SCOOP: Thief steals $10,000 from Speaker Mike Johnson's campaign

Theft from political committees is reaching epidemic levels

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson speaking with attendees at a fundraiser for U.S. Congressional candidate Abraham Hamadeh in Paradise Valley, Ariz., on Aug. 22, 2024. (Photo: Gage Skidmore / Creative Commons)

It’s been a great week for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).

Except for one little problem.

As I exclusively report today in OpenSecrets:

Speaker Mike Johnson is celebrating massive cuts to foreign aid programs and public media that he successfully navigated through the House of Representatives.

But Johnson’s own political campaign budget just took a modest hit, too — thanks to a thief, according to new federal records reviewed by OpenSecrets.

The Mike Johnson for Louisiana congressional committee lost $9,995.50 on April 28 when an unidentified person swiped one of the committee’s paper checks, which was “reissued to a fraudulent payee, and processed,” Johnson’s campaign wrote to the Federal Election Commission this week.

Johnson’s campaign spokesman Greg Steele told me by phone that that Johnson’s committee does not know who stole the check, and they are “exploring” whether to involve law enforcement.

Johnson’s situation is hardly unique: Federal political committees have lost millions of dollars this decade because of fraudsters of all sorts.

Read my full scoop to learn more.