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FEC finds Guinta used parents’ loan for campaign

by Ben Kamisar - 06/02/15 4:28 PM ET

Rep. Frank Guinta’s (R-N.H.) had no access to the account that his parents used to give him a more than $350,000 loan, holding no “equitable interest” in the money and paying no taxes on it, according to Federal Election Commission documents, undercutting Guinta’s assertions that the money was his.

Guinta had framed the money as part of a “family pot,” but his sister told the FEC she wasn’t aware of any such arrangement.

The findings come from new documents released by the FEC from its investigation into the checks that Guinta received from his parents. Those were later used for his 2010 congressional campaign, leading to the FEC to rule the donations were improper.

{mosads}Guinta signed an agreement with the FEC to return the money and pay a fine to resolve accusations of impropriety, but Guinta has consistently argued the money was his and that he only paid the fine to move past the accusations.

Guinta’s mother, Virginia, told investigators she and her husband “decided $1 million of wealth would be available to each of their three children.” But the FEC general counsel’s report stresses that she never said Guinta himself owned the money.

And the FEC said since she stated that she had been told the loan would be repaid, that is “inconsistent” with Guinta’s assertion that he had control over how to spend that money.

The lawmaker’s lawyer, Cleta Mitchell, told The Hill in a statement that Guinta has always contended the money was a loan, but from his own personal funds.

“Mrs. Guinta used the word ‘loan,’ not because these were not his funds, but because she knew that the Congressman always intended to repay this loan in full,” she said.

“All financial decisions regarding this account were made by Congressman Guinta and his parents. While the Congressman was generating funds for this account, his sister was still a minor and did not have an understanding of this account.”

The report also found Guinta never paid taxes on the money or its interest, which the investigators wrote furthered their assertion that the money was never truly his.

Guinta had been dogged by the donations for years. They first came up as an issue in the 2010 campaign where he first won his congressional seat. Former Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-N.H.) used the accusations in a campaign ad against Guinta in 2014, which he bashed as a lie.

State Republicans have kept their distance from Guinta. Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) called for him to resign outright, and the Boston Globe reported that many Republicans are looking for options to replace him in 2016.

And Democrats haven’t kept quiet, with the New Hampshire State Democratic Party repeatedly bashing Guinta over the FEC’s findings.

Shea-Porter, who lost her seat to Guinta in 2014 but has not yet publicly announced whether she’ll run again, has taken to Twitter on her campaign account to retweet news articles about the latest findings.

– Updated at 8:07 p.m.

Tags Frank Guinta