Attorney General files complaint against El Paso County GOP for failure to properly report donations
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- The Colorado Attorney General's Office has filed a complaint against the El Paso County Republican Central Committee after officials discovered around $13,000 in fundraising donations weren't accurately reported last year.
The donations in question are from the El Paso County Republican Lincoln Day dinner event on August 6, 2021, where Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene was the keynote speaker.
The Colorado Secretary of State's Office first learned of the missing money after El Paso County GOP Vice-Chair Karl Schneider filed a campaign finance complaint in late November 2021.
According to emails in the complaint, then-treasurer of the El Paso County GOP John Pitchford told high ranking members of the party on Oct. 1 that he was having difficulty finding accurate records from the event and requested a "full inventory of all Lincoln Day items sold and unsold."
After echoing calls for an audit of the summer fundraising dinner following Pitchford's October email, Schneider tells 13 Investigates his official party email account was turned off.
Eleven days after the initial email asking for a complete inventory of the items, Pitchford announced his retirement to the El Paso County GOP leadership via email.
Despite his previous email in October saying he was having difficulty finding records from the summer fundraising dinner, Pitchford told us in December there was nothing to the campaign finance complaint.
The AG's complaint on behalf of the state elections division says that on December 3, 2021, a third campaign finance report was filed by El Paso County Republican Party leaders and showed an additional nearly $13,000 in contributions.
The AG's office wrote in the complaint:
In total, the Division discovered approximately $13,000 in contributions that had not been included on the Original Report. Many of these were non-monetary contributions. The Division also noted over $3,000 of contributions for which information had been updated between the Original Report and the Amended Report, mostly related to the contributors' addresses or occupations and employers.
The state's complaint seeks penalties, including "appropriate fines."
In November and December, El Paso County Republican Chair Vickie Tonkins told 13 Investigates multiple times that all the money was accounted for and the party was not breaking state law with how it reported donations.
"Ludicrous, that is an absolute and total and complete lie. Let's be clear on that," Tonkins said in November.
Tonkins told 13 Investigates on Tuesday that she has no comment on the AG's complaint at this time.
