The following article by Ben LeFebvre was posted on the Politico website December 19, 2017:
Taxpayers have been reimbursed for Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s participation in a political fundraiser last spring in the Virgin Islands — but questions remain about the donations he helped solicit, according to campaign finance records and interviews.
The Virgin Islands Republican Party repaid on Oct. 5 the Interior Department $275 for expenses related to Zinke’s appearance, according to recent federal campaign finance filings. Despite its small sum, the reimbursement carries significant legal implications. And it came on the same day POLITICO first reported that Zinke was the featured guest at the March 30 fundraiser, where records indicate that donors paid as much as $5,000 per couple for a chance to pose for a photo with the secretary.
The Virgin Islands Republican Party — a political action committee nominally based in the islands but run by a Washington-area GOP consultant — did not list any donations matching those amounts in its Federal Election Commission reports for March and April. That makes it impossible to know who may have paid thousands of dollars for access to a member of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, whose office has refused to provide advanced schedules of his travels and appearances.
Still, the reimbursement may be enough to protect Zinke from accusations that his Virgin Islands appearance violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits government officials from using taxpayer resources to advance partisan causes. Zinke is facing multiple investigations for his pattern of mixing politics and official business during taxpayer-funded travels.
The Caribbean fundraiser, which occurred during a three-day official trip by Zinke to the island chain, is his only political event so far for which the Interior Department has received reimbursement.
Interior spokeswoman Heather Swift said the department invoiced the VIGOP PAC for the amount. Swift did not reply to questions as to the timing of Interior’s request for reimbursement.
“The invoice was calculated to cover the political activities portion of the secretary’s travel to the USVI in accordance with Hatch Act regulations,” Swift said. “There is a formula used to determine what percentage of a given trip the political event makes up, and how much to reimburse.”
Swift said Interior had not sought reimbursement related to Zinke’s stop at a fundraiser for Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) at an Anchorage steakhouse, or his attendance at a ski resort weekend organized by the leadership PAC of Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), which POLITICO previously reported. The amount of time Zinke spent at the Young fundraiser did not meet the minimum required to merit repayment under Hatch Act regulations, and Interior did not require reimbursement for the fundraiser in Montana because Zinke was on his personal time, Swift said.
Zinke also attended a July fundraiser for Republican Rep. Greg Walden in Oregon, which was reported in a local media account from the time. Swift said Interior has issued an invoice to Walden’s campaign for that trip. The campaign’s most recent FEC disclosures, which run through Sept. 30, do not show any payments to Interior.
The independent Office of Special Counsel, which investigates possible Hatch Act violations, has said in previous cases that timely reimbursement of the government’s expenses is sufficient to avoid violating federal regulations that prohibit taxpayer dollars from paying for political activity. OSC, which declined to comment, is one of several agencies investigating Zinke’s political activities.
Federal employees can face reprimands or even lose their jobs for violating the Hatch Act, but it is up to the president to decide how to punish violations by presidential appointees. OSC found that two members of former President Barack Obama’s Cabinet had violated the Hatch Act, but neither faced major penalties.
Interior “should not be paying for any of Zinke’s political travel,” said Brendan Fischer, director of the bipartisan watchdog group Campaign Legal Center’s federal and FEC reform program. “That being said, there is certainly a pattern of Zinke and other administration officials mixing official and political business, which the inspector general is looking into. Public resources are supposed to be used to advance the public interest, not to coddle political donors.”
Besides reimbursing Interior for Zinke’s appearance, VIGOP also paid $875 for catering for a “VIGOP event” on March 30, according to FEC documents. That suggested the federal PAC was the one raising contributions at the event, Fischer said. But it does not appear to have disclosed at least some contributions associated with the appearance, something Fischer said could be a violation of campaign finance laws.
