In our two-tiered justice system, the DOJ shows no interest in prosecuting Florida Democrat Party

OPINION

BY LEN CABRERA

Anyone who has been paying attention since the position-previously-known-as-the-U.S.-Attorney-General was officially renamed the President’s Wingman knows that we’re living in a two-tiered justice system. Especially when it comes to white-collar crime, the main determinant of guilt, let alone whether an investigation is even opened, is the political affiliation of the accused.

A cynic will tell you that every new government spending program essentially exists to legalize grift for the politicians who vote on it (and for their friends and donors). Given the amount of money that was printed to justify the abuses we witnessed during the government’s COVID-19 response, it’s not surprising that a lot of shady things happened.

It’s like the fraud was part of the plan for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), created in March 2020. Soon after it was created, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced that the names of businesses and nonprofits that took PPP money would not be publicly identified; however, the information was eventually released under the Freedom of Information Act.

Fortune did a report listing all the members of Congress who were connected to companies that received PPP loans. Open Secrets did the same thing for political donors. After guidance was released in late April 2020 stating that the loans were not intended for companies with access to equity markets, some large companies returned the funds and Mnuchin warned of criminal penalties. What we’re learning now is that those penalties only applied if the right (wrong) political party did it.

According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Florida, former State Representative Joseph Harding pled guilty to “wire fraud, money laundering, and making false statements in connection with COVID-19 relief fraud.” It’s unsurprising that similar charges have not been filed against the Florida Democratic Party (FDP), which also appears to have fraudulently taken PPP funds.

As early as July 2020, several media outlets reported that the FDP took and returned PPP funds. Here are stories about it from Politico and Florida Politics. In October 2020, U.S. Representative Michael Waltz (R-FL) sent a letter to the Small Business Administration Inspector General (SBA IG) asking for an investigation of the FDP’s loan, a referral for criminal prosecution if warranted, and a briefing to detail any findings.

Earlier this month, I reached out to the SBA IG’s office, asking if a report was ever given to Waltz. Here’s the response:

“IG Ware responded to the letter from Congressman Waltz on October 14, 2020. There was no briefing provided since we don’t provide updates on ongoing investigations.“

Over two years and they’re still investigating? Sure.

I also reached out to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Florida, for comment. They have not responded.

I’m no expert investigator, but here’s what I found in a few hours of research.

The FDP took a PPP loan of $780,000 through the FDP Building Fund (FDPBF), a separate non-profit corporation created in 2019 to “construct, own, &/or operate a building &/or condominium unit to house the headquarters of the state Executive Committee of the Florida Democratic Party and related political organizations.” You can see the loan amount here by typing “Florida Democratic Party” in the “Company Name” search box. Below is the result.

Note that it shows 100 jobs saved in the “Public Relations Agencies” industry. That’s a stretch. According to Rep. Waltz’s letter, the FDPBF had zero employees at the time of the loan application. I could not verify the number of jobs because the FDPBF was dissolved in September 2022.

Once the FDPBF had the $780,000, the money was transferred in chunks of various sizes to the Democratic Executive Committee of Florida (i.e., the FDP), which did not properly report the source of the money to the Federal Election Commission. If you search the FDP’s filing with the FEC, you’ll find multiple transactions from “CARES” to the DEC of Florida on multiple dates, totaling $780,000. (Click on “Browse receipts” and enter “CARES” for “Name or ID”)

Note that “CARES” is not registered with the FEC and has no FEC ID number. The address listed for “CARES” by the FDP in the report is 409 3rd St SW, Washington, D.C. 20416-0011. That’s the address for the Small Business Administration. But the FDP got the funds from the FDPBF, not from the SBA, because political parties were specifically prohibited from taking PPP loans.

Once the PPP loan recipients were made public in July 2020, the FDP promptly repaid the money with minimal interest (0.225%) to Hancock Whitney Bank in Gulfport, MS. You can see the transactions by looking at the FDP’s filing with the FEC (Click on “Browse disbursements” and enter “Hancock Whitney ” for “Recipient Name or ID”)

The total amount repaid was $781,755. The FDP’s actions appear to mirror Harding’s crimes: wire fraud, money laundering, and making false statements. Like Harding, the FDP made a fraudulent PPP application in the name of a different company and conducted transactions over $10,000 using fraudulently-obtained funds. Like the FDP, Harding says that he returned the funds.

On top of those questionable actions, the Party, which claims to represent working people, actually took money out of a program that was intended to save the jobs of Floridians. Given the statistics that the average PPP loan in Florida was $50,907 for a company with 6 employees, the FDP potentially prevented 15 companies from getting loans before the money ran out, which may have cost 90 jobs in Florida. Even though the FDP returned the funds, it may have been too late for those businesses.

The FDP is likely safe from prosecution as long as the Department of Justice continues to be politicized and under the control of Attorney General Merrick Garland. However, I would argue that if Harding’s crime is worthy of federal prosecution, surely FDP’s is, too.

If we really had a “government of the people, by the people, and for the people” and the rule of law still existed, then our newly bloated IRS would be auditing every current and former elected official, from the smallest city to the halls of Congress, regardless of political party, and DOJ would be examining all misuses of COVID relief funds. Instead, federal agencies are now just weapons to target political enemies in our two-tiered justice system.