Topline
Right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos used a campaign credit card belonging to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to purchase a website domain for Kanye West’s 2024 presidential campaign on the same day West dined at Mar-A-Lago with former President Donald Trump, according to a new report—a wild chain of events involving the right-wing firebrands that could lead to campaign finance violations or criminal charges.
Milo Yiannopoulos speaks during a press conference on November 29, 2017 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo … [+]
Key Facts
Yiannopoulos paid $7,020 to web hosting company GoDaddy to purchase the domain name “ye24.com” using Greene’s campaign credit card and was reimbursed $9,955 for a “domain transfer” by West’s campaign that same day, The Daily Beast reported, citing Federal Election Commission filings from both campaigns and a person with knowledge of the transaction.
Revelations about the bizarre transaction come a day after Politico reported West’s campaign treasurer, Patrick Krason, resigned from the campaign due to a “potentially serious criminal transaction” involving Yiannopoulos, with Krason reportedly telling West in a letter that Yiannopoulos “submitted falsified invoices . . . for expenditures that would be deemed unlawful” in November.
It’s unclear how Yiannopoulos, who previously worked for Greene’s campaign and now serves as an advisor for West, got ahold of the credit card, or whether Greene or her team had knowledge of the alleged transaction.
Yiannopoulos accused Krason of a “venomous” attempt to hurt West’s campaign on his way out, calling his accusation “ridiculous, ridiculous and easily disproven claims,” he told Politico.
What To Watch For
Campaign finance experts told The Daily Beast the transaction could amount to an unreported in-kind contribution to West’s campaign from Greene. If the payment was made without her knowledge, Yiannopoulos could be charged with theft or using campaign funds for personal use, since he appeared to charge the West campaign an extra $3,000 for the purchase.
Key Background
West, who has not declared his candidacy for 2024 or registered with the FEC, announced in a video he was running for president following his infamous meeting at Mar-A-Lago with Trump and white supremacist Nick Fuentes. In it, West, who now goes by Ye, said he asked Trump to be his running mate, angering the former president, who “started basically screaming at me at the table, telling me I’m going to lose.” West fired Yiannopoulos from his campaign after Yiannopoulos claimed he set up the meeting, but rehired him in recent weeks, a chain of events that appears to have led to Krason’s resignation. Yiannopoulos also reportedly fired Fuentes and 2020 election denier and Stop the Steal organizer Ali Alexander from West’s campaign upon rejoining the operation.
Tangent
Yiannopoulos—a right-wing influencer known for incendiary racist and antisemitic rhetoric, calls for violence against journalists and accusations of promoting pedophilia—has teamed with West as the rapper has increasingly devolved into extremism. West lost his contract with Adidas amid a feud with the company in which he said it “raped and stole” his designs in October. That same month, he launched a series of antisemitic tirades, including accusing Jewish people of taking advantage of Black musicians and threatening to go “[defcon] 3 on Jewish people.”
Further Reading
Kanye West’s Antisemitic, Troubling Behavior—Here’s Everything He’s Said In Recent Weeks (Forbes)
Anti-Defamation League Calls On Adidas To Drop Kanye West After Anti-Semitic Remarks (Forbes)
Kanye West Reportedly Fires Extremist Nick Fuentes From Political Team And Rehires Milo Yiannopoulos After Trump Dinner Rift (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2023/05/09/milo-yiannopoulos-accused-of-using-marjorie-taylor-greenes-money-for-kanye-west-campaign-the-credit-card-fiasco-explained/