Media

Fla. charity paid Bannon, other Breitbart employees: report

by Joe Concha - 11/23/16 10:01 AM ET

Donald Trump senior adviser Stephen Bannon accepted more than $375,000 in pay over a four-year period from a tax-exempt charity he organized in Florida, according to a new report Wednesday.

{mosads}An investigation by The Washington Post found that during the same time period, the charity also paid $1.3 million to two writers employed by Breitbart News, where Bannon was a top executive.

Bannon was the executive chairman of the conservative website at the same time he collected a salary from the charity, according to the Post.

The charity was officially formed by Bannon in 2012 not long after he began running Breitbart, following the death of founder Andrew Breitbart.

The charity bought $200,000 in advertisements from Breitbart.com during the four-year period, according to publicly available IRS filings cited in the report.

Other documents filed with the IRS illustrate a relationship between a conservative research organization called the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) and Breitbart News, a staunch Trump supporter during the campaign and an online publication with ties to the “alt-right” movement.

The IRS filings show Bannon was paid for 30 hours of work per week at the charity, based in Tallahassee, while two of his Breitbart journalists were paid for 40 hours of weekly work at the GAI.

Wynton Hall, a Breitbart writer, was also a “communications strategist” at the GAI. He was paid $600,000 by the nonprofit between 2012 and 2015.

IRS records also show Peter Schweizer, dubbed an “at-large editor” for Breitbart News, was paid $778,000 by the GAI between 2012 and 2015.

It was during that time Schweizer did his research for his book “Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich.”

IRS rules forbid tax-exempt charities like the GAI from “participating in or intervening in any political campaign on behalf of any candidate for office.”

A spokeswoman for GIA told the Post it has been in “total compliance with all 501(c)3 rules.”

The Hill has reached out to Bannon for comment.

Tags Donald Trump