Pelosi Asks Donors For $15 For Her Campaign, Says She Will Match But Doesn't

[G.L.R.]

Report: Pelosi lied to her own donors about fundraising matching at least 50 times

May 25, 2021



It remains to be seen if the House speaker will either match these donations or face legal trouble because of the empty promise

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's campaign has promised donors that the California Democrat would personally match their financial contributions to her campaign, but records reveal she has not followed through and provided any of her own money. The speaker's campaign, "Nancy Pelosi for Congress," sent at least 50 fundraising emails in the first three months of the year in which she pledged to "personally" match contributions up to a certain amount, Axios reported. "Can I please count on your urgent $15?" one March 27 email pulled from a political email archive maintained by researchers at Princeton University read. "I'm personally 3X-MATCHING all gifts until my End of Quarter deadline -- that's how important this is."

According to the Archive of Political Emails, Pelosi's contribution-matching emails continued through Sunday. However, Federal Election Commission data shows that Pelosi did not contribute any personal funds to her campaign in the first quarter, and she has never done so. Donation-matching offers have been used by candidates from within both political parties to try to get small-dollar donations, according to Axios. These offers don't always spell out who is matching the donations, and some of the pledges could require matches to exceed federal contribution limits. Candidates are allowed to provide unlimited sums to their own campaign under federal law. Pelosi's campaign raised over $4 million in the first quarter of 2021, and more than half of those donations were under $200. It is unknown how much of that money was made from donation-matching offers. Pelosi's net worth, as of 2018, was estimated to be $114.66 million, according to Open Secrets, so theoretically she could match many of those donations.

The Justice Department indicated in a court filing earlier this month that the contribution matching tactic could amount to "material misrepresentations" if there is evidence the match never occurs, Axios reported. The comment was made in accompaniment to a guilty plea made by the operator of a number of groups that raked in small-dollar donations with fraudulent fundraising appeals. The DOJ said in a news release that the "solicitations promised that individual donations would be '5x matched'" but none of them were.

"This prosecution puts fundraisers on notice that the continued use of this very popular fundraising pitch will be treated as a possible violation of the mail and wire fraud statutes," political compliance attorney Brett Kappel wrote in response, according to Axios.

Report: Pelosi lied to her own donors about fundraising matching at least 50 times
https://www.wnd.com/2021/05/report-pelosi-lied-donors-fundraising-matching-least-50-times