RFK Jr. campaign payments to family member prompts FEC legal threat

The Federal Election Commission sent a legal threat this week to the 2024 independent presidential campaign committee for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over its major payments to the candidate’s daughter-in-law.

Kennedy Jr., a staunch critic of the intelligence community, has dished out more than $70,000 in campaign funds to the White House hopeful’s daughter-in-law, Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, a former CIA officer who is now his campaign director, FEC records show. Now, the FEC is questioning whether certain payments may have exceeded “fair market value,” having informed Kennedy Jr.’s campaign in a letter on Tuesday that it must turn over information about “payments to members of the candidate’s family that possibly constitute personal use of the committee’s campaign funds.”

“Salary payments made to members of the candidate’s family constitute personal use of campaign funds unless the family member is providing bona fide services to the campaign,” the FEC told the campaign, setting a Feb. 13 deadline for Kennedy Jr.’s team to provide details on cash transfers the campaign made between July and September.

“If a family member is providing bona fide services to the campaign, any salary payment in excess of the fair market value of the services provided is personal use,” the regulator continued in the letter. “Adequate responses must be received by the commission on or before the due date noted above to be taken into consideration in determining whether audit action will be initiated. Failure to comply with the provisions of the act may also result in an enforcement action against the committee.”

While the FEC’s letter did not name the candidate’s daughter-in-law specifically, Amaryllis Kennedy was Kennedy Jr.’s only family member on the campaign’s payroll during the July and September period, CNBC reported.

The FEC’s scrutiny of Kennedy Jr.’s campaign finances comes as the 2024 general election is all but barreling toward a 2020 rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, who has a 60-point primary lead over Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.

Kennedy Jr. recently backed out of a fundraiser gala for his birthday hosted by American Values 2024, his allied super PAC, after a handful of celebrities said they would not attend the event. Amaryllis Kennedy lacks any political experience, though she was nonetheless named manager of her father-in-law’s campaign in October of last year.

The daughter-in-law has not been paid in the past by any other federal campaigns, according to FEC filings. Payments she has received have been for “administrative” work.

It’s not illegal for a federal candidate to pay family members, though it’s often frowned upon by ethics experts due to possible conflicts of interest arising from the financial relationships.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

“With payments to family members, this can be difficult to determine because, unlike payments to others, there may be incentive to pay a family member more or pay them for work that is not needed,” Kendra Arnold, executive director of the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, a right-leaning ethics watchdog, previously told the Washington Examiner.

“This makes it difficult for the public to determine whether the payments complied with the law,” Arnold added.

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Telegram
Tumblr