Senator’s Trump donation to be returned
A Canadian senator has violated American law by donating to U. S. President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign.
Ontario Sen. Lynn Beyak made a $ 300 contribution to the Republican National Committee in May, according to public records from the American Federal Election Commission.
Beyak listed her occupation as retired and her address as a PO box on Davis Point Road in Dryden, N.Y., however, no such road or address exists in the rural New York town. Vice News, which first reported the story, also said there is no Lynn Beyak in the American town. The senator lives in Dryden, Ont. Vice reported that a phonebook listing that matches the address in the donation receipt belongs to Beyak.
American federal laws prohibit campaigns from soliciting or accepting contributions from foreign nationals who do not hold U. S. citizenship. Parsing through financial disclosures, Vice reported there is no indication that Beyak holds dual citizenship or owns property in the states.
Beyak’s office confirmed to Vice that the senator did make the political donation, however, the money “is being returned in its entirety, simply because (the contribution) was erroneous.”
The RNC must report all returned donations but has not yet reported returning the senator’s contribution.
Since former prime minister Stephen Harper appointed Beyak to the Senate in 2013, she’s been at the centre of a series of controversies.
In 2017, the Conservative Senate caucus expelled her after she called for the creation of a program in which Indigenous peoples could receive cash if they relinquished their protected status and land.
In February, sitting as an independent, Beyak was suspended for the remainder of the parliamentary session because she did not complete the anti- racism training she had been directed to undergo. Beyak’s suspension ended when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau prorogued Parliament in the summer.
She is back in the Senate, collecting her full $157,600-a-year salary.