Democrat Rep. William Lacy Clay Used Campaign Funds to Pay His Sister’s Law Firm $80,000

Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-MO) used $80,000 in campaign funds to pay a law firm that his sister owns over the past year, according to newly released campaign finance records.

Records of the campaign’s second-quarter finances obtained by the Washington Free Beacon show that Clay Jr. for Congress gave tens of thousands of dollars to the Law Office of Michelle C. Clay, LLC in Silver Spring, Maryland, a city not too far from Washington, D.C.

The campaign released their second quarter campaign finance information Friday, covering all financial activity from April 1 to June 30.

Michelle Clay’s firm received four checks amounting to a total of $18,100 from Rep. Clay’s campaign committee in April. The check covered services such as “fundraising, compliance, record keeping, and community organizing.”

The firm also pulled in $18,000 in May and raked in another $18,000 in June, the campaign’s Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings show.

In the first quarter of 2017, covering all financial activity from January 1 to March 31, Clay’s campaign doled out $27,000 to Michelle Clay’s firm.

Clay’s campaign committee reported expenditures of $115,000 since the start of 2017, meaning that Clay’s campaign spent more than 70 percent of his total campaign expenses on his sister’s firm.

The Missouri Democrat has a history of paying his sister with campaign funds. Rep. Clay has paid more than $800,000 to his sister’s firm since 2002.