Priorities USA, a super PAC that supports presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, accepted two donations totaling $200,000 from Suffolk Construction, a Boston-based firm.
This would be a non-story — except that when it made those contributions, Suffolk was an active federal contractor, with multiple Department of Defense contracts valued at nearly $1 million. It has been illegal for federal contractors to make this sort of political donation for seven decades. "Federal government contractors may not make contributions to influence Federal elections," the Federal Election Commission explains, listing contractor gifts among its prohibited contributions.
The money also violates Priorities USA's own organizational rules, which echo the FEC's regulation.
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Research by The Hill indicates that active federal contractors also gave money to PACs supporting the now-defunct presidential campaigns of Republicans Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio.
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