Matt Gaetz’s campaign paid $ 20,000 to Trump crony Roger Stone’s company

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Florida Republican campaign committee Matt Gaetz paid at least $ 20,000 to a company alleging the Department of Justice used GOP political operation Roger Stone and his wife to avoid paying taxes, it showed the campaign financial reports.

Gaetz’s campaign paid the company, Drake Ventures LLC, for “Strategic Campaign Consulting” for three months, according to the committee’s Federal Election Commission quarterly submission, the latest of which came out Thursday.

That filing, which showed the campaign collecting nearly $ 1.45 million and spending more than $ 1.9 million between April and June, also revealed more than $ 825,000 was spent on the Logan Circle Group, the public relations firm Gaetz as news broke that he was involved with a federal. sex-trafficking probe. Gaetz has not been charged criminally and denies all wrongdoing.

The Logan Circle Group is led by Harlan Hill, who was banned from appearing on Fox News after tweeting that Vice President Kamala Harris “came out as an invulnerable lie b —-.”

Gaetz’s campaign also paid $ 50,000 in legal fees during the quarter, half of which went to the law office of Marc Fernich, the defense attorney whose known clients include late sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, convicted drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and long -dead mob boss John Gotti.

The Gaetz campaign paid Stone’s company in four separate chunks of $ 5,000, documents showed. The FEC filing list of a Fort Lauderdale address for Drake Ventures associated with Stone, who lives near the coastal town of Florida.

The first of those installments came in late March, less than a week before The New York Times first reported that the Department of Justice was investigating whether Gaetz had sex with a 17-year-old. girl and paid for her trip with him. The second $ 5,000 payment went to Stone three days after the news broke.

Gaetz’s friend, former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg, pleaded guilty in May to a range of crimes in the case reportedly provided an investigation involving Gaetz. Greenberg is working with federal prosecutors.

The other two payments to Drake Ventures came after the DOJ in mid-April filed a civil lawsuit against Stone and wife Nydia Stone, alleging the couple used the company as an “alter ego” in an attempt to “shield on their personal income from implementing the collection and fund a luxurious lifestyle. “

“They used Drake Ventures to receive payments that would be personally payable to Roger Stone, pay their personal expenses, protect their assets, and avoid reporting taxable income to the IRS,” the DOJ wrote in legal. its complaint.

The Stones owe nearly $ 2 million in unpaid federal taxes and other fees, the DOJ said in the lawsuit, which was filed in federal district court in Fort Lauderdale.

Federal lawyers also accused the Stones of seeking to “defraud the United States” by using assets in Drake Ventures accounts to buy their home in the name of a separate trust.

Stone called the lawsuit “politically motivated.”

“Our FEC filings speak for themselves,” a Gaetz spokesman said in an email to CNBC on Thursday night. “Despite the endless influx of lies from the media, Congressman Gaetz continues to be among the most spectacular fundraisers in Congress and the only Republican who does not accept donations from federal lobbyist or PAC. He is grateful for his tens of thousands of donors and commitment to always fight them. “

Details are lacking about the nature of the “strategic campaign consulting” services provided by the Gaetz campaign company.

“I’m not interested in discussing the case or saying anything on the record,” Brian Harris, an attorney representing Stone and Drake Ventures in the DOJ lawsuit, said in a brief phone call to CNBC before hanging up .

Stone did not respond to CNBC queries about payments from Gaetz’s campaign committee. Two other attorneys representing Stones and Drake Ventures, Derick Vollrath and Jeffrey Neiman, did not comment.

Stone and Gaetz are both Florida residents, and both are loyal to former President Donald Trump, who has lived at his Palm Beach golf club since leaving office in January.

Trump in late December pardoned Stone, 68, who was convicted of lying to Congress under oath.

CNBC’s Brian Schwartz contributed to this report.

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