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AshBritt Environmental CEO Randal Perkins, center, reacts to questioning in March 2013 from a member of a joint New Jersey Senate-Assembly committee regarding his company’s commissions.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The founder and chairperson of a disaster-relief firm paid the Federal Election Commission a $125,000 settlement in June after his company contributed to a pro-Trump super PAC, violating a law that bars government contractors from donating to political committees.
Florida-based AshBritt, Inc. contributed $500,000 to America First Action in April 2018. At the time, AshBritt had a $40 million contract with the Defense Department. The Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 prohibits federal contractors from donating to political committees.
In August 2018, a government watchdog, the Campaign Legal Center, filed a complaint with the FEC, alerting it to the donation. AshBritt acknowledged that it cut the $500,000 check, FEC records show, but claimed the payment was charged internally to a personal account the company maintains for its chairperson, Randal Perkins. The FEC noted that AshBrit was unable to document that claim, but the commission ruled that the company’s violation was not knowing or willful.
In June 2021, Perkins agreed to pay a $125,000 civil penalty to the FEC. A spokesperson for AshBritt declined to comment.
America First Action refunded AshBritt’s contribution in May, and the FEC dismissed the complaint against the super PAC and its treasurer.
Trump’s former White House counsel Don McGahn represented Perkins in the matter.
The FEC made the resolution public earlier this month. It was first reported by Florida Bulldog.
The CEO of a government contractor paid a $125,000 settlement to the FEC after his company donated to a pro-Trump super PAC.
FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION/RANDAL PERKINS
I took an unusual route to get here. In a past life, I worked as a travel and food writer, which is how I got the assignment in 2016 to cover the grand opening of the
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I took an unusual route to get here. In a past life, I worked as a travel and food writer, which is how I got the assignment in 2016 to cover the grand opening of the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., just a couple miles from my home. When Trump won the election and refused to divest his business, I stayed on the story, starting a newsletter called 1100 Pennsylvania (named after the hotel’s address) and contributed to Vanity Fair, Politico and NBC News. I’m still interested in Trump, but I’ve broadened my focus to follow the money connected to other politicians as well—both Republicans and Democrats.