VIGOP has a murky relationship with the U.S. territory’s official Republican Party organization, which has been riven by its own internal conflicts in recent years. The FEC classifies VIGOP as a nonparty PAC and lists its treasurer as Scott B. Mackenzie, a D.C.-area political operative who declined to comment when reached by POLITICO.
Zinke has for years worked with the VIGOP, attending at least two of its meetings on the island while he was a Montana congressman. Zinke’s own fundraising organizations spent millions of dollars on a group of political operatives tied to the PAC, including direct mailing company Forthright Strategies, whom Republicans have accused of preying on small donors. POLITICO first reported a week before the reimbursement on Zinke’s use of a charter flight to travel to the islands on official business.
The chairman of the territorial Republican Party, John Canegata, said the fundraiser had been the work of the territorial party, not the PAC, and would be listed in reports filed with the Virgin Islands’ election committee.
“All our donations, we will put that together in a form they provide and give that to them at the end of the year,” Canegata told POLITICO.
Campaign finance reports for groups registered with the islands’ government are due in June and December of each year, a spokeswoman for Election Services of the Virgin Islands said. Money raised at a March fundraiser would had to have been reported on the June disclosure report, the spokeswoman said.
VIGOP is not officially part of the Virgin Island Republican Party structure and is not registered with the Elections System of the Virgin Islands as a fundraising organization, said Genevieve Whitaker, deputy supervisor of elections for the agency’s St. Croix district.
Other Republicans in the Virgin Islands Republican territorial committee have complained about Canegata’s relationship with Mackenzie’s VIGOP, saying very little, if any, of the money Mackenzie’s organization raises gets distributed to the party or candidates.
The committee also complained that Canegata signed a contract in 2013, a copy of which was obtained by POLITICO, identifying VIGOP as a client of Base Connect, a direct mail fundraising company that other Republicans have accused of exploiting small donors. Political committees linked to Zinke have long done business with many of the same political consultants as VIGOP.
An invitation for the March 30 event in St. Croix solicited donations of up to $5,000 per couple to be event “patrons” or $1,500 to be part of its “host committee.” According to Zinke’s schedule, he participated in a photo line with donors in those categories. But no donations in VIGOP’s federal campaign finance reports match the names of 10 other individuals listed as guests of honor on the invitation, which was obtained by POLITICO.
VIGOP reported 88 donations in March and April, mostly between $100 and $500 apiece. Three donations of $1,000 were the largest received in those months.
However, VIGOP’s decision to reimburse Interior may insulate Zinke from some potential sanctions associated with his political behavior, judging by previous cases.
The Office of Special Counsel in 2012 determined that then-Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius had violated the Hatch Act by endorsing Obama’s reelection and a local gubernatorial candidate during a speech in North Carolina at a gala for the Human Rights Campaign, where she was appearing on official business.
After HHS began receiving media inquiries about the speech, it reclassified the event as political and sought reimbursement from Obama’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee. While the OSC said her remarks themselves violated the Hatch Act, it determined that HHS had satisfied requirements that the government be reimbursed for costs associated with political appearances.
In 2016, OSC determined that then-Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro had violated the law when he endorsed Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in an interview with Yahoo News anchor Katie Couric.
Since joining Trump’s Cabinet in March, Zinke has appeared at more than a dozen events with former campaign donors or conservative activists while traveling on official business, including at least four fundraisers for politicians or PACs, according to a POLITICO review of his schedule, event invitations, Interior Department emails and other documents.
The sort of mixing of official business with political activity that Zinke has engaged in could lead to an ethical breach even if it is legal, said Virginia Canter, executive branch ethics counsel for good-governance watchdog group Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington.
“What you become very concerned about is if you see the political activity driving the official activity,” Canter said. “They may be in technical compliance with the law, but from appearance’s perspective there could be abuse.”
Zinke is under investigation by OSC and the Interior Department’s inspector general. The FEC has separately raised questions about VIGOP’s spending and is looking into Zinke’s former leadership PAC, which relied on many of the same political consultants as the VIGOP.
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