Donald Trump may have violated federal campaign finance law after he bought thousands of copies of his own book at retail cost using campaign donations.
The Trump campaign paid Barnes & Noble $55,055 on May 10, according to a filing with the Federal Election Commission, amounting to more than 3,500 copies of Trump’s hardback book, Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again, or more than 5,000 copies of the retitled paperback version, the Daily Beast reported Wednesday.
A Trump spokesperson said the books were purchased as a gift for delegates attending the July Republican National Convention in Cleveland, "which we have to do."
The Republican National Committee did not respond to Daily Beast questions probing whether the GOP candidate was required to spend more than $50,000 in campaign funds on copies of his book.
The Trump campaign refused to confirm if the business mogul accepted royalties for sales of the book, which would violate campaign finance laws.
"It’s fine for a candidate’s book to be purchased by his committee, but it’s impermissible to receive royalties from the publisher," Paul Ryan, deputy executive director at the Campaign Legal Center, told the Daily Beast. "That amounts to an illegal conversion of campaign funds to personal use. There’s a well established precedent from the FEC that funds from the campaign account can’t end up in your own pocket."
Federal campaign finance law prohibits campaign spending to "result in the conversion of campaign funds to the personal use of the candidate or any other person."
A publishing public relations professional said Trump was likely attempting to land his book back on the New York Times Best Sellers list, which calculates retail purchases from brick-and-mortar bookstores, like Barnes & Noble.
Previous FEC filings unveiled in June that Trump had spent over $6 million at his own companies, including his restaurants, businesses, and airline.