Congresswoman Maxine Waters’ campaign was found guilty of violating multiple election laws and ordered to pay $68,000.
The FEC is ordering the campaign committee of Waters to pay the fine for multiple campaign finance violations during her 2020 reelection campaign.
The FEC said the campaign didn’t correctly report how much money it was taking in or spending in 2020 – accounting for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
It also accepted donations that were over the legal limit ($19,000) and made $7,000 in cash payments, which is against the rules.
To settle the issue without going to court, the campaign agreed to pay the fine and send its treasurer, David Gould, to an FEC training program within a year to learn the rules.
The campaign said the mistakes weren’t on purpose and were just errors. They’ve fixed their financial reports and returned or redirected the extra donations
This is not the first time Waters’ campaign has been in the spotlight for financial reasons.
In fact, in 2023 Waters’ campaign paid her daughter, Karen Waters, $192,300 for a “slate mailer” operation between January 2021 and December 2022.
The money was part of over $1.2 million paid to her daughter since 2004 for campaign work.
Additionally, in 2010, the House Ethics Committee investigated Waters for alleged conflict-of-interest violations related to assistance provided to a bank linked to her husband.
Many online critics are calling the fine a “slap on the wrist” with others pointing out that if she was a Republican she would be “expelled from Congress and be under an FBI investigation looking at prison time”
The $68,000 fine ends the FEC’s probe.
