Did Mark Robinson break the law during his 2020 campaign?

[Author’s note: While Donald Trump’s legal troubles receive almost daily news coverage, one of his biggest supporters in North Carolina – Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson – has yet to be held to account during a long-running government investigation into alleged crimes committed during his 2020 campaign. State law makes the investigation (which was in response to a complaint I filed in 2021) secret, but in the following open letter, I argue that it’s time for Robinson to tell voters what happened in 2019-2020, and what’s happening with the investigation.] 

Dear Lt. Gov. Robinson,

A year from now, you could be sworn in as the new Governor of North Carolina. A week later, you could be charged with criminal violations from an ongoing investigation into more than $500,000 of apparent illegal activity related to your 2020 campaign. Illegal cash donations; contributions in illegal amounts and from illegal donors; illegal cash withdrawals; illegal credit card charges and illegal expenses; illegal disclosure of financial transactions.

The investigation of your campaign has continued for three years, beginning with my complaint to the State Board of Elections in February 2021. Back then, your campaign consultant dismissed the problemsas “clerical errors” and said “new staff” would work with the State Board of Elections to “fix any and all mistakes” and submit amended reports. You told a reporter any problems would be handled “quick, fast and in a hurry.”

But there are no amended reports and the investigation continues. If your case wasn’t about such substantial wrongdoing or if you were fully cooperating with authorities, the investigation likely would have ended by now. What’s going on? What are you telling investigators? Is the Wake County District Attorney or FBI involved? The public shouldn’t be kept in the dark.

Rather than be surprised, voters need to hear from you now – before the primary, not after the November election. For accountability and transparency, please give people a truthful explanation. In the past, when reporters asked about a mysterious $2,400 cash withdrawal from your campaign in 2020, they received two different answers – it was either a typo for a $20 withdrawal or a cash refund for an illegal $2,400 contribution from a business. Please, no more excuses or fake news.

Click here to see a copy of my complaint from three years ago. To summarize, here are 10 highlights about your 2020 campaign that still deserve attention:

• Two illegal “cash” withdrawals of $2,400 and $160 in December 2019. Because cash can’t be reliably tracked through a “verifiable form of payment,” NC General Statute 163-278.8(d) says cash payments for expenses over $50 are illegal. Based on the addresses listed for each of these payments, the cash was apparently deposited at the State Employees Credit Union (SECU) to benefit somebody’s account. Whose account? Yours?  (The Statement of Economic Interest you filed with the Ethics Commission in 2020 says you were making payments on a SECU loan at the time.)
• Twenty contributions to your 2020 campaign from “unknown” or “cash” or essentially anonymous donors – totaling over $8,000. These contributions violate the prohibition in NCGS 163-278.14 and NCGS 163-278.11(a)(1) against anonymous donors and cash donations over $50.
• Illegal contributions from business entities totaling at least $4,100, in violation of NCGS 163-278.19.
• Illegal contributions totaling at least $12,000 from out-of-state PACs and organizations not authorized to donate in a North Carolina election, per NCGS 163-278.7A.
• Illegal contributions totaling $11,800 from individuals who donated above the 2020 limit of $5,400 in violation of NCGS 163-278.13 and whose excess donations were not refunded.
• Illegal failure to disclose required information about 258 individuals who each donated between $500 and $5,400 for a total of over $360,000. NCGS 163-278.11(a)(1) and (d) require campaigns to provide occupational information for listed donors or indicate campaign staff were “unable to obtain” the information after follow-up correspondence with the donor. No statewide candidate in 2020 violated these laws worse than you and your campaign.
• Illegal failure to disclose information required by NCGS 163-278.11(a)(1) and (d) for 972 individuals who are each listed as donating between $100 and $499 for a total of $150,000.
• Illegal missing disclosure of information about at least 30 expenditures totaling $15,000, as required by NCGS 163-278.11(a)(2) and NCGS 163-278.8(d)
• Inadequately documented and possibly illegal expenses personally benefitting you and your family, including $4,500 to your wife, Yolanda Hill, for “campaign apparel,” $2,375 to Lake Gaston Outfitters for “clothing and accessories,” and the $2,560 in cash deposits to SECU accounts. NCGS 163-278.16B prohibits using campaign funds for the personal benefit of family members.
• A discrepancy of more than $80,000 between the total income detailed in your campaign disclosure reports and the total income listed on the summary page of your 2020 campaign. Overall, the reports consistently violate the provisions in NCGS 163-278.8 and 163-278.9 – but you have not filed amended 2020 campaign reports with the State Board of Elections to correct errors since I filed my complaint in February 2021.

Understanding what happens with campaign finance complaints has become much more difficult because in the past several years the Republican-controlled General Assembly has passed laws that (1) barred the State Board of Elections from holding an investigative public hearing, (2) made the investigation and any referral to prosecutors completely secret, (3) starved the agency’s budget of the campaign finance investigators, and (4) added new hurdles to undermine timely investigations, including requiring referral of findings to the understaffed State Ethics Commission before referral to a district attorney.

These changes seem designed to shield politicians from public accountability – which is all the more reason for you to demonstrate respect for voters and personal courage by forthrightly addressing the many problems with your campaign finances. I’ll be at the Council of State meeting on January 9 and hope we can talk about these matters after the meeting.

Thank you,

Bob Hall

Click here to the complaint Hall filed with the State Board of Elections.