman Alaska Republican Party 1 Respondents: Joe Miller, Citizens for Joe Miller, Inc. and Restoring Liberty, LLC 4 2 Dear Office of General Counsel: The purpose of this letter is to file a formal complaint against Joe Miller, the Libertarian Party of Alaska candidate for United States Senate, as well as his campaign committee. Citizens for Joe Miller, Inc., and Restoring Liberty, LLC, a limited liability company owned and controlled by Mr. Miller. The above individual and entities ("Respondents") have committed numerous serious violations of the Federal Election Commission Act and regulations. In general, these violations appear specifically intended to mislead the public in the following ways: 1) conceal from the public his campaign's acceptance of unlawful corporate contributions; 2) concoct and report false "in-kind" contributions that don't actually exist creating a false impression of the sources and level of support for his candidacy; and 3) concealing and omitting many thousands of dollars in expenditures occurring in the third quarter for the purpose of creating the false impression that Miller's campaign has more resources available to it than, in reality, it does. Additionally, Miller's campaign has repeatedly negligently failed to include required disclaimers on communications and materials. As established by the documents and evidence filed herewith—including Miller's own Third Quarter FEC report—^the Respondents have: • Made illegal corporate contributions to the Miller Campaign. • Illegally accepted extremely valuable in kind contributions from corporate sponsors. • Illegally accepted unlawful or excess contributions in the form of free rent for a headquarters. • Accepted email and other lists from corporate entities without paying fair value. Office of General Counsel Federal Election Commission October 24,2016 Page |2 • Transferred use of corporate Twitter and Facebook accounts without paying fair value. • Placed a direct link to his U.S. Senate campaign on a for-profit corporate website without paying fair value. • Made ntimerous solicitations for campaign donations without a proper disclaimer. • 'Utilized yard signs and other materials with inaccurate disclaimers. • Solicited donations via radio communications without a proper disclaimer. • Failure to properly disclose various receipts and expenditures. • Fabricated certain "in-kind" contributions. On September 16, 2016, Joseph "Joe" Miller filed a Statement of Candidacy for U.S. Senate r^resenting the Alaska Libertarian Party. His principal campaign committee is Citizens for Joe Miller. Restoring Liberty, LLC is a limited liability company registered with the State of Alaska, Division of Corporations, Business and Professional Licensing. (Exhibit A) Restoring Liberty was created on May 19,2011 for the purpose of "all other information services", and Josq)h Miller is the sole member. Restoring Liberty maintains a news website (joemiller.us), and sends out a daily list serve email. Joe Miller reported in his candidate financial disclosures that he received a salary and/or distributions from Restoring Liberty, LLC in the amount of $22,744.00. (Exhibit B) These distributions make clear that Restoring Liberty is a for profit company. Following Joe Miller's statement of candidacy, Joe Miller and/or Citizens for Joe Miller immediately began using the Restoring Liberty website almost solely as a campaign website, both failing to include any disclaimers and accepting patently unlawful corporate donations. The website posted several articles specifically advocating for the election of Joe Miller and the defeat of incumbent Senator Lisa Murkowski. In addition. Restoring Liberty began directly posting press releases firom Citizens for Joe Miller without providing any disclaimer. These were not articles regarding the issues raised in the releases—^rather the releases were simply re-posted and distributed verbatim to Restoring Liberty's thousands of readers. This information in identical format was also included in the emails that were sent out on the Restoring Liberty list serve. (Exhibit C) The Restoring Liberty website has several corporate sponsors who are listed on joemiller.us. (Exhibit D) It is unknown whether the site has additional, undisclosed corporate sponsors.. As described herein and demonstrated in the attached exhibits. Restoring Liberty has been used as the de facto campaign site for Mr. Miller's 2016 campaign. Joe Miller and his campaign have thus illegally accepted corporate contributions from Restoring Liberty and its corporate sponsors who are financing the ongoing operations of Restoring Liberty which Mr. Miller has used principally to support his campaign since