justdafacts readers shouldn't be surprised by Daily Caller reporter Jonathan Strong's discovery that Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele considered buying a private jet with money from the party's treasury.
This is the same Michael Steele who, together with his ticketmate Bob Ehrlich, stuck their donors for $417,000 in payments to a friend of Mr. Steele who had never been in any kind of campaign services business. The money was hidden in 28 payments to a defunct commodities trading firm registered to Mr. Steele's friend from four state and federal accounts Mr. Ehrlich and Mr. Steele controlled in the final weeks of their last campaign.
But where did Michael Steele acquire his taste for private charter jet travel?
From the convicted fraudster, Alan Fabian, who flew Michael Steele around the country in his private charter jet bought with stolen money while securing a $2.2 million no-bid state contract from the Ehrlich/Steele administration and serving as Michael Steele's 2006 U.S. Senate campaign finance chair...
Flying Air Fabian
Mr. Steele’s senate campaign disclosed 6 reimbursements to Mr. Fabian’s company for "Travel," and the Republican Governors Association
disclosed a $54,000 contribution from Mr. Fabian’s company labeled "In Kind Air Travel." Court records show that Mr. Fabian used some of the money from his lines of credit to pay for a private charter jet. A spreadsheet obtained from the governor’s office through Maryland's Public Information Act shows that Mr. Ehrlich and Mr. Steele made several trips to Republican events around the country by "Private Airplane" coinciding with the dates on the campaign disclosures.
Neither Mr. Steele nor Mr. Ehrlich listed any gifts of air travel on their personal financial disclosures during their tenure. While it may not have been illegal for Mr. Ehrlich or Mr. Steele to fly around the country in Mr. Fabian's private charter jet while their administration was busy awarding him a contract under suspicious circumstances and then tripling it to $2.2 million without competitive bidding, it is certainly unethical and crying out for exposure.
What did conservative donors expect from Michael Steele, who recently paid $122,000 from his leftover Maryland campaign account to a Washington law firm without explanation,as the Baltimore Sun's Paul West reported. When pressed, a source close to Michael Steele who requested anonymity told the Sun's Mr. West the payment was for an "internal audit" "to make sure everything was OK."
At the time I said,
Let's put that explanation in perspective. The anonymous source inside the Steele camp said the $122,000 paid to a Washington law firm was for an "internal audit" of a campaign account that only raised $907,000 and spent $312,000 in the 2002 to 2006 election cycle, and had raised a meager $46,000 and spent $418,00 since then, mostly in cut and dry transfers to the Maryland Republican Party and other Republican campaigns.
Would anyone in their right mind pay $122,000 to a law firm to audit an account that has raised only $953,000 since 2002 and spent only $730,000? I find it hard to believe a law firm bill totaling 14 percent of all the money Mr. Steele's account has spent since 2002 was for an "internal audit" to "make sure everything was OK."
And I don't believe everything is OK.
Now that Bob Ehrlich is a declared candidate for re-election in Maryland, I hope legitimate media like the Sun will examine what's not OK from the unseated Ehrlich/Steele administration.
- Steve Lebowitz, Annapolis
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