[卡尔]特朗普盟友的选举团体烧毁了数百万美元，却没有证据表明存在广泛的欺诈行为

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共和党总统候选人、美国前总统唐纳德·特朗普于 2024 年 2 月 23 日在美国南卡罗来纳州罗克希尔举行的南卡罗来纳州共和党总统初选之前在温思罗普体育馆举行的竞选集会上发表讲话。

香农·斯特普尔顿 |

路透社

前总统唐纳德·特朗普的盟友为打击所谓的“选民欺诈”而成立的几个组织现在几乎没有资金或成果来展示他们的努力。

特朗普错误地声称，他在 2020 年大选中输给了乔·拜登总统，只是因为普遍存在的选票欺诈和其他违规行为，这也是这些非营利组织和政治行动委员会成立的动力。

但对这些团体来说，一个突出的问题是联邦和州官员一再揭穿特朗普的欺诈指控。

导致一些团体失败的另一个问题是，他们未能从共和党事实上的领导人特朗普那里获得任何筹款帮助，而特朗普仍然是美国普遍存在的选民欺诈虚假指控的主要推动者。

CNBC 审查的新税务和竞选财务记录显示，追求“选举诚信”并没有为特朗普轨道上的几个团体带来回报。

在某些情况下，这些组织在其公共纳税申报表上声明的使命在成立时并不透明。

其他记录引发了关于几个实体的资金用途的疑问。

帕斯卡尔的选举舞弊网络崩溃

选举诚信工作领域中一个值得注意的消失是美国伟大组织，这是一个由前特朗普竞选经理布拉德·帕斯卡尔创立的亲特朗普团体网络。

帕斯卡尔于 2021 年宣布，他将在“美国伟大”的保护下成立一个非营利组织、一个 PAC 和一个名为“选举诚信联盟”的附属团体。

他当时告诉 Axios 新闻网站，“美国伟大”将“提供透明的数据研究和可视化，这将提供所有需要的、正在进行的和已完成的投票诚信努力的准确的逐州汇总。”

2019 年 8 月 15 日，美国新罕布什尔州曼彻斯特，特朗普 2020 年竞选经理布拉德·帕斯卡尔 (Brad Parscale) 在美国总统唐纳德·特朗普 (Donald Trump) 与支持者集会之前向人群发表讲话。

乔纳森·恩斯特 |

路透社

同样，选举诚信联盟的使命是结束选举舞弊。

如今，美国的伟大已基本崩溃。

目前还不清楚它是否完成了任何既定目标。

不再领导该组织的帕斯卡尔和另外两名前董事会成员没有回复置评请求。

但一位熟悉该组织的人士表示，尽管帕斯卡尔做出了承诺，但该组织从未提供透明的数据研究和可视化来帮助处理与投票相关的事务。该人士被要求匿名讨论私人对话。

The nonprofit headed into 2023 with only about $195,000 on hand. A year earlier, it raised $550,000 and spent all but around $50,000 of that, tax records show.

American Greatness last year changed its name to the Jefferson Rising Fund, and was taken over by former Trump campaign aide Katrina Pierson.

Pierson, who is now running for the Texas state House, told CNBC that she since has "left the organization shortly after formation" and is "unaware of who is on the board or their current activities."

Republican political consultant Katrina Pierson arrives at Trump Tower, December 14, 2016 in New York City. This is the first major meeting between President-elect Trump and technology industry leaders.

Drew Angerer | Getty Images

Recent disclosure reports show that the American Greatness nonprofit since changing its name to the Jefferson Rising Fund brought on a lobbyist to take on Biden's policies affecting the oil and gas industry.

The affiliated PAC hasn't fared much better than its sister nonprofit.

The PAC entered 2024 with about $123,000 on hand. And it raised just $176 for all of 2023, records show.

The PAC spent much of the $550,000 it received from oil and gas magnate Tim Dunn during the 2022 election cycle on a variety of consultants, according to the records.

Dunn and the Jefferson Rising Fund did not return a request for comment.

No money was spent on supporting pro-Trump candidates, despite then-PAC Chairman Jim Renacci, a former Ohio congressman, saying two years ago that was part of the group's plans, records show.

But payments by the PAC to consultants last year included $80,000 toward Pierson's firm PCG and another $80,000 payment to K.F.6 Partners, an Israel-based firm.

The power of Trump's favor

Unlike the American Greatness PAC and the nonprofit, the Election Integrity Alliance was launched with a board made up of well-known figures in Trump's orbit. Several of those people played key roles in Trump's failed effort to overturn the 2020 election.

Former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik were listed on the website as members of the alliance's national board in 2021.

"TheElection Integrity Alliancewill unite groups and efforts across the nation focused on combating election fraud," the group's now-defunct website trumpeted in 2021.

"Election Integrity Alliance will be a centralized hub that gives tools to enact meaningful change for the American people."

The website also had links to a "scorecard" page, where the group said it would "evaluate the integrity of elections in key states."

But to carry out its grand plans, the Election Integrity Alliance aimed to secure an elusive prize: Trump's personal endorsement.

In summer 2021, several board members traveled to New York to meet with Trump at his office in Trump Tower. They asked the former president to designate their group the official hub for election integrity work by Trump allies, according to a source who was granted anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Cleta Mitchell group depletes cash

Another election integrity group is run by Trump-allied conservative attorney Cleta Mitchell, who had worked with Trump to try to overturn the 2020 election results when she took part in a phone call featuring the then-president and Georgia's secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger.

She later founded the Election Integrity Network, which has been working to influence future elections.

Last April, Mitchell spoke at a Republican donor conference, where she said that conservatives needed to work together to limit voting on college campuses, same-day voter registration and automatic mailing of ballots to registered voters, according to a PowerPoint presentation obtained by The Washington Post.

但媒体与民主中心研究主任戴夫·阿米亚克 (Dave Armiak) 向 CNBC 提供的该集团的税务记录显示，进入 2023 年，米切尔的集团可用于实现这些目标的资金所剩无几。

选举诚信网络筹集了略多于 753,000 美元的资金，并在 2022 年花费了约 746,000 美元，这使得该组织在进入 2023 年时拥有高达 24,298 美元的资产。

根据消费者价格指数 (CPI) 当年的税务记录，2022 年他们的资金中近 70% 来自保守派伙伴关系研究所 (Conservative Partnership Institute)，这是一个非营利组织，部分由特朗普前幕僚长马克·梅多斯 (Mark Meadows) 领导。

进入2023年，米切尔的集团只有6200美元的净资产可以不受限制地使用。

米切尔拒绝发表评论。

特朗普前任管理和预算办公室主任拉塞尔·沃特(Russell Vought)创立的另一个组织在其网站上专门设立了“选举诚信”部分。

但自 2022 年 9 月以来，沃特的组织尚未发布任何与选举相关的信息。

更正：琳达·麦克马洪 (Linda McMahon) 是小企业管理局 (Small Business Administration) 的管理员。

早期版本错误地表述了她的头衔。

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