A lot of donation stories have come out of this election season, and Patrick Murphy is in the middle of the newest “straw donor” scheme.
Marco Rubio’s campaign sent out a press release covering the controversial donation, commenting on Murphy giving back the money and his issue with illegal Saudi donors.“Murphy is being forced to give up over $20,000 in tainted campaign contributions he received from a Boston law firm,” reads the press release. The Thornton Law Firm was criticized because lawyers “received bonuses totaling more than $1 million that reimbursed their political donations to Democratic political candidates. Reimbursing people for their political donations in order to skirt legal donation is generally against the law. In a ‘straw donor’ system, the true source of the donation can be hidden. Such schemes can also be used to get around political donation limits.”
But this isn’t the only issue Patrick Murphy has faced involving donations. Back in September, the Murphy campaign was allegedly receiving illegal contributions from Saudi donors, and the campaign was heavily scrutinized for doing so. “A donor and childhood friend of Murphy’s, Ibrahim Al-Rashid, avoided campaign contribution limits by using the names of employees and the parents of his then-partner as “straw donors” when the money really came from the Al-Rashid family. A total of $24,000 was involved. Ibrahim and his brother Ramzi… are the sons of a powerful, and politically-connected Saudi billionaire. Ibrahim Al-Rashid has been major financial benefactor of Murphy’s, giving almost $400,00 to his campaigns and outside groups supporting Murphy since the Florida congressman first ran in 2012.”
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This comes during an election where Hillary Clinton has also been criticized for receiving donations from Saudi Arabia, and it’s likely hurt the Murphy campaign.
Today, when Murphy voted early, he was met with several protestors that chanted things like “privileged Patrick,” “You’re a bum,” and “no way CPA.”