aimouncing his candidacy. In addition. Restoring Liberty contains direct links to Joe Miller's social media sites, especially Facebook and Twitter. The links from the corporate Restoring Liberty website to these Office of General Cormsel Federal Election Commission October 24,2016 Page |3 social media sites are illegal corporate contiibutioiis. Joe Miller's Twitter account has been continuously used for many years but was rebranded following his candidacy for office. Prior to his campaign, he used Twitter to post Restoring Liberty articles. The transfer of the Twitter account from a corporate account to a campaign account is especially concerning given the value of the 10,000+ followers on Miller's Twitter page prior to his campaign aimouncement. (Exhibit E) Miller likewise maintained a Facebook account that has been continuously used but has also recently been utilized by his campaign, and at times without disclaimers. Also as with Twitter, there is great concern given the value of access to those multiple thousands of individuals who followed him on Facebook prior to his campaign announcement. (Exhibit F) Finally, a link was recently added to the Restoring Liberty website entitled "US Senate Campaign" which directs users of that corporate website to the Citizens for Joe Miller campaign website, where of course they are immediately asked to contribute. (Exhibit G) It appears that Restoring Liberty made a further illegal donation in the form of the email list that it maintains. Multiple emails appear to have been sent out using that e-mail list by Citizens for Joe Miller containing donation solicitations. Furthermore, the email signup on the Restoring Liberty website and the campaign page are substantially similar and may deposit to the same repository. The transfer of these emails fi:om Restoring Liberty to Joe Miller or Citizens for Joe Miller without value paid constitutes a substantial illegal corporate contribution given the value of each email and the volume of emails illegally donated. This particular offense is particularly serious considering that the actual revenue value of email addresses is estimated to be as high as $40 each.^ Furthermore, the intentional nature of this offense is demonstrated by the fact that Miller's own FEC rqiort demonstrates that he is aware that such lists have substantial cash value. (Exhibit M, p. 63) An email was sent from the Restoring Liberty, LLC website on September 12, 2016 with the subject: "I need your help. Patriot." That email advocated the defeat of incumbent Senator Lisa Murkowski and requested donations to the campaign for Joe Miller. However, the email failed to include any disclaimer indicating who paid for the communication. (Exhibit H) Joe Miller maintains a YouTube channel located here fhttDs://www.voutube:coin/user/JoeMiiierlJS'l. This channel contains several endorsements, as well as a number of advertisements ads. There is also a radio ad that is included on tiie channel that includes title campaign sign - it does not include any type of disclaimer. In addition. Citizens for Joe Miller has failed to include required campaign disclaimers on multiple items. He has sought solicitations on his various internet platforms without including the required disclaimers. Joe Miller and his campaign have posted campaign signs without the required disclaimers or with incorrect disclaimers. (Exhibit I) This was of particular concern ^ http;//www.maTketmgprofs.coin/articlesy2014/24419/detenniiung-subscnber-value-whats-an-einail-list-member- wor& Office of General Counsel Federal Election Conunission October 24,2016 Page 14 where Joe Miller was soliciting donations with the specific purpose of paying for airtime to play certain campaign advertisements, but the page contained no disclaimer. (Exhibit J) Most recently, on October 19,2016, Joe Miller further utilized corporate resources in order to publish an editorial advocating for the defeat of Senator Lisa Murkowski. (Exhibit K) Joe h/hller appears to be recruiting poll watchers through a third-party website. His campaign pictures are posted, however the website again contains no disclaimer. (Exhibit L) On October 16,2016, the most recent quarterly disclosure report of Citizens for Joe Miller was acknowledged as received. (Exhibit M) This report demonstrates that Joe Miller and Citizens for Joe Miller have failed to properly record certain income and expenditures, while at the same time inflating odier expenditures. The following examples demonstrate the campaign's failure to comply with law and regulation: .• Citizens for Joe Miller claims an in-kind donation from the Alaska Republican Party
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