Watchdog group seeks federal probe into allegation that Herschel Walker directed six-figure political contribution to his company

A watchdog group is asking federal election regulators to analyze whether or not Republican Herschel Walker violated marketing campaign finance legal guidelines throughout his unsuccessful 2022 US Senate bid in Georgia.

The criticism, filed Friday with the Federal Election Fee by Residents for Accountability and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, contains emails printed earlier this week by The Each day Beast that seem to point out Walker soliciting a big donation for his marketing campaign from Montana billionaire Dennis Washington after which directing Washington’s consultant to ship greater than $530,000 of the whole to Walker’s private firm, HR Expertise.

Federal legislation restricts the scale of donations that people can contribute on to a candidate’s marketing campaign, and candidates are prohibited from soliciting donations that exceed these limits.

The criticism alleges that the emails present that Walker solicited contributions “far in extra” of the boundaries and asks the fee to analyze, “impose sanctions applicable to those violations, and take such additional motion as could also be applicable, together with referring this matter to the Division of Justice for prison prosecution.”

CNN’s repeated makes an attempt to succeed in Walker on Friday have been unsuccessful. The Each day Beast has stated that Walker didn’t reply to requests for touch upon its reporting.

Walker misplaced his Senate bid to Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock in a December runoff.

In an announcement, Jon Bennion, a spokeperson for Washington, confirmed {that a} “sure portion” of the household’s political contributions went to a “non-political account.” As soon as found, he wrote, “the Washingtons instantly requested and acquired a full refund of such funds.”

Bennion stated Washington’s workforce would haven’t any additional touch upon the matter.

In its criticism, CREW argues that soliciting extra marketing campaign contributions – even when later refunded – nonetheless quantities to a violation of federal rules.

“The proof we’ve seen to date raises so many questions on what was actually happening right here that solely a right away and thorough investigation will suffice,” the group’s president, Noah Bookbinder, stated in an announcement.

Citing company coverage, officers within the FEC press workplace stated Friday they may not verify whether or not the fee had acquired the criticism or in any other case touch upon it.