2022 Republican Herschel Walker of the Georgia Senate was hit with a complaint to the FEC over the campaign donations scandal

A government watch group is asking the Federal Election Commission to investigate a serious possible violation of the campaign finance law first reported by The Daily Beast by failed Senate candidate Herschel Walker.

On Friday, Washington-based Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW) filed a formal complaint with the FEC regarding Walker and his personal company HR Talent LLC.

Emails published by The Daily Beast on Wednesday showed Walker soliciting hundreds of thousands of dollars from a personal friend, billionaire businessman Dennis Washington, for his company — not his campaign.

Overall, Walker asked a Washington representative to wire him $535,200 for HR Talent LLC, according to the emails, which also suggested Washington’s camp believed the money was for political purposes.

In its complaint, CREW called on the FEC to “impose appropriate sanctions on those violations and take further action as appropriate, including referring this matter to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution should the investigation determine that any criminal statutes have been violated.”

A spokesman for Washington’s corporation, Washington Corporations, confirmed Thursday that the money was sent to an “apolitical account,” adding that they asked for a refund once they determined it wasn’t for Walker’s Georgia Senate campaign.

The rep didn’t answer any other questions from The Daily Beast, including when the refund took place. Washington’s company only responded to a request for comment a day after the original story.

According to CREW’s complaint, a refund does not diminish the seriousness of the potential violation, particularly since Walker’s emails indicate his “apparent familiarity with the limits of the law.”

“Mr. Walker’s breach was knowing and intentional,” the complaint reads.

Campaign finance experts cited in The Daily Beast’s first report were stunned by the findings, calling it one of the most blatant campaign finance scandals in modern US history.

Saurav Ghosh, director of federal reform at the Campaign Legal Center, called it “stunning”. Jordan Libowitz, communications director at CREW, said if Walker “has used the campaign to funnel money into his own business, that’s one of the biggest campaign finance crimes I’ve ever heard of.”

Another campaign finance attorney, Brendan Fischer, called Walker’s move “stunning and, to my knowledge, unparalleled in recent history.”

Citing reporting from The Daily Beast, CREW states that the $535,200 requested by Walker “far exceeds the legal limits for contributions to this joint fundraising committee,” even if it was understood to be under Washington and members of his family.

The complaint also includes an email from a redacted account notifying Walker and Washington that the funds “may not be lawfully used for political purposes.” Federal contribution limits during the 2022 interim periods have been set at $2,900 per person for campaigns and $5,000 per year for political committees.

The CREW complaint goes further, claiming the emails between Washington’s agent and Walker confirm “that the purpose of these transmissions was to influence federal election laws” and that the matter should be referred to the Justice Department if criminal statutes were violated .

Paul S. Ryan, a campaign finance specialist and deputy executive director of the Funders’ Committee for Civic Participation, suggested that Walker’s activities amounted to a “criminal violation” and called the scandal “extraordinary and unprecedented in my 25 years of surveillance work at the… campaign finance. ”

“There is no legal way this could have happened.”