FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION 999 E Street, N.W. Wasfaington, D.C. 20463 FIRST GENERAL COUNSEL'S REPORT CELA MUR: 6276 8 DATE COMPLAINT FILED: April 20,2010 9 DATE OF NOTIFICATION: April 27,2010 10 LAST RESPONSE RECEIVED: June 16,2010 11 DATE ACTIVATED: June 28,2010 HI 12 cn 13 EXPIRATION OF SOL: 14 Earliest Dec. 23,2014/Latest Feb. 5,2015 CP IS 16 COMPLAINANT: Mark Brewer 17 18 Chair, Michigan Democratic Party 19 RESPONDENTS: 20 Ron Weiser 21 Michigan Republican Stote Committee and 22 Carl Meyers, in his official capacity as treasurer 23 Ken McKay 24 Michael Steele 25 Republican National Committee and Randall 26 Pullen, in his official capacity as treasurer 27 Albert Berriz 28 Paula Berriz 29 Gaylen Byker 30 Thomas Celani 31 Vicki Celani 32 Michael Ferrantino 33 Kellie Feiiantino 34 Michael Jandemoa 35 Susan Jandemoa 36 John Kennedy 37 Nancy Kennedy 38 Robert Lynas 39 Joyce Lynas 40 William Parfet 41 Robert Thompson 42 William Young 43 Vivienne Young MUR 6276 (Weiser, era/.) First General Counsers Report 1 RELEVANT STATUTES I 2U.S.C.§437g(a)(l) 2 AND REGULATIONS: r 2U.S.C.§441a(a) 3 I 2U.S.C.§441a(f) 4 i 2U.S.C.§441f s 11 C.F.R.§ 110.1(h) 6 11 C.F.R.§ 110.6 7 11 C.F.R.§ 111.4 8 9 INTERN/^ REPORTS CHECKEO: Disclosure Reports 10 11 FEDERAL AGENCIES CHECKE >. None rH 12 cn 13 1. INTRODUCTION 04 14 The complaint in this mattejt' alleges that the Michigan Republican State Committee cn i: 04 IS (''Michigan Republican Party*' or *'^4RP"), its Chairman, Ron Weiser, the Republican National Q «1 n 16 Committee ("RNC^. its Chairmanl Michael Steele, former RNC Chief of Staff Ken McKay, and 17 17 individual donors (collectively ^Respondents**) knowingly and willfully evaded individual 18 contribution limits, which resulted Sn excessive contributions to the MRP in violation ofthe 19 Federal Election Campaign Act of 971, as amended ("die Act**). According to the complaint, 20 the excessive contributions resultec when Michigan-based donors who made direct contributions 21 to the MRP subsequently made dirkt contributions collectively totaling $465,000 to the RNC in 22 December 2009 that were earmark^ for die MRP. The complaint alleges that die RNC, in tum, I 23 U^sferred those earmarked funds io the MRP in January and February 2010. 24 As discussed in further detafl below, the allegations are not supported by available i 25 information, and are rebutted by sp^ific swom denials submitted by die Respondents. 26 Therefore, we recommend that the [commission find no reason to believe that tfae Respondents 27 violated the Act by making or accepting excessive contributions in violation of 2 U.S.C. 28 §441a(a)(l)or441a(f). MUR 6276 (Weiser. et al.) ' 3 First General Counsel's Repoit | 1 n. FACTUAL AND LEGAll ANALYSIS i 2 A. Factual Summary 3 i 4 The complaint alleges that ^ntributions made to tfae RNC by some of the MRP*s donors 5 in late 2009 were made as part of d| scheme to knowingly and willfully evade die contribution 6 limits of die Act. The complaint cjtes to a news article from The Daily Caller intemet news site I CO 7 CDaUy Caller article") and to the jlNC^s disclosure reports filed with the Commission in 04 ^ 8 support ofthe allegations. 04 r ^ 190 if die statThee partDailyy coulCalledr raise articl hale describef a milliosn a dollar schems efo rin di whice RNhC th *teo RNincreasC ande ththee MRRNC'P agrees 200d9 tha t O 11 fundraising numbers," then the RNC would "give the money back" to the MRP in the next 12 calendar year.' The article quotes ^ unnamed "former RNC official" who explained that,'*[i]t I 13 was a known secret that a deal had been struck on the topic,** that it would benefit the MRP by 14 "getting guaranteed money," and b ^neflt the RNC by helping it reach fundraising goals, and 15 allow donora **to give more monetoy th e Michigan state party than the federal limit of 1 Ok." 16 The complaint alleges tfaat MichaeSteele . Chairman of die RNC, and Ken McKay, RNC Chief 17 of Staff, were "behind the deal wit$ Michigan party chair Ron Weiser." Complaint at 2. 18 The complaint also cites to the RNCs disclosure reports filed with the Commission, 19 which show that seventeen Michig^ donore contributed the maximum allowed to the RNC 20 totaling $456,000, on December 2?, and December 31,2009. Complaint at 2. Disclosure reports 21 also showed that the RNC made ap|)roximately $500,000 in disbursements to the MRP in 22 ' See Alex Pappas. Former RNC official}, Steele strudc a deal with Midugan GOP to increase Jundraising numbers, possibly to circumvent federal fimdraising Umits, April 7,2010, http-7/dailvcaller.coni/2010/04/Q7/fonner- mc-official-steele-struck-a-deal-with-iniclugan-gop-to-iiicrease-fundraislrie-num federri-funding-limits flast visited September 10.2010). MUR 6276 (Weiser, e/a/.) : 4 First General Counsel's Report ! 