{"id":31190,"date":"2023-03-15T16:58:23","date_gmt":"2023-03-15T20:58:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=31190"},"modified":"2023-03-15T16:58:27","modified_gmt":"2023-03-15T20:58:27","slug":"desantis-office-slams-trump-super-pac-ethics-complaint-as-frivolous-and-politically-motivated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2023\/03\/15\/desantis-office-slams-trump-super-pac-ethics-complaint-as-frivolous-and-politically-motivated\/","title":{"rendered":"DeSantis\u2019 office slams Trump super PAC ethics complaint as \u2018frivolous and politically motivated\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

According to documents obtained<\/a> by NBC News<\/a>, former President Donald Trump-supporting super PAC \u201cMake America Great Again Inc.\u201d filed a legal complaint with the Florida Commission on Ethics for violating ethics and election laws via a \u201cshadow presidential campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 office told Florida\u2019s Voice they are \u201cadding this to the list of frivolous and politically motivated attacks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s inappropriate to use state ethics complaints for partisan purposes,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The complaint alleged that there is \u201cstrong evidence\u201d of DeSantis breaking various campaign-related laws, arguing that some of the activities that have helped the governor\u2019s \u201cascension to the national stage\u201d being funded by \u201ca vast network of political committees\u201d and other groups are evidence of illegal activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[They] are in furtherance of his personal financial gain at the expense of Florida taxpayers, and are intended to influence his official decision to resign from office. It is no secret that Governor DeSantis aspires to national prominence,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They described DeSantis as a \u201cde facto candidate for President of the United States under federal election laws.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The complaint said that DeSantis\u2019 \u201cfailure to declare\u201d an official 2024 candidacy is a \u201ccoordinated effort\u201d so that he may accept \u201cillegal campaign contributions and certain personal benefits\u201d meant to influence any decision to resign from office to become president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notably, the filing argued that one of DeSantis\u2019 \u201cillegal gifts\u201d includes being hosted as a speaker across the country for his \u201cThe Courage to Be Free\u201d book tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe primary purpose of this scheme is to benefit, directly and indirectly, Governor DeSantis by elevating his national prominence and enriching organizations that support his federal candidacy,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The super PAC\u2019s complaint was sent to Ethics Commission Chairman Glenton Gilzean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The complaint concluded that the commission must investigate \u201cas soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo person is above the law, not even the Governor,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DeSantis\u2019 book launched on Feb. 28. After, DeSantis spoke across both Florida and the country, recently traveling to Iowa and Nevada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The governor also headlined various Republican club dinners, including in Texas and California, to promote the idea of a \u201cFlorida Blueprint,\u201d as laid out in his book.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to documents obtained by NBC News, former President Donald Trump-supporting super PAC \u201cMake America Great Again Inc.\u201d filed a legal complaint with the Florida Commission on Ethics for violating ethics and election… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31191,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[4768],"class_list":["post-31190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-desantis-office-slams-trump-super-pac-ethics-complaint-as-frivolous-and-politically-motivated"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}