Ted Cruz Faces FEC Complaint Over Podcast Dumping Money Into Super PAC
Source: Daily Beast
Updated Apr. 09, 2024 12:00PM EDT / Published Apr. 09, 2024 11:58AM EDT
Ted Cruz’s sketchy podcast deal may now face federal scrutiny, as a campaign finance watchdog filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday over radio giant iHeartMedia funneling more than $630,000 into a super PAC backing the Republican senator’s re-election bid. The complaint, filed jointly by the Campaign Legal Center (CLC) and End Citizens United, argued that the agreement between the Texas senator and iHeartMedia “brazenly” violates federal election laws.
They also accused Cruz of directing funds into the Truth and Courage PAC, which describes itself as “ensuring that Ted Cruz is re-elected to the United States Senate in 2024.” The filing also comes as campaign finance and government ethics experts recently told The Daily Beast that the podcast deal raises a slew of sticky legal and ethical issues, and at the very least signals the GOP lawmaker “characteristically darkening the gray area” and testing legal limits.
At the heart of the matter is The Verdict, a podcast the senator first launched in late 2020. Cruz eventually partnered with iHeartMedia in October 2022 to produce and distribute the show, which the senator described as a “big damn deal.” The CLC soon after filed a complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee over the senator receiving gifts from iHeartMedia, a registered lobbyist. In the end, both Cruz and iHeartMedia claimed that the senator wasn’t getting compensated and the complaint was dropped.
Last month, however, alarm bells were once again sounded over the podcast deal when Truth and Courage’s FEC reports showed that iHeartMedia had dumped more than $630,000 worth of “digital revenue” into the PAC’s coffers over the past year, accounting for roughly a third of its cash raised. A spokesperson for the radio company said the payments were “associated with” advertising sales for Cruz’s podcast, once again insisting the lawmaker has merely volunteered his time to the thrice-weekly podcast and is not actually paid to host.
Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/ted-cruz-faces-fec-complaint-over-podcast-dumping-money-into-super-pac?ref=home?ref=home
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