Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) pushed a $10,000 donation from her campaign committee to a dark money nonprofit established by rising Democratic politician Stacey Abrams, Federal Election Commission filings show.
Abrams, who unsuccessfully ran for governor in Georgia and is now "strongly considering" a Senate run in 2020, established Fair Fight Action, Inc., an Atlanta-based nonprofit, to focus on election reform, education, and increasing voter turnout.
Abrams was listed as Fair Fight's executive director until December when the nonprofit—previously called the Voter Access Initiative—removed language from its bylaws that would allow it to "directly or indirectly" get involved in "any political campaign on behalf of any candidates for public office," the Daily Beast reported.
The group has been used to fuel Abrams's speaking tour and has paid for ads alleging her Republican opponent, Brian Kemp, "robbed" her of a victory during the midterm elections.
Fair Fight is a "dark money" group that does not have to disclose its donors, but Warren's most recent filings to the FEC show that the Massachusetts senator cut a $10,000 check on Dec. 26, 2018 from Elizabeth for Massachusetts, her Senate campaign committee, to the group.
Fair Fight established an affiliated political action committee that contains an almost identical mailing address as the nonprofit, both of which appear to be post office boxes at a UPS Store in Atlanta.
However, Warren's money was not reported as having been received by the PAC as of Dec. 31, according to a review of Georgia records.
Warren, who campaigned for Abrams, pushed the five-figure contribution to Fair Fight despite regularly chastising dark money groups. Warren's campaign did not respond to an inquiry on the donation by press time.
A second nonprofit created by Abrams, Third Sector Development, also now faces new tax liens from state regulators, according to a Tuesday report in the Atlanta Journal- Constitution.
Third Sector Development, created in 1998, was hit with four tax liens between 2014 and 2016 totaling $13,000 for unpaid unemployment contributions. State regulators hit Abrams's nonprofit with three more tax liens totaling $3,500 over the past year for its failure to pay state unemployment taxes, according to the report.
A spokeswoman for Abrams attributed the mistakes to a third-party vendor "contractor error."