Millions of Dollars, Thousands of Robocalls and 1 Legal Loophole

<p>A New York Times investigation has found that a group of Republican operatives used robocalls to raise $89 million on behalf of veterans, police officers and firefighters.</p><p>David A. Fahrenthold, an investigative reporter for The Times, explains how they actually spent the money and the legal loophole that allowed them to do that.</p><p>Guest: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/david-a--fahrenthold">David A. Fahrenthold</a>, an investigative reporter for The New York Times.</p><p>Background reading: </p><ul><li>A group of conservative operatives using sophisticated robocalls raised millions of dollars from donors. Instead of using the money to promote issues and candidates,<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/05/14/us/politics/scam-robocalls-donations-policing-veterans.html?searchResultPosition=1"> nearly all of it</a> went to pay the firms making the calls and the operatives themselves.</li><li>How “scam PAC” fund-raisers<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/explain/2023/02/09/insider/twitterspaces/how-scam-pac-fund-raisers-skirt-election-rules-and-deceive-donors"> skirt election rules and deceive donors</a>.</li></ul><p>For more information on today’s episode, visit <a href="http://nytimes.com/thedaily?smid=pc-thedaily">nytimes.com/thedaily</a>. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.</p>