The Government Accountability Institute (GAI) on Wednesday called out the Obama campaign for refusing to address the ownership of the Obama.com domain by a campaign bundler who lives and has business interests in China. GAI also alleged that the Obama campaign has not fully addressed its weak online security measures to prevent fraudulent or foreign campaign donations.
GAI President Peter Schweizer said GAI was “troubled by the fact that the Obama campaign has nothing to say about one of the main concerns we detailed in our report: the mysterious Obama.com redirect website anonymously owned by China-based campaign bundler Robert Roche.”
“Robert Roche has an unusually close relationship with the Chinese government, to whom he is dependent for the operation of his Chinese-based company, Acorn International,” Schweizer said. “At the same time, he owns this redirect website which sends international web traffic to a contribution page of the president’s campaign.”
The Chinese government has a history of trying influence American elections through campaign contributions, and Roche is not a random figure. He was seated at the head table of the China State Dinner in 2011.
Immediately after the progressive magazine Newsweek published a story, based on a nine-month GAI investigation of how easily foreigners can illicitly donate to President Barack Obama’s campaign due to lax online security measures, the Obama campaign responded with a purported “fact-check” that tried to dismiss the report as a partisan attack on the Obama campaign.
However, the report pointed out the vulnerabilities of Republicans and Democrats to fraudulent or foreign donations. The report noted Mitt Romney’s campaign’s vulnerabilities and highlighted vulnerabilities on Marco Rubio’s online donation pages during his 2010 Senate campaign.
“It’s disappointing that the Obama campaign purposefully misconstrues GAI’s concerns about foreign solicitations,” Schweizer said. “The fact of the matter is that knowingly soliciting donations from foreign individuals is against the law.”
GAI also noted the Obama campaign’s “fact-check” did not even bother to acknowledge some of the most important and salient facts from GAI’s investigation.
“Our report is a comprehensive analysis of a bipartisan problem: the vulnerabilities that campaigns face when it comes to fraudulent and foreign donations,” Schweizer explained. “The Obama campaign is particularly vulnerable because of its aggressive solicitation of online donations, their failure to employ rigorous, industry-standard anti-fraud security tools (CVV and AVS), and because the name 'Obama' is a global brand.”
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The Government Accountability Institute (GAI) on Wednesday called out the Obama campaign for refusing to address the ownership of the Obama.com domain by a campaign bundler who lives and has business interests in China. GAI also alleged that the Obama campaign has not fully addressed its weak online security measures to prevent fraudulent or foreign campaign donations.
GAI President Peter Schweizer said GAI was “troubled by the fact that the Obama campaign has nothing to say about one of the main concerns we detailed in our report: the mysterious Obama.com redirect website anonymously owned by China-based campaign bundler Robert Roche.”
“Robert Roche has an unusually close relationship with the Chinese government, to whom he is dependent for the operation of his Chinese-based company, Acorn International,” Schweizer said. “At the same time, he owns this redirect website which sends international web traffic to a contribution page of the president’s campaign.”
The Chinese government has a history of trying influence American elections through campaign contributions, and Roche is not a random figure. He was seated at the head table of the China State Dinner in 2011.
Immediately after the progressive magazine Newsweek published a story, based on a nine-month GAI investigation of how easily foreigners can illicitly donate to President Barack Obama’s campaign due to lax online security measures, the Obama campaign responded with a purported “fact-check” that tried to dismiss the report as a partisan attack on the Obama campaign.
However, the report pointed out the vulnerabilities of Republicans and Democrats to fraudulent or foreign donations. The report noted Mitt Romney’s campaign’s vulnerabilities and highlighted vulnerabilities on Marco Rubio’s online donation pages during his 2010 Senate campaign.
“It’s disappointing that the Obama campaign purposefully misconstrues GAI’s concerns about foreign solicitations,” Schweizer said. “The fact of the matter is that knowingly soliciting donations from foreign individuals is against the law.”
GAI also noted the Obama campaign’s “fact-check” did not even bother to acknowledge some of the most important and salient facts from GAI’s investigation.
“Our report is a comprehensive analysis of a bipartisan problem: the vulnerabilities that campaigns face when it comes to fraudulent and foreign donations,” Schweizer explained. “The Obama campaign is particularly vulnerable because of its aggressive solicitation of online donations, their failure to employ rigorous, industry-standard anti-fraud security tools (CVV and AVS), and because the name 'Obama' is a global brand.”