WinRed PAC, a for-profit entity which built and maintains the WinRed campaign fundraising platform for Republican campaigns nationwide has reported to the FEC almost literally jack shit in operating expenses for the entirety of 2020, says a new report from the Daily Beast.
For comparison, per the Daily Beast, the Dem platform ActBlue, which WinRed is essentially a complete ripoff of, reported over $42 million in operating expenses and payables to vendors, while WinRed spent $1,502.22 – at a vendor called “WinRed Technical Services” for “merchandising”. Republican campaigns pay a pretty exorbitant 3.8% plus 30 cents per transaction processed on WinRed and have no idea where any of that pound of flesh is going and whom exactly is profiting.
The Daily Beast goes on to detail a potential loophole that WinRed is probably exploiting via the use of a “nonfederal” account, but the experts quoted aren’t sure if doing so is definitely legal given the total opacity. There’s a still-open complaint filed by liberal watchdog CREW over a similar campaign disclosure scam pulled by none other than the Orange Kingpin himself, per the Daily Beast.