Patrick Murphy’s ethics problems just went to the next level as the FBI confirmed its investigation of a shady straw donor scheme involving Murphy’s campaign and a wealthy childhood friend who allegedly funneled illegal contributions to a previous Murphy election effort.

Like every scandal he’s faced over the course of his senate run, Murphy tried to downplay the scheme by pretending it didn’t exist, even after the Federal Elections Commission confirmed it was looking into the shady donations.

“Joshua Karp, spokesman for the Murphy campaign, told The Hill the straw donor complaint was ‘frivolous and unfounded.’ ‘We expect the FEC to dismiss it in short order, as they do with hundreds of complaints filed by partisan political action committees every year,’ he said.” (Jonathan Swan, “Election Watchdog Scrutinizing Florida Dem Senate Candidate,” The Hill, 9/2/16)

Now Murphy’s issues go even deeper as the FBI has decided his crooked donation scam warrants a federal investigation.

Will Murphy come clean about his straw donor scheme? It’s time for Privileged Patrick to admit he has a problem.

Read more from The Hill here:

“The FBI is investigating an alleged illegal donation scheme involving a wealthy Saudi family that supports Democratic Florida Senate candidate Patrick Murphy.”

“The FBI investigation, however, relates to Murphy’s first run for the House in the 2012 campaign cycle.

“The allegation — originally submitted by a Republican super PAC run by a former top aide to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) — is that Murphy’s high school friend and major political donor, Ibrahim Al-Rashid, coordinated a ‘straw donor’ scheme to boost Murphy.”

“A straw donor scheme occurs when a wealthy donor skirts legal limits on political donations by funneling money into campaigns using other people’s names.

“For any charges to be backed in the Al-Rashid investigation, the FBI must prove that the person or people running the scheme reimbursed donors without their permission. It would also be illegal to agree to be the named donors using somebody else’s money.”

“Al-Rashid is the son of a powerful and politically connected Saudi billionaire. He’s been a major financial benefactor of Murphy’s, giving almost $400,000 to his campaigns and to outside groups supporting the Florida congressman.”

“One example within the alleged scheme: A woman who describes herself in federal donation reports as the ‘owner’ and ‘property manager’ of a Texas-based company, Limestone Property Management, gave Murphy’s campaign $300.

“But she is neither the property manager nor the owner of the Texas-based company. In fact, she doesn’t work there.

“She lived in Miami at the time and was Ibrahim Al-Rashid’s ‘cleaning lady,’ according to a Miami-Dade Police Department report filed in 2012 over a home burglary at Al-Rashid’s property.”

“The Senate Leadership Fund, which is spending tens of millions to help GOP Senate candidates including Rubio, has sought to directly implicate Murphy in the alleged scheme.

“‘At the time the contributions … were made to Patrick Murphy’s campaign, Murphy served as his own campaign treasurer and signed the FEC reports on which these contributions are listed,’ the group stated in its FEC complaint.

“‘Treasurers are responsible for the reports they file,’ added the group, claiming that Murphy ought to have been aware, for example, ‘that his friend’s housekeeper in Miami’ wasn’t a senior executive at the Texas-based company.” (Jonathan Swan, “FBI Investigating Alleged Donor Scheme Tied To Senate Candidate,” The Hill, 11/2/16)

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