CNN: Porsches, Gucci rings and billions of robocalls: Inside the PAC operation that raised millions by impersonating Donald Trump

07.15.2021 / By Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck
CNN: Porsches, Gucci rings and billions of robocalls: Inside the PAC operation that raised millions by impersonating Donald Trump

"Self-enrichment is the defining characteristic of a scam PAC, regardless of what they're saying they're doing or in fact doing with the money," said Paul S. Ryan, the vice president of policy and litigation at the watchdog group Common Cause. "Just saying that you spent the money on robocalls doesn't negate allegations of scam PAC-i-ness." But a worst-case scenario, according to Ryan, of the watchdog group Common Cause, would play out like this: the FEC fines would continue to grow but a PAC "so deep in the red could just shut down. It could close its bank account, close its office or P.O. Box and, for all intents and purposes, disappear," said Ryan. And because PACs are typically corporations, said Ryan, "The people who set up the PAC are only personally financially liable under campaign finance law if they've knowingly and willfully violated the law."

(CNN)At first glance, “Matte Nox” looks like your typical thirty-something wannabe Internet influencer, flaunting a lavish lifestyle on his public Instagram and TikTok accounts.

He drives a black Porsche Panamera around Los Angeles at night, often to the soundtrack of club music. He lives in a luxury high-rise apartment downtown and parties with aspiring models at nightclubs. He posts shirtless selfies, displaying a prominent chest tattoo that reads, “God Will Give Me Justice.” He shows off his crystal-encrusted Gucci rings, Yves Saint-Laurent sunglasses and a handmade designer hat with his name engraved. …
But like so many things on the internet, “Matte Nox” is not who he appears to be. “Matte Nox” is the assumed name and online persona of Matthew Tunstall, a 34-year-old from Texas who over the past three years has raised millions of dollars operating two political action committees that impersonated the Trump campaign.
Founded in 2018 and 2019, Tunstall’s two PACs, Support American Leaders and Campaign to Support the President, have together raised a total of $3.4 million to date, according to federal filings. While much of that money pays for the billions of robocalls the two groups make, almost all of which feature recorded soundbites of public statements from Trump, a CNN KFile analysis shows that the PACs paid Tunstall at least $738,000 of that money to date. …
There is no hard-and-fast rule that limits how much an operator can pay themselves, nor is there a legal definition of what exactly constitutes a scam PAC, making the line between what’s legitimate and what’s not fuzzy and hard to enforce.
“Self-enrichment is the defining characteristic of a scam PAC, regardless of what they’re saying they’re doing or in fact doing with the money,” said Paul S. Ryan, the vice president of policy and litigation at the watchdog group Common Cause. “Just saying that you spent the money on robocalls doesn’t negate allegations of scam PAC-i-ness.” …
But a worst-case scenario, according to Ryan, of the watchdog group Common Cause, would play out like this: the FEC fines would continue to grow but a PAC “so deep in the red could just shut down. It could close its bank account, close its office or P.O. Box and, for all intents and purposes, disappear,” said Ryan.
And because PACs are typically corporations, said Ryan, “The people who set up the PAC are only personally financially liable under campaign finance law if they’ve knowingly and willfully violated the law.”

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