Maxine Waters Punished For Accepting Illegal Donations

California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters’ congressional campaign has been fined $68,000 for violating several federal campaign finance laws during her 2020 reelection bid.

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) recently published investigation documents showing Waters’ 2020 campaign committee, Citizens for Waters, understated contributions and spending by hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Waters campaign has agreed to pay the fine and “send its treasurer to a commission sponsored training program for political committees,” nonpartisan campaign finance research group OpenSecrets reported.

Waters’ 2020 campaign accepted $19,000 worth of excessive contributions throughout 2019 and 2020, and made $7,000 worth of “prohibited cash disbursements” from a petty cash fund, according to the FEC documents first reported by OpenSecrets.

During the FEC’s investigation last year, Waters’ attorney Leilani Beaver wrote to the agency, claiming Waters’ campaign committee “acknowledges errors were made which were not willful or purposeful,” adding that “the errors were primarily a result of limited staff availability and resources during the pandemic.”

Beaver also said Waters’ committee “amended its reports to correct the financial misstatements” and “refunded or disgorged all excess contributions reflected” in an audit conducted by FEC staff.

It’s not the first time Waters, who has served in Congress since 1991, has faced ethical financial problems. In 2004, Waters arranged for her daughter to work on her campaign as a