Watchdog Group Asks FEC to Probe Zinke Campaign Accounts

The Campaign Legal Center, a watchdog group, is calling on the Federal Election Commission to look into whether Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke broke campaign finance laws during his congressional campaigns.

The center noted the campaign's April 2016 purchase of a recreational vehicle from Zinke's wife for $59,100 and the sale of an RV to a Zinke family friend for $25,000. The transaction could have violated laws that forbid campaigns from using money for personal gain, the Campaign Legal Center complaint said.

The group also asked the FEC to look into other uses of campaign funds such as catering, transportation, and hotels in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Montana, and New York City, according to the complaint.

Before being named in March as President Donald Trump's interior secretary, Zinke was a Republican congressman from Montana for two years.

The interior secretary also is facing scrutiny over a company in his hometown getting a no-bid contract for power repairs in Puerto Rico. Zinke knows Whitefish CEO Andy Techmanski and Zinke's son had a summer job at a Whitefish construction site. Zinke said he had "absolutely nothing" to do with the Whitefish contract.

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