Checks & Imbalances: Stop The Steal Organizer Amy Kremer Now Owes Almost $50,000 In Past-Due Fines To FEC

Welcome to the Checks & Imbalances newsletter. Today, we look at Amy Kremer’s fines, Richard Grenell’s dinner guests and Donald Trump’s attorneys.

W omen Vote Smart PAC and its treasurer Amy Kremer now owe the Federal Election Commission at least $49,000 in past-due fines for failing to submit financial reports. The FEC disclosed the latest fine, $11,800 for not filing the 2021 mid-year report, on Friday.

In October, the agency referred a fine of $6,500 to the Treasury Department for collections, which was first reported by Rantt Media.

Through the nonprofit Women for America First, Kremer and her daughter Kylie organized the January 6 rally that preceded the riot at the Capitol. In September, the House select committee investigating the attack issued subpoenas to both Kremers for their records and communications regarding the rally.

Women Vote Smart violated FEC rules from its launch. Founded in May 2016 as Women Vote Trump, it changed names the following month after the FEC pointed out that using a candidate’s name violated campaign-finance rules.

In a February 2019 filing, just before Kremer became the PAC’s treasurer, Women Vote Smart reported owing Trump’s D.C. hotel $40,000. The debt was not listed in the PAC’s next report—nor was an explanation for how it was wiped out.

Another fine may be in the works: Women Vote Smart’s 2021 year-end report is a couple months past due.

Kremer did not respond to an inquiry.

Amy Kremer, founder and chair of Women for America First, speaks in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021 at a rally in support of overturning the 2020 presidential election. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File) ASSOCIATED PRESS

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Richard Grenell Entertained Disgraced Former Rep. Mark Foley At The U.S. Ambassador’s Residence In Berlin

Then-U.S. Ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell hosted former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) at the official residence in August 2018. Foley resigned from the House in disgrace in 2006 after sending sexually explicit messages to underage teenage boys.

No charges were filed against Foley, who later claimed he’d been the victim of sexual abuse by a priest, in an interview with the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Last week Grenell accused MSMBC’s Chris Hayes of “giving aid and comfort to people going soft on pedophilia.”

Grenell, who later became Trump’s acting director of national intelligence, did not answer questions about the dinner, including why he invited Foley and if the taxpayers picked up the bill.

But in a statement provided by a spokesperson, Grenell said, "Zach Everson’s partisan progressive activism is destroying journalism—he stalks gay conservatives because he thinks gays must be Democrats—and his crazed activism brings out such unhinged emotions that he even gets angry about a four-year-old photo of Americans having dinner in Berlin...it's creepy and embarrassing for Forbes to allow Everson to use their platform for his weird and inappropriate obsessions.”

According to the State Department, its response to a Freedom of Information Act request seeking more details about this gathering, which was submitted in October 2018, will come in September 2022.

Former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.), who resigned from Congress in 2006 after sending sexually explicit messages to boys, dined at the U.S. ambassador to Germany's official residence in 2018. Instagram/Mark Foley

Updates on Checks & Imbalances’ previous reporting

“Rep. Sean Casten, locked in a Democratic primary battle with Rep. Marie Newman, called on her Thursday to disclose details of a secret settlement she made with a man accusing her of promising him a job as an inducement not to run against her in 2020,” the Chicago Sun-Times reported last week.

In January, the House Ethics Office disclosed it had “substantial reason to believe” Newman “may have promised federal employment to a primary opponent for the purpose of procuring political support.”

Last month, Trump replaced his attorneys in a suit filed by protestors of Mexican origin claiming that the Trump Organization's security attacked them in front of Trump Tower. Now representing Trump is Alina Habba, an attorney based near one of Trump’s New Jersey golf clubs who is now working for him in at least seven of the investigations and lawsuits. Lawrence Rosen, the attorney Habba is replacing, also has served on Trump's legal team in the New York attorney general’s investigation.

Neither the attorneys nor spokespeople for the Trump Organization responded to inquiries.

. Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Bronx

“Before Giving Billions to Jared Kushner, Saudi Investment Fund Had Big Doubts” (The New York Times)

“Donations Steered to Trump Super PAC by Canadian Are Found to Be Illegal” (The New York Times)

“Trump Officials Failed to Provide Accounting of Foreign Gifts” (The New York Times)

“’We control them all’: Donald Trump Jr. texted Meadows ideas for overturning 2020 election before it was called” (CNN)

“Trump’s new home is proving to be a magnet for political spending” (The Washington Post)

“Former Rep. Carlos Trujillo (R-Fla.) met with Donald Trump and former Argentine President Mauricio Macri at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday.” (Politico)

“The Trump Organization used to borrow from major banks. Now look who's lending it money.” (NBC News)

“Wave that flag, pop the bag, skin the goat, learn to copeBell the rat, trap the cat, ball the jack, chew the fat

Read the signs, connect the lines, pay your fines, save your dimes

Pick up time, light the fuse, making time, pass the juice”