Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke launched SEAL PAC when he was elected to the House as a Republican from Montana and stepped away from the group after joining President Donald Trump's Cabinet in March. | Mark Wilson/Getty Images Former Zinke PAC blames software for $200,000 accounting discrepancy

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's former PAC blamed a technical glitch for a nearly $200,000 discrepancy in its campaign finance reports and said it is working to fix problems identified by the FEC.

SEAL PAC told the FEC on Friday that faulty software led it to report having more cash on hand at the beginning of 2017 than at the beginning of last year. Zinke launched the leadership PAC when he was elected to the House as a Republican from Montