Whitmer campaign calls on El-Sayed to return tainted money

LANSING — According to a reporter from Detroit News, several wealthy out-of-state donors to Abdul El-Sayed donated nearly $100,000 on July 31 into the PAC for State Rep. Abdullah Hammoud, who in turn funneled $61,200 in late contributions the next day back into El-Sayed’s campaign. Yesterday El-Sayed posted a Trump-style tweet falsely accusing Gretchen Whitmer of “money laundering.”

“One day after falsely accusing Gretchen Whitmer of money laundering, it now appears that Abdul El-Sayed is running a potentially illegal donor funneling scheme,” said Whitmer Press Secretary Nicole Simmons. “While Gretchen has kept her campaign positive, Abdul has stooped to the level of Donald Trump by peddling conspiracy theories and making defamatory attacks on Twitter. But the truth is, while Abdul has been attacking Gretchen Whitmer, he has funneled tens of thousands of dollars in shady out-of-state money to prop up his desperate campaign. Abdul needs do the right thing and return this tainted money immediately.”

BACKGROUND:

On July 31, 2018, Hammoud for Michigan, a PAC affiliated with Michigan House Representative Abdullah Hammoud, received the following contributions from out-of-state donors who had already contributed the maximum they could legally contribute to Abdul El-Sayed:

$50,000 from Ashwin Vasan (New York)

$10,000 from Aisha Jukaku (New York)

$10,000 from Hasan Rizvi (California)

$10,000 from Masarath Haque (Massachusetts)

According to a search of the campaign finance database, only Ms. Jukaku had ever previously contributed to Rep. Hammoud through his campaign committee, Friends of Abdullah Hammoud, in much smaller amounts ($50 in 2016 and $250 in 2018). The other donors have no records of contributions to Friends of Hammoud or Hammoud for Michigan.