Newt Gingrich used campaign cash to reimburse himself for more than $88,000 in travel expenses in January, despite repeated warnings from the Federal Election Commission about how his campaign has accounted for such expenses, according to documents filed with the commission this week.
Those amounts come on top of more than $200,000 in lump-sum payments Mr. Gingrich drew from his campaign account during the last three months of 2011, according to the year-end filing he made at the end of last month. Those payments were all marked “travel.”
The commission sent a letter to Mr. Gingrich’s campaign last week, noting problems with the year-end report, apparently in references to the $200,000 in ostensible travel payments. A response is due on March 23.
The additional reimbursements were reported Wednesday by The Washington Times.
In a letter to Mr. Gingrich’s campaign in September, F.E.C. officials noted similar expenditures by Mr. Gingrich’s campaign last spring and early summer and informed his campaign’s treasurer, Lisa Lisker, that federal rules required campaigns to itemize the vendors to which the payments were made — in essence, a more specific description of how Mr. Gingrich used the money he was reimbursed for. In November, Ms. Lisker sent back a response, denying that any more information was required. The campaign “has reviewed all reimbursements to individuals for travel and subsistence and confirms that no further itemization is required under any commission regulations for these expenditures,” Ms. Lisker wrote. “Thank you for bringing these items to our attention.” A spokeswoman for the F.E.C. said the commission did not comment on individual cases. It is not unusual for candidates to be reimbursed for travel expenses, but the amount in Mr. Gingrich’s case is striking, raising the possibility that he was personally footing his campaign’s sizable travel expenses as it struggled to raise money. The travel expenditures paid to Mr. Gingrich late last year amounted to about a third of the overall travel costs the campaign reported for the quarter. Earlier in the campaign, before large travel reimbursements began showing up on his travel filings, Mr. Gingrich came under fire from former aides and onetime supporters for his use of expensive private aircraft, the costs of which accounted for a large portion of the debt his campaign carried during much of last year. A spokesman for Mr. Gingrich did not immediately respond to a request for comment.