1 January and February 2010. Id. A|Bcording to disclosure reports, five ofthe individual donora 2 had contributed the maximum to tliie MRP in 2009. 3 ' The Daily Caller article in4icates that Weiser, through a spokeswoman, denied any sort 4 of deal stating that, "Michigan donora have a long history of contributing to the RNC and fhe 5 RNC has a long history of supporting Michigan GOP efiforts." However, the article noted that an I ts, 6 MRP representative stated that she! was not aware of any specific December fundraising events fi [ ^ 7 to explain the large donations, indijbating only that many large donore make contribution 04 i ^ 8 decisions at the end of the year, lie article also notes that none of Michigan's senatora are up ' I 9 for election in 2010, that the state's primaries are held later than edier states, yet Michigan . 10 received the most money fiom the kNC of all the states in January and Februaiy 2010. In 11 response, an MRP representative a; }parently explained to the Daily Caller that the Michigan 12 GOP began its victory program "ei rlier than any other state in the country." Complaint I 13 Atbichment {Daily Caller Article). I- 14 All of the respondents deny[ violations of the Act. The MRP, Ron Weiser, Ken McKay, 15 and fourteen (14) of the'individual Icontributore submitted a joint response to the complaint j 16 (*'MRP Response") that included 1^ swom afiRdavits.^ The response challenges the sufficiency j, 17 ofthe complaint because it was ba^ on infonnation from a press article quoting an anonymous 18 source and denies diat there was ariy scheme to evade the $10,000 annual limit to the MRP. I 19 MRP Response at 2, Weiser Affidajyit at \ 3, and McKay Affidavit at H 3. The response explains 20 that Chainnan Weiser solicited c4ibuti„ns for the RNC fiom nine ofthe named respondents 2\ \ il* ' The fourteen contributors included in die MRP Response are the following: 1) Gaylen Byker, 2) Thomas Celani, 3) Vicki Celani. 4) Michael Fenantino, S)iKellie Fenantino. 6) Michael Jandemoa, 7) Susan Jandemoa. 8) John Kennedy, 9) Nancy Kennedy, 10) Robert pynas, 11) Joyce Lynas, 12) William Par&t, 13) William Young, and 14) Vivienne Young. MUR 6276 (Weiser, et ai) 5 First Geneial Counsel's Report 1 and that Robert Schostak, die MRPfs Finance Chairman, solicited one additional conuibution. 2 The MRP Response acknowledges ihat certain Michigan-based donore made contributions to the 3 RNC and diat the RNC transferred ^ds to die MRP in January and February 2010, but it asserts 4 that the complaint distorts the contribution and transfer history in an effort to demonstrate a link 5 between the contributions and transjfera. MRP Response at 3-4. It points out that, in addition to «0 6 the $456,000 in contributions ident^ed in the complaint, nine other Michigan residents made cn 7 maximum conUributions of $30,400leach to die RNC, totaling $273,600, from November 18 <M : ^ 8 through December 23,2009. Id. Tjie response also states that the complainant ignored seven 9 transfera fit)m the RNC to the MRI^ that were completed between June 2009 and May 2010, ^ 10 totaling $256,967.72. MRP Response at 5-6. ^ 11 In response to the complainant's questioning of contributions made by donore who had 12 never previously contributed to the IRNC and by othere who had never previously contributed the 13 annual maximum, the MRP points put that 13 of the 17 named respondents had contributed to i 14 the RNC in the past, and 11 had previously contributed die maximum annual amount. MRP 15 Response 3. The MRP also notes that only a small number of the 17 individual contributors ' 16 named in the complaint had contributed die maximum $10,000 annual amount to the MRP in 17 2009.^ Id. atl. The Committee aigues that "it is simply not tfae case that a history of lawful i 18 contributions, or a history of not m^ing contributions, can properly be viewed an evidence of an 19 Mllegal scheme' in an enforcement batter." Id at 3. 20 ^ While the MRP's disclosure reports indicate that only five of die 17 individual respondents had contributed the annual maximum to the MRP in 2009. the^ also show tiiat another ei^t of the 17 respondents contributed $9,000 to the MRP in 2009 and that most of thos^respondents also contributed the maximum to the MRP's Levin account. Four ofthe 17 respondents did not contribjite to the MRP at all in 2009.