Watchdog group files FEC complaint over irregular Matt Gaetz campaign spending

Ex-Congressman and now-former U.S. Attorney General candidate Matt Gaetz has reported some wonky campaign spending numbers, and a Washington-based watchdog group is asking the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to look into the matter.

The nonprofit Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint with the FEC this week over $1.2 million that Gaetz’s political committee, Friends of Matt Gaetz, paid in “e-merchant fees” to payment-processing company Stripe during the 2024 election cycle.

The payments accounted for roughly 19% of the political committee’s total spending since January 2023. According to Bloomberg, candidates for federal office typically report spending 1% to 4% of their contributions on payment processing.

Campaign Legal Center personnel wrote that based on Stripe’s fee structure for processing online contributions, Gaetz’s campaign shouldn’t have paid more than $97,000. Far larger political operations this cycle — including Harris Victory Fund and the Republican National Committee, which respectively raised more than $1 billion and $390 million this cycle — reported paying less to Stripe than Gaetz’s campaign, which raised about $6 million.

“It appears that this spending by former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s campaign was not reported accurately, which would be a clear violation of the law,” said Saurav Ghosh, the Campaign Legal Center’s Director of Federal Campaign Finance Reform.

“The FEC should immediately investigate the true nature of the $1.2 million in payments that ‘Friends of Matt Gaetz’ reported making to the vendor Stripe.”

In the past three election cycles, Gaetz’s campaigns have paid Stripe $2.5 million, accounting for about 13% of his total fundraising. It’s more than any other candidate or committee has reported paying Stripe since the 2020 cycle.

A Friends of Matt Gaetz campaign official told Bloomberg that the reported payments to Stripe didn’t reflect the campaign’s actual spending. While all the payments were earmarked for Stripe, much of the money actually went to vendors that Gaetz’s campaign paid through the San Francisco-based company.

FEC rules require more specificity than Gaetz’s campaign provided, the Campaign Legal Center said. Violators of those rules can face six-figure penalties.

The Campaign Legal Center complaint, filed Wednesday, came amid reporting that federal investigators determined Gaetz and dozens of his associates paid for drug-fueled sex parties from 2017 to 2020, though Gaetz was never charged with a crime. Much of the payments were made through the digital service, Venmo.

Gaetz, who resigned from Congress on Nov. 13 just hours after Donald Trump nominated him for Attorney General, withdrew from consideration for the post on Thursday.

“While the momentum was strong,” he said on X of his chances of securing enough support in the U.S. Senate, “it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition.”

Gaetz, 42, made no mention in the post of the House Ethics Committee inquiry into whether he had sex with a minor, consumed illegal drugs and granted special favors to romantic interests. His resignation came just days before a report was due to the panel.