Senator Marco Rubio: Another Republican Thief

 From the Atlantic:

“Rubio's political committee has also "spent more than $40,000 for investigators to research for negative attacks that could surface against him." This month, he asked the Florida State Ethics Committee to "closeout a complaint that he misused Republican Party and campaign money" to run up excessive food and travel bills on GOP credit cards”

From  Politico :

“In a negotiated settlement finalized last month but only publicly released now, Marco Rubio for Senate acknowledged taking in more than $210,000 in “prohibited, excessive and other impermissible contributions” during his Senate campaign and failing to refund or “redesignate” the funds within the allowed time frame.

Even after an internal audit, the Rubio campaign failed to identify more than $83,000 in improper or incorrectly characterized contributions, according to a March 19 agreement between the campaign and the FEC.

…A spokesman for Rubio could not be immediately reached for comment.”

More issues from CREW and the Tampa Bay Times:

1.  Rubio and his staff charged personal expenses unauthorized party credit cards including car repairs, and grocery purchases. Mr. Rubio’s chief of staff racked up thousands of dollars in expenses on behalf of Mr. Rubio on his card including dinners and a Rubio family trip to a Georgia resort.

2. Rubio also admitted he double-billed both the Republican Party and state taxpayers for eight flights totaling about $3,000 in 2007.

3. While preparing to leave his position in the Florida House of Representatives, Rubio accepted an “unadvertised” part-time gig at FIU that paid $69,000 per year. Maybe that’s because of the $29 million he steered their way which led to FIU”S president saying that Rubio was “worth every penny.

4. He was hired as a consultant for Jackson Memorial Hospital after he earmarked $20 million for them. They paid his firm $8,000 per month and hired his former aid.

5. Rubio’s wife was listed and paid as treasurer over a committee that paid $51,000 in unidentified travel expenses. Another Rubio political committee listed $14,000 in payments to family members, at least one of whom had a non-existent address.

6. Rubio, routinely charged personal expenses to his party-issued credit card from 2006 to 2008.

7. He billed the Republican Party of Florida 4k for a rental car in Miami and repairs to his family minivan, which he said was damaged by a valet at a political event.

8. As a Florida House Rep, Rubio started two political committees and raised nearly $600,000. He failed to disclose tens of thousands of dollars in expenses and concealed others by lumping them in credit card charges, the Times/Herald reported.

In one of the complaints filed against Rubio, this is how he was described:

"It appears that Mr. Rubio believes that PAC stands for 'personal access to cash,' " Ryan said in the complaint, calling it a "fraud upon his donors whose donations were solicited for political purposes, not to subsidize his lifestyle."

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