Voters have a right to know how candidates are spending their campaign funds, which is vital both to holding candidates accountable and making informed decisions at the ballot box.
That’s why candidates and committees must file periodic reports that publicly disclose all their financial activity — including details on how they are spending their funds and for what purposes.
To that end, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging that former Rep. Matt Gaetz and his 2024 campaign committee, Friends of Matt Gaetz, violated the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) by misreporting payments to Stripe, the payment processing vendor.
Friends of Matt Gaetz reported spending an implausible amount — over $1.2 million — on “e-merchant fees” through Stripe. This amount is far more than what any other political committee — including the two major national party committees, the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the Democratic National Committee (DNC), each of which raised hundreds of millions of dollars from millions of contributors across the country — paid Stripe during the 2024 election.
Gaetz’s reported spending is more than double what Stripe’s next highest payer, the Harris Victory Fund (HVF), reported paying Stripe. As a joint fundraising committee raising money for a major party’s presidential nominee, HVF reported processing over a billion dollars in contributions, yet Gaetz’s campaign — which raised just $6.28 million for the cycle — reported paying Stripe far more.
In fact, Gaetz’s campaign has reported paying Stripe more than the combined amount paid to the company by the next four highest spenders. That is almost certainly an inaccurate accounting of what Gaetz’s campaign actually paid Stripe for “e-merchant fees.”
Gaetz’s campaign reportedly spent about $6.28 million in the 2024 cycle, which means roughly one out of every six dollars the Gaetz campaign spent during the 2024 election remains effectively unaccounted for and concealed from public view — which is deeply troubling.
FECA requires all campaigns and committees to file complete and accurate reports of their disbursements, and it appears Friends of Matt Gaetz failed to do that.
Failure to completely and accurately report disbursements not only undermines voters’ right to know how campaigns are spending their money and who may be benefiting from that money, but it also undermines compliance with and enforcement of other laws that protect voters and our electoral system.
As the agency responsible for enforcing federal campaign finance laws and protecting the public’s right to know how campaign funds are being raised and spent, the FEC must determine how the Gaetz campaign actually spent the money raised for Gaetz’s run for public office, and ensure that the campaign is held accountable for any misreporting that violated the law.