Checks & Imbalances: FEC Clears Ted Cruz, DOJ Indicts Hunter Biden

Today we look at Ted Cruz’s and Elizabeth Warren’s lucrative side hustles. Sen. Ted Cruz did not violate the law prohibiting the use of campaign funds for personal gain when his campaign bought Facebook ads in 2020 to tout his book, the bipartisan Federal Election Commission ruled unanimously in a decision made public on Wednesday.

The Texas Republican provided an affidavit showing he had donated his royalties to a charity, convincing commissioners to reverse their earlier, preliminary decision that there was “reason to believe” he had violated the Federal Election Campaign Act. Cruz’s second book, “One Vote Away: How A Single Supreme Court Seat Can Change History” hit book stores in September 2020. The following week, his campaign’s Facebook page began running ads directing fans to retailers to purchase it.

Cruz’s campaign paid Facebook about $14,000 to run the spots, according to an analysis of Facebook’s political ad archive by the Campaign Legal Center, a government watchdog. Elizabeth Warren has earned $4. 6 million from book advances and royalties during her tenure in the Senate, according to 10 years of financial disclosures .

The haul is more than double what the Massachusetts Democrat has made over that period from her $174,000-a-year day job. Before her election to the Senate in 2012, Warren, then a professor at Harvard Law School, authored books on academic topics like secured credit and the U. S.

Bankruptcy Code, as well as less niche subjects like the financial struggles of the middle class. A year into her Senate tenure, she inked a deal to write her memoir, “A Fighting Chance,” which came out the following spring. She has gone on to publish three more works while in office, most recently the children’s picture book “Pinkie Promises,” which reached booksellers in 2021.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy cited a string of allegations against President Joe Biden related to his son’s foreign business dealings in opening a formal impeachment inquiry into the president Tuesday—though none of the claims have produced solid evidence of illegality on Biden’s part, and McCarthy was careful to frame some of them as accusations, reports Sara Dorn. In response, the White House sharply criticized McCarthy (R-Calif. ) for launching an impeachment probe without seeking approval from the majority of the chamber, accusing the speaker of reversing course on his plans for a formal House vote and acting on “no evidence of wrongdoing.

” The amount of campaign funds House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif. ) donated to the Bakersfield College Foundation before his alma mater inducted him into its hall of fame in 2022. The amount of requests for additional information the Federal Election Commission sent the campaign of former Rep.

Steve King (R-Iowa) in August. The amount the International Longshoremen’s Association Committee on Political Education donated to the legal defense fund of Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.

J. ) in August. Democratic presidential candidate Robert F.

Kennedy Jr. joins “Forbes Newsroom” to discuss the Democratic National Committee, the 2024 Democratic primary process, President Biden and more. The Trump Organization announced Tuesday it is selling its public golf course in New York City, Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point, to Bally’s Corporation, with the transfer operations and management effective immediately, reports Molly Bohannon.

A group in Minnesota filed a lawsuit on Tuesday challenging whether former President Donald Trump can be on the 2024 ballot under the 14th Amendment, which states anyone who took an oath to support the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” it is disqualified. This marks the second recent lawsuit claiming Trump is ineligible to be on the ballot, reports Molly Bohannon. What is the title of the children’s book Elizabeth Warren published in 2021? a.

“Cross My Heart And Hope To Die” b. “Spit Handshakes” c. “An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People” d.

“Pinkie Promises” Check if you got it right here . .