Maxine Waters Paid Daughter $50K from Campaign Funds for Accrued Debt

Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.) paid $50,000 from her campaign’s coffers to her daughter in recent months to chip away at six figures of accrued debt for an operation that pulls in large sums of money for the congresswoman’s campaign committee, Federal Election Commission filings show.

Rep. Waters’s committee disbursed two payments to her daughter, Karen, in the amounts of $42,000 and $8,000 during the first quarter, which runs from Jan. 1 to March 31. The $50,000 in payments were made to Karen for running a slate mailer, or endorsement mailer, operation from the campaign and were the most paid out by the committee for any activity throughout the first three months of the year.

Waters’s campaign committee reported $94,000 of debts owed to her daughter in pre-general midterm election filings submitted to the FEC on Oct. 17, 2018. However, this amount shot up $90,000 in a matter of weeks to $183,022.15, the Washington Free Beacon previously reported.

Now, Waters’s campaign reports $182,383 in total debts and obligations after the first quarter and following the recent $50,000 in payments. An overwhelming majority of this amount—$133,022.15—is marked as debt still owed to Karen, who already directly pocketed $108,000 from the campaign during the midterm elections.

JD Vance Responds as Media Seeks to Stoke Controversy Over His Wife’s Wedding Ring

Fox News Politics Newsletter: Capitol Hill revolt threatens Trump’s Venezuela playbook

Dem-backed ‘dignity’ bill could strip ICE of detention powers, erase immigration enforcement, critics warn

Disgraceful: Duchess Meghan Accused of Stealing $1,700 Dress from Photoshoot, Using the ‘Archiving’ of Her Royal Clothing as the Excuse

Macron denies ‘everything’ about US betrayal comments as White House hosts Ukraine for marathon talks in Miami

Watch: Stephen A. Smith Gushes About ‘Positively Brilliant’ Trump Who Keeps Foiling Democrats at Every Turn

Disgraced ex-Sen. Bob Menendez banned from holding any public office in New Jersey

Breaking: Trump Wins FIFA Peace Prize, Calls it ‘One of the Great Honors of My Life’

SCOTUS to review Trump executive order on birthright citizenship

Judge on the clock as NY AG Letitia James challenges US attorney’s authority to investigate her lawsuits

DC pipe bomb suspect makes first court appearance; family yells support

Vance acknowledges voters ‘impatient’ on affordability, rejects ‘totally bulls— narrative’

Jan 6 defendant pardoned by Trump lands in legal trouble again

Watch: Stephen A. Smith Locks Horns With Whoopi as He Schools the Women of ‘The View’ on Why Democrats Are Losing

Nearly Half of LGBT TV Characters to Vanish Next Year as Show Cancellations Pile Up

The slate mailers are sent out to South Central Los Angeles residents and contain a sample ballot and quote from Waters in support of other California Democratic politicians. The candidates pay hefty sums—sometimes tens of thousands of dollars each—to Waters’s campaign from their own committees to be included on the mailers.

The operation brought in $400,000 from candidates running for office during the midterm election cycle, including $52,000 from now-governor Gavin Newsom. Waters’s campaign received more than 20 separate checks of $10,000 or more from other committees this past cycle.

Karen Waters has greatly benefitted from overseeing the slate mailers and has pocketed north of $800,000 over the years, the Free Beacon previously reported.

Critics have filed complaints to the FEC against the Democratic congresswomen over the practice which has netted her daughter lucrative cash. The FEC issued an advisory opinion in 2004 allowing Waters to run the operation from her federal campaign committee. Prior to this, the mailers were operated out of a California committee called LA Vote.