America First Policies, the dark money outfit that is probably illegally running Trump's polling right now, arranged a shindig for him Wednesday night—but it was definitely not fundraising, the White House says. Because they're not supposed to be doing that, because they're supposed to be a "social welfare" non-profit organization. Uh, huh.
The dinner was the latest in a series of donor events associated with a pair of independent groups—America First Policies and America First Action—that are aiming to raise $100 million this year, mostly in large donations, to support Mr. Trump's agenda and the election campaigns of allied congressional candidates.
Mr. Hamm and Mr. Bailey are on the board of America First Policies, a nonprofit group that was created to advocate Mr. Trump's agenda and that has paid for a series of polls and strategy memos about the political effects of the Trump administration's efforts. America First Action, on the other hand, is a "super PAC" that is raising money to air advertisements in support of Republican congressional candidates allied with the president. […]
Lindsay Walters, a deputy White House press secretary, stressed that the dinner was not a fund-raiser.
"Tonight the president had dinner with a small group of supporters at the private residence of C. Boyden Gray," she said on Wednesday night.
Right. And when Vice President Mike Pence "spoke last month at an America First round table in Dallas" and when "Secretary of Energy Rick Perry spoke Tuesday afternoon at a round table in Houston, which was attended by Mr. Bailey and a number of prominent Texas donors," that had nothing to do with fundraising, not at all. Because, says "Mr. Doug Deason [who is on the finance committee of the America First groups] explained that the groups are careful not to ask for contributions, or to discuss spending strategies, in the presence of administration officials."
That would be because campaign finance rules say administration officials can't have anything to do with the coordinating of raising money in a campaign, and certainly can't be raising large amounts of money for entities like America First. By, say, speaking to groups of very wealthy people in events organized by entities like America First. But the money raising doesn't come until after the events.
The bulk of the money they are raising, they say, goes to America First Policies, the dark money side of things where donors don't have to be disclosed. You know, the side of this organization that is organizing the polling that they're not supposed to be organizing.
The swamp is a bottomless one.