Here is the Article Confirming Bernie Sanders illegally used Campaign Funds to pay for his Charter Flight and Stay in Vatican City to attend the Conference he says he was invited to. In the previous article in POLITICADE from April 27th: Margaret Archer, President of the Academy, said that Sanders went around her to get an invitation to the conference in order to win the Catholic vote in the US Presidential primary: “Sanders made the first move, for the obvious reasons. He may be going for the Catholic vote but this is not the Catholic vote and he should remember that and act accordingly…His use of it is clearly a pretext…there will be nothing of policy relevance.” www.politicade.com/...
In Today’s Article June, 4th Politicade confirms that the FEC does not allow for Campaign Finance Money to be used for such a trip. Presidential Campaign Finance Reports, which include receipts and disbursements for the month of April, have been in ’processing’ status since they were submitted to the FEC on 5/20. Yesterday, the FEC made the detailed campaign finance reports available to the public.
The reports provide evidence that Bernie Sanders illegally used campaign funds for his overnight stay in Italy with 10 family members. Lodging at the 5-star luxury Hotel Boscolo Exedra in Rome, Italy was billed to the campaign in the amount of $13,758. Rooms at the luxury hotel start at $400 a night and go up to $8,000 a night. Additional expenses include $883 for lodging and catering at Hotel Michelangelo in Rome.
On 4/8, Bernie Sanders announced he would travel to the Vatican on 4/15. Private chartered flights must be paid in full before scheduled departure date. On 4/11, the campaign disbursed $613,451 for chartered air travel. This amount dwarfs all other Sanders’ campaign air charter travel expenses to date.
We can now confirm that Bernie Sanders illegally spent over a half million dollars in campaign funds on private air travel and luxury hotels for his non-campaign related trip to Italy. To learn why this is an illegal use of campaign finances, see our previous article on this topic. HERE IS THE PREVIOUS ARTICLE IN FULL QUESTIONING THE VALIDITY OF SANDERS TRIP TO THE VATICAN AND ALSO THAT THEY WENT AROUND www.politicade.com/…
HERE IS PART OF THE PREVIOUS ARTICLE STATING SANDERS WHENT AROUND THE PRESIDENT OF THE ACADEMY TO OBTAIN AN INVITATION TO THE CONFERENCE IN ROME.
The Chancellor of the Academy said he extended the invitation to Sanders but declined to say whether Sanders requested the invitation. Sanders wasn’t able to arrange a personal meeting with Pope Francis, but was able to greet him in the hall as he was leaving to catch a flight to visit refugees. Pope Francis was quick to dismiss rumors that a pre-arranged meeting took place: “When I came down, I greeted him, I shook his hand and nothing more. This is called good manners and it is not getting involved in politics. If anyone thinks that greeting someone is getting involved in politics, I recommend that he look for a psychiatrist.”
Soon, we will find out if Bernie Sanders used campaign funds to finance the trip to Italy. Monthly Campaign Finance Reports for April are due on 5/20. On April 15, Bernie and Jane Sanders along with 10 additional family members including grandchildren, chartered a private Delta flight to Italy on a Boeing 767 jet. The average cost of chartering an aircraft of this size is over $10,000 per hour. The total cost of the private flight, local transportation, food, and accommodations for one night would have been well over $100,000.
Campaign Finance Laws clearly state that candidates are prohibited from using campaign funds to finance non-campaign related trips or vacations. Campaign Finance loopholes were closed in recent decades due to rampant abuse. Politicians were using leftover campaign funds to purchase luxurious personal items like cars, designer clothing, Super Bowl tickets, real estate, and vacations. There have been ongoing reports of campaign funds being used to provide lucrative salaries to family members who “worked” on campaigns.
Prohibited personal use includes:
§30114. Use of contributed amounts for certain purposes
b) Prohibited use
(1) In general
A contribution or donation described in subsection (a) shall not be converted by any person to personal use.(
(2) Conversion
For the purposes of paragraph (1), a contribution or donation shall be considered to be converted to personal use if the contribution or amount is used to fulfill any commitment, obligation, or expense of a person that would exist irrespective of the candidate’s election campaign or individual’s duties as a holder of Federal office, including-
(A) a home mortgage, rent, or utility payment;
(B) a clothing purchase;
(C) a non-campaign related automobile expense;
(D) a country club membership;
(E) a vacation or other non-campaign related trip;
(F) a household food item;
(G) a tuition payment;
(H) admission to a sporting event, concert, theater, or other form of entertainment not associated with an election campaign; and
(I) dues, fees, and other payments to a health club or recreational facility.
So now the truth of the illegal use of Campaign Funds has been revealed. Sanders Campaign Knowingly used the funds, raised by all of those $27 donations to make a trip that would be made by the 1% Bernie Constantly Rails On About. I wonder how quickly the MAIN STREAM MEDIA will call him out on this. One thing we know for sure. If it was HILLARY CLINTON it would have been in the media weeks ago. WITH BERNIE……ONLY TIME WILL TELL!
