The National Legal and Policy Center filed a formal Complaint with the Federal Election Commission today against former Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY), and his campaign fund, that alleges violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA). Click here to download a 7-page pdf of the Complaint.
On April 16, Jake Sherman of Politico reported that Massa’s campaign fund paid $31, 896 to GMAC just two days before Massa resigned from Congress. FECA prohibits the conversion of campaign funds to personal use.
On April 17, Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post reported that the Massa campaign made a $40,000 payment to Massa’s congressional office chief of staff, Joe Racalto. The expenditure was listed as a “Campaign management fee.” Racalto had previously on March 23 filed a sexual harassment complaint against Massa.
The Complaint points out that Racalto claims the $40,000 payment was to cover 15 months of work for the campaign, yet a review of Massa for Congress reports submitted to the FEC show no entry under Schedule D, Debts and Obligations for money owed to Racalto for past work.
Media reports over the weekend indicate that Massa claims that he did not authorize the $40,000 payment to Racalto, or a separate $40,000 congressional salary increase.
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