Last updated on April 13th, 2018 at 10:17 pm
Marcus and Michele Bachmann could be heading to prison as the Department of Justice is investigating the couple for possibly breaking at least 11 election laws in 2012.
The latest is a federal inquiry into whether an outside “super PAC” improperly coordinated strategy with Mrs. Bachmann’s campaign staff, including her husband, in violation of election laws.
The Department of Justice demanded records from the super PAC last week of its finances and its communications with Mrs. Bachmann; Marcus Bachmann, her husband; and former staff members, according to a grand jury subpoena reviewed by The New York Times.
The investigation appears to stem from a complaint a former campaign staff member made to the Federal Election Commission and to the F.B.I. The staff member told of overhearing the president of the super PAC asking a Bachmann senior adviser about buying advertising on radio and TV stations in Des Moines ahead of the Iowa caucus on Jan. 3, 2012.
Although Bachmann may have technically retired from Congress, in reality she quit because the criminal investigations were closing in on her. This is the first time that Marcus Bachmann has been named in reports as part of an investigation. The same troubled presidential campaign that the Department of Justice is looking at is also the subject of an investigation in Iowa, an FBI investigation, and a House Ethics Committee investigation.
The Iowa and FBI investigations are centered on secret payments that her campaign made to state Sen. Kent Sorenson in exchange for his support and help in the 2012 Iowa caucuses. The House Ethics Committee is investigating Bachmann’s potential misuse of staff and campaign finances to promote her poorly selling biography Core of Conviction.
The DOJ investigation stems from information obtained in the FBI investigation that appears to show the Bachmann’s violating at least 11 election laws by coordinating their campaign with a super PAC. (If Bachmann violated 11 laws with her activities, Mitt Romney easily committed thousands of violations throughout the 2012 election cycle. Romney’s super PAC and campaign were so coordinated that they even shared a building.)
It is ironic that Bachmann’s people used conviction in their title because the Bachmanns are going to be lucky to avoid conviction and jail time. Michele Bachmann is in a huge amount of trouble, as it it appears that she was running one of the most ineptly corrupt presidential campaigns in recent memory.
Even if Bachmann is convicted of a felony, none of this will stop Fox News or the right wing media from giving her a job. After all, these are the same people who have kept Ollie North and G. Gordon Liddy employed for decades.
Michele Bachmann is close to trading the easy life of a member of Congress for a rap sheet and criminal convictions.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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