How campaign finance violations often turn into dramatic scandals

New York Mayor Eric Adams has been charged with bribery and fraud following a spiraling federal investigation into his administration.

Among other charges, federal prosecutors in their September 2024 indictment alleged that Adams received campaign donations from the Turkish government for his 2021 mayoral race and sought to conceal these illegal foreign donations.

Adams is the first New York mayor to be charged with a crime, but he is not the only politician who has violated rules governing how political campaigns can raise and spend funds in U.S. elections.

As we document on our new podcast, “Scandalized,” discovering campaign finance violations is often just the first chapter of a much crazier story.

Why campaign finance law is important

The US has federal laws that govern how political campaigns can raise and spend money in US elections. For example, they limit the amount that individuals and groups can contribute to candidates’ campaigns. Federal laws also limit how campaign funds can be used and require disclosure of all campaign expenses, ensuring that candidates cannot spend campaign money as they please.

By law, candidates can use campaign contributions for expenses directly related to their run for office. Allowable expenses include advertising, travel and fundraising costs such as renting event space or purchasing food for guests. After the elections, candidates can use the surplus funds to repay their loans or transfer them to other campaigns or party organizations.

However, campaign funds may not be used for purely personal purposes at any time. Applicants cannot pay their mortgage or rent from their war chest, nor can they buy clothing or household items.

A particularly egregious violation of personal spending rules was disgraced former New York Republican George Santos.

In August 2024, Santos pleaded guilty to nearly two dozen counts of campaign finance violations – a broad spectrum of crimes. According to The New York Times, he diverted “tens of thousands of dollars in campaign money for personal expenses, including luxury goods, Atlantic City casinos, rent payments and a website known primarily for sexually explicit content.”

Santos, who held the position for less than a year until he was expelled from Congress in December 2023, is a perfect example of how the complex U.S. campaign finance system can expose other, even more scandalous actions by politicians.

A window into bigger scandals

A key element of campaign finance law is disclosure. For example, candidates must publicly report donations of more than $200 and document everything they spend those donations on during and after the campaign.

In the case of former California Republican Duncan Hunter Jr., his failure to comply with disclosure laws during the 2016 election campaign led to a federal investigation. The Justice Department found that Hunter used campaign contributions to finance family vacations, video game purchases and hotel rooms for numerous extramarital affairs. In 2020, he was sentenced to 11 months in prison.

Michael Cohen, a longtime lawyer and expert for former President Donald Trump, also did not disclose his contribution to his boss’s 2016 presidential campaign. The real scandal, however, was where the money actually went: paying adult film actress Stormy Daniels for her silence about her alleged 2006 affair with Trump. In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to making an illegal contribution.

Many, if not most, campaign finance violations are minor in nature. Minor errors, such as late filing of a donor disclosure report or incorrect categorization of expenses, usually result in little more than a small fine.

But when technical violations of campaign finance rules shed light on a major scandal, they attract attention. Voters and the media make no secret of the fact that donor funds not only do not go where they intended, but in many cases they are spent to subsidize candidates’ misconduct and corrupt activities.

High-profile political scandals undermine public trust

Nearly every recent survey shows that Americans’ levels of faith and trust in government are at an all-time low. In the 1960s, three-quarters of voters said they trusted the government to do the right thing most or all of the time. Today only one fifth do so.

Inappropriate behavior by politicians, including candidates who improperly spend donations from their supporters, may contribute to a decline in trust. Americans are really afraid of money in politics. For example, 84% of Americans worry that wealthy lobbyists and special interests have undue influence in elections, and 80% say campaign contributions have a corrupting influence on politicians.

Even if candidates aren’t technically breaking the law, they often use campaign funds in ways that donors may not realize — or appreciate.

For example, during the 2024 political campaigns, both major parties and private fundraisers on both sides of the aisle spent millions in campaign funds on legal fees for candidates facing litigation over allegations of serious criminal misconduct.

The beneficiaries include Trump, who has been indicted on suspicion of mishandling classified documents, and Democratic U.S. Sen. Robert Mendendez of New Jersey, recently convicted on federal corruption charges.

Bottom line: Donations made to help a candidate win a race don’t always go where donors actually intended or believed.

Still, the political climate in the U.S. is so polarized that these scandals may not dramatically impact voter decision-making. Political scientists sometimes call today’s voters “calcified” in their partisan identity, meaning that they are so loyal to their own party that campaign finance violations and other scandals cannot significantly change their views.

Research shows that voters are increasingly motivated not by support or attachment to their own party, but rather by fear and loathing of the other party. As a result, partisan voters are willing to accept or forgive outrageous behavior on their part in order to defeat the opposition. Hardcore partisans are also adept at finding ways to justify or rationalize these transgressions.

With record amounts of money flowing in and out of political campaigns in 2024, the coming months are sure to bring more campaign finance scandals. However, our research indicates that they are unlikely to have a major impact at the polling station.