[link removed] [[link removed]] JULY 10, 2025
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FEC fends off fake ‘America Party’ filings that have no connection to Elon Musk
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Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and President Donald Trump’s friend turned foe, has not yet officially established the “ America Party [[link removed]] ,” the idea for which he announced [[link removed]] last weekend.
But a number of jokers, wags and potential fraudsters have rushed to fill that vacuum, reports Dave Levinthal , filing paperwork with federal regulators claiming the America Party mantle — and prompting officials at the Federal Election Commission to fire off a volley of legal warnings.
So far, at least 10 separate political committees bearing some variation of the “America Party” name have been registered with the FEC since Musk’s announcement, an OpenSecrets review of federal records indicates.
Several more, such as “ The DOGE Party [[link removed]] ” and an “ Elon Reeve Musk [[link removed]] ” congressional committee in Texas, play on Musk’s name or history.
“It has come to the attention of the Federal Election Commission that you may have failed to include the true, correct, or complete committee information,” FEC Senior Campaign Finance Analyst Jacqueline Gausepohl wrote [[link removed]] to “ The American Party (TAP) [[link removed]] ” on Monday.
“The America Party (TAP),” which filed organizational paperwork on Sunday, purports to be based in Hawthorne, Calif., where Musk’s Tesla company has a large facility. It lists its treasurer as Vaibhav Taneja — chief financial officer of the automobile and solar company.
Gausepohl added that “knowingly and willfully making any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent” statements or representations to a federal agency is against federal law, and the FEC reserves the right to “report apparent violations to the appropriate law enforcement authorities.”
The other questionable Musk-themed parties, including “ The America Party Committee [[link removed]] ,” “ US American Party [[link removed]] ” and “ American Meme Party [[link removed]] ,” received similar FEC letters this week.
FEC staffers have found themselves “playing Whack-a-Mole shutting down putative America Party committees registered by over-eager Musk supporters, pranksters, and perhaps a few scammers,” said Brett Kappel, an election law attorney with Harmon Curran. “The FEC correctly informed the filers that submitting a false statement to the commission is a felony.”
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New House members saw PAC donations jump after getting committee assignments
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When California Democrat Sam Liccardo ran for the U.S. House of Representatives last year, 13 percent of his political action committee contributions came from finance companies, insurers and real estate agents, OpenSecrets data shows [[link removed]] .
Liccardo won, and received a coveted appointment to the Financial Services Committee. During the first three months of 2025, as he began raising money for his re-election, more than half of his political action committee donations — 57 percent — came from the industries under his panel’s jurisdiction, according to his April 15 Federal Election Commission filing [[link removed]] .
Citigroup contributed $1,000 to Liccardo’s re-election campaign after keeping its checkbooks closed during his first campaign.
Liccardo, who did not respond to requests for comment, is not alone, according to Jonathan D. Salant's analysis .
First-quarter FEC reports found plenty of other first-term lawmakers now filling their re-election campaign coffers with PAC money from industries that fall under the jurisdiction of the committees the lawmakers now sit on.
For example:
* When Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-Pa.) ran in 2024, transportation PACs donated $7,500 [[link removed]] to his campaign. During the first three months of 2025, he took in $18,500 [[link removed]] from the sector’s PACs.
* Rep. Mark Messmer (R-Ind.) received one $1,000 contribution [[link removed]] from a defense company PAC when he ran for the House last year. As a newly minted member of the Armed Services Committee, he took in $8,500 in March of this year alone [[link removed]] , including $1,000 apiece from the PACs associated with Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Textron.
* Rep. Janelle Bynum (D-Ore.) received $1,000 [[link removed]] from one financial sector PAC as a candidate for office. As a member of the Financial Services Committee, she received $20,000 [[link removed]] during the first three months of 2025.
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Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz violates STOCK Act for fourth time
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Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz [[link removed]] (D-Fla.), one of the more powerful Democrats in the House of Representatives, has violated a federal conflicts of interest and financial transparency law for a fourth time, congressional records indicate.
Wasserman Schultz was more than 14 months late disclosing a purchase of up to $15,000 worth of stock in New Gold Inc., a Canadian gold mining company. The price of the stock has more than tripled [[link removed]] since Feb. 28, 2024, when the congresswoman purchased the stock, according to a report she filed last week [[link removed]] .
The federal Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 mandates that lawmakers disclose their personal stock trades no more than 45 days after making them.
She previously violated the STOCK Act with late disclosures in 2021 [[link removed]] and 2023 [[link removed]] , Business Insider and Raw Story previously reported. Federal records indicate she also violated the STOCK Act’s disclosure provisions in 2024 after disclosing [[link removed]] the sale of a dependent child’s stock about a half-year late.
Wasserman Schultz is the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee’s Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Subcommittee and co-chair of the Democrats’ Steering and Policy Committee [[link removed]] . She is also a former chairwoman [[link removed]] of the Democratic National Committee.
Meanwhile
* Rep. Cleo Fields [[link removed]] (D-La.), a member of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, last week disclosed [[link removed]] purchasing millions of dollars worth of shares in government contractors and other high-profile companies while serving on a congressional committee that oversees financial markets.
* “Congressman Fields has complied with all rules outlined by the House of Representatives as evident by the filing of his Periodic Transaction Reports," his office said in a statement.
* These stock situations come at a time when a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers are pushing Congress to ban its members from trading individual stocks altogether, citing what they consider continued financial conflicts of interests and abuses of current law by members of both parties.
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What else we're reading
The ‘Trump Pump’: How Crypto Lobbying Won Over a President [[link removed]] (The New York Times)
Trump Has Kneecapped the FEC and Won’t Fix It [[link removed]] (NOTUS)
From Red vs. Blue to Common Sense: Solving Money in Politics Together [[link removed]] (The Fulcrum)
Trump Administration Puts Pesticide Lobbyist in Top EPA Role [[link removed]] (Sludge)
OpenSecrets in the News
See our media citations from outlets around the nation this week:
How a Supreme Court case on campaign finance could change elections [[link removed]] (Washington Examiner)
Brendan Glavin, director of insights for OpenSecrets, told the Washington Examiner in an interview that overturning the FEC rule would likely result in more joint fundraising committees. It would also allow donors who have the means to write a “max-out check” to a candidate to coordinate closely with a party and ensure their funds go directly to the person they want to support, he said. “That makes it easier to go out to donors and solicit funds.”
Illinois Playbook [[link removed]] (Politico)
Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton is not accepting corporate PAC money for her U.S. Senate campaign, “a clear difference between her and the other Democrats in the primary,” according to a statement from her campaign. The dig is aimed at Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi who accepted $835,753 in business PAC money in his 2024 congressional campaign, and Congresswoman Robin Kelly, who accepted about $1 million the same year, according to OpenSecrets data.
Elon Musk faces glaring hurdle as he forms new America Party after Trump feud [[link removed]] (Daily Mail)
Democrat Ann Ravel, who served on the FEC from 2013 to 2017, believes Trump may already want to leave it in shutdown mode for his own motivations. 'Clearly, there is no doubt that President Trump wants to purposely leave the FEC without a quorum,' she claimed to OpenSecrets.
Vivek Ramaswamy flexes fundraising muscle, sets new record for campaign contributions [[link removed]] (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
It also comes on top of Ramaswamy’s personal fortune, which Forbes has estimated to be around $1 billion. Ramaswamy spent about $30.7 million of his own money on his presidential campaign, according to OpenSecrets.org, and he’s expected to personally invest a similar amount in his gubernatorial campaign, according to three sources close to him.
A dive into the Board of Visitors’ political donations [[link removed]] (The Cavalier Daily)
The Cavalier Daily obtained data on the Board members’ political donation history from OpenSecrets, which provides data on American political donations, and the Virginia Public Access Project, a resource for information on Virginia elections, campaign finance and news. The two resources sometimes report different information on Board members, with OpenSecrets typically offering a more complete history that includes smaller contributions.
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The OpenSecrets merch store is here!
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We’re thrilled to announce the launch of the OpenSecrets Merch Store [[link removed]] ! Now, you can support our mission while looking good doing it. Every purchase helps us provide comprehensive and reliable data, analysis and tools for policymakers, storytellers and citizens.
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Join us in wearing your support — transparency has never been more comfortable!
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