Sen. Mike Braun investigated for potential campaign finance violations

 

Federal regulators are sorting through financial information from Sen. Mike Braun to see if millions of dollars were illegally used to fund his 2018 campaign.  

The Federal Election Commission flagged more than $8.5 million because of questionable loans from banks, and direct payments from Sen. Braun's former company. 

ABC57 NightTeam spoke to Roger Sollenberger who first broke the story for The Daily Beast. 

"This gets at the heart of campaign finance law," Sollenberger said. "It's a law that's been on the books for over 100 years. Which is, corporations cannot be apart of the political process. That is illegal."

Statement from Sen. Braun's Chief of Staff and Senior Political Advisor Joshua Kelley:

"The DRAFT audit report issued by the FEC’s audit staff nearly two months ago was just that: a draft issued before the committee provided the necessary documentation to clear up the loan issues raised in the report. However, if you have read the documents that the committee has since provided to the FEC or listened to the recent hearing with the FEC Commissioners, it is clear that the final version of the FEC’s audit report will conclude that all the loans fully complied with the law. Sometimes these FEC audits require time to work themselves out; that has been the case here, and we’re not the least bit concerned about how the process will end."

Watch the full discussion with Sollenberger below: