BATON ROUGE -- The Federal Election Commission claims the Defend Louisiana PAC treasurer did not report independent expenditures and is in violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act.
The Federal Election Commission filed a complaint on June 14 in the U.S. District Court Middle District of Louisiana against Defend Louisiana PAC and Taylor Townsend in his official capacity as treasurer of Defend Louisiana PAC for violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act.
According to the complaint, Defend Louisiana first registered with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) in April 2016. Reports that must be provided as a part of the FEC include "expenditures advocating the election or defeat of candidates along with the payee, date, description of the purpose, the federal candidate supported or opposed, and the amount."
The FEC alleged that Defend Louisiana made independent expenditures in support of Foster Lonnie Campbell and opposing John Neely Kennedy in the 2016 runoff election, and the financial reports do not reflect the more than $90,000 throughout 11 independent expenditures. Townsend was responsible for providing and reporting this information as part of the criteria to be registered with the FEC, the suit says. By not doing so, Defend Louisiana is in violation of the Federal Election Commission Act, the suit says.
FEC seeks for Defend Louisiana to update and provide adequate details of those missing expenditures, a $20,528 fine for the violation and cost of action. The FEC is represented by M. Elise Holman, Jacob S. Siler, Lisa J. Stevenson, and Kevin Deeley.