/https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/60e87457108bf3c7951b4a15/0x0.jpg)
The zombie congressional campaign of former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, (R-Texas) has paid his wife, Michele, $3,000 a month to manage its books.
Getty Images
Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) stepped down from Congress in May 2020 to become Donald Trump’s director of national intelligence. Ratcliffe’s congressional campaign, however, still exists. And it has paid Ratcliffe’s wife, Michele, $3,000 a month since March 2021 for providing “compliance service” as its treasurer.
That $12,000 total comprises about 30 percent of the campaign’s operating expenses in 2021. The latest payments appeared in a report the campaign filed Thursday with the Federal Election Commission.
Michele Ratcliffe is a partner at the Rockwall, Texas law firm of Lamberth Ratcliffe Covington, where she works on estate planning and assists victims of cyber crimes. An FEC filing from December 2013 lists her as the campaign’s original treasurer, a position she held until December 2014. The campaign’s only previous payments to her were small reimbursements. According to FEC records, no other political campaigns have retained her services.
The Ratcliffe campaign notified the FEC that Michele Ratcliffe had resumed the treasurer role on March 15, 2021, the same day she received her first $3,000 payment.
Neither Ratcliffe immediately responded to inquiries.
The campaign of former Congressman John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) began paying his wife, Michele, $3,000 in March 2021.
FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION/RATCLIFFE FOR CONGRESS
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
…
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.