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Roger Sollenberger Profile picture
Roger Sollenberger
@SollenbergerRC
Politics reporter. Former @thedailybeast. 6-string for hire. Dad to the #1 grackle, lucky hub. Tips: roger.sollenberger@protonmail.com
5 subscribers
Oct 25 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Nine days ago, a former Trump legal adviser created a super PAC—just in time to not be required to disclose its donors before the election. The PAC just reported TWENTY MILLION DOLLARS in spending, but we won't know who funded it until after votes are cast docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/forms/… The full $20 million—for pro-Trump digital media, texts, & direct mail—was paid to a Wyoming company created in April, called Western Creative Group: Never been paid by a federal committee before; principals hidden behind a corporate agent; no online footprint whatsoever
Oct 10 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
The Trump campaign has also “skipped the opportunity to receive national security briefings,” per NYT — that’s while Trump is trying to convince voters he’s better equipped to handle foreign policy, terrorism, the military, and crime, and claiming we’re on the brink of WWIII This is apparently how Trump previously explained it to the Daily Mail — even if you take him at face value here, he’s saying he’s more concerned about media leaks/personal image than national threat assessments during what he characterizes as an epochally precarious moment Image
Jul 20 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Odd new filing for June fundraising shows Trump’s “Save America” PAC—his longtime legal slush fund—had just $3M on hand, owed $1.6M in debt, and reported just $3,100 in receipts... docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/forms/…
Image Save America is part of the Trump 47 joint fundraising committee that includes the campaign, the RNC, and dozens GOP state parties. That committee has raised more than $140M, and Save America is high in the fundraising waterfall—third priority, ahead of the RNC Image
Jun 27 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
A few weeks ago, GOP Rep. James Comer’s office told me he can’t recall using govt email as Kentucky Ag Commissioner. I’d found 2 email aliases he used, so I made an open records request for all those emails. It just came back. There are between 1,600 & 2,700 Comer alias emails. Image As chair of House Oversight, Comer has attacked Joe Biden for using email aliases. But I reported that Comer also used aliases as Ag Commissioner. Here’s what his spokesperson said about that thedailybeast.com/james-comer-at…
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May 3 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Trump-appointed FEC commissioner Allen Dickerson just proposed disclosure exemptions for campaigns, PACs, & parties who can show a "reasonable probability" that disclosure might lead to threats/harassment. The public may never know an exemption was granted fec.gov/resources/cms-…


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Image The FEC has granted exemptions before in extreme cases, but this would create an open & streamlined approval process. SCOTUS ruled unanimously in NAACP v. Alabama that the risk of persecution justified withholding names—but again, that's the *NAACP* and *Alabama* in 1958 Image
Feb 23 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
After yet another long day in Trumpworld campaign filings—for a weird new story running tomorrow morning—it's only increasingly clear that Trump has a big money problem. Here's his joint fundraising committee's topline vs. Biden's JFC. (This is in addition to his legal fund PAC.) Image Again, this is Trump's most "legit" PAC—the one that does almost all of his fundraising. His other PACs lost money, and his team is clearly doing everything it can to stuff his campaign account so he doesn't look weak. Those moves, however, are what tomorrow's story is about
Jan 15 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Oh look, Joe Biden was shorted 4,000 votes in Virginia’s Prince William County, revealed thanks to the only criminal prosecution from a special “Election Integrity Unit” that the state’s GOP Attorney General launched in 2022. nbcwashington.com/news/local/nor… Imagine the congressional hell we would have to endure if this went the other way
Nov 14, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
I broke the Comer story. He’s correct that it wasn’t a loan. I never called it a loan. But Joe Biden’s brotherly loan was repaid—canceled out, no benefit. Comer, however, enriched his brother $18k, attaching his holding LLC to the transaction. Unclear on gift tax implications. Point of the story is that Comer is investigating Joe Biden for getting no benefit from a loan to his brother. Stack that against Comer, who also had a 20-year running COI with his family’s industry. Should Comer be subpoenaed for helping his brother financially? Should Biden?
Nov 13, 2023 • 9 tweets • 5 min read
NEW: Speaker of the House Mike Johnson says his finances make him "relatable." I reviewed 15 years of his finances and found it's hard for any American to understand—let alone relate to it. Here's a financial profile on the new Speaker, as much as we know
thedailybeast.com/mike-johnsons-… Transparency advocate group End Citizens United (@StopBigMoney) just filed a House ethics complaint against Johnson, included in this piece, naming multiple apparent violations. But the inconsistencies we uncovered go even further
Oct 31, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Hawley may have signaled this surprising—and to many people, long overdue—move at a Faith & Freedom Coalition event in June, where he said, "As for corporate America and criticizing them, let's get one thing straight. Corporations are not people." Hawley's former general counsel, Sean Cooksey, is currently vice chair of the FEC
Oct 6, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
NEW — House Republicans have a comeback plan for their first disastrous impeachment inquiry hearing: A star fact witness against Joe Biden! (Who also sued his own dying father’s charity for $900,000.)

Here’s my report @thedailybeast
thedailybeast.com/star-impeachme… The witness is Tony Bobulinski. In 2015, he flew into such a rage over a charity donation that he barged into his parents’ home & shook his father’s head, knowing there was a brain tumor in there. His dad died 2 months after Tony sued him. Tony fought the case for 10 more months.
Aug 15, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Lindsey Graham's campaign has spent about $1.16 million this year. One out of five dollars went to lawyers.

Since Jan. 6, Graham's campaign has spent roughly $720,000 on legal fees. Before Jan. 6, his total combined legal costs — going back to 2011 — was about $74,000. All conveniently recorded here fec.gov/data/disbursem…
Aug 10, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
NEW: GOP candidate Anthony Sabatini plagiarized huge chunks of his honors thesis in philosophy at the University of Florida—lifting directly from Wikipedia. He graduated magna cum laude, went to law school, became an attorney & lawmaker. Me @thedailybeast
thedailybeast.com/gop-candidate-… You really have to read this to understand just how egregious this is. The first *sentence* is plagiarized. Entire paragraphs. He also misspells his central subject’s name throughout the entire thing—“Freidrich” Nietzsche.
Jul 22, 2023 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
Also haven’t seen many lab leakers or contrarians consistently clarify they mean the possibility of an *accidental* leak & aren’t endorsing the obvious subtext among the many kooks using the debate in bad faith to imply that scientists/intel are saying COVID was a bioweapon Genuinely hope I am wrong about this, @NateSilver538


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Jun 20, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Hunter Biden will plead guilty to $1.2 million in tax violations & a gun charge, getting 2 years probation & order to enter a rehab-type program in exchange for wiping the gun charge. Far cry from the allegations from the far-right GOP... washingtonpost.com/national-secur… This is fully consistent with reports about what the DOJ — opened by TRUMP's DOJ — has been investigating since at least December 2020 cnbc.com/2020/12/09/hun…
Jun 16, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Jack Smith requested the court to limit the distribution of discovery information in the Trump documents case, citing among other things "information pertaining to ongoing investigations" — and "financial information of third parties" Image Poorly written tweet there. But I'm not sure exactly where third-party financial information fits within the set of facts that have been laid out publicly so far
Jun 15, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
It’s worth a think or two to realize that Smith, for whatever reason, chose to move quickly to indict Trump in Florida last week rather than wait a little bit for SCOTUS to issue this ruling, which would’ve made it less risky for him to indict in friendlier DC If Smith reeeaaallllly thought venue would make a difference, he could have held off on charges until we got this verdict. That also would’ve removed Cannon from the equation entirely. But he went ahead anyway, suggesting this case may not have been a major factor in his decision
Mar 29, 2023 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
This has 40,000 likes already. Here's why it's bullshit. First, I did a short fact-check on this last night. The short of it is that you see these donor patterns frequently in FEC filings. It's not new. And it's not, as O'Keefe suggests here, a Democratic problem. Not even mostly.
Mar 28, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
NEW: While GOP Rep. James Comer is investigating the so-called "weaponization" of government, when he was a candidate for governor, he weaponized a grand jury investigation to help him battle assault allegations. He lost. Me @thedailybeast thedailybeast.com/gop-chairman-j… @thedailybeast The prosecutor who ran the grand jury probe—which the Comer campaign started—donated to Comer while the jury was investigating
Mar 21, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Trump defenders point to the FEC's decision to dismiss the Stormy Daniels allegation. But the FEC never cleared Trump. Instead, the three GOP commissioners said the statute of limitations was approaching and Cohen had already been punished, so it's not worth it to go after Trump Also, in the Stormy Daniels case, the FEC's own independent office of general counsel said there was reason to believe Trump, the Trump campaign, & the Trump Org had violated the law. The Republican commissioners still voted it down
Feb 16, 2023 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
NEW: Special Counsel Jack Smith is reportedly investigating payments to Trump's Save America PAC vendors—and it could finally unravel what one campaign finance expert called "one of the biggest campaign finance violations in history." Me @thedailybeast thedailybeast.com/trumps-shell-s… @thedailybeast In 2020, Trump's campaign hid the recipients of nearly $800 million behind a shell company. It continued after the election. And Save America PAC paid tens of thousands in "consulting" fees to newly created LLCs owned by former Trump staff simultaneously getting paid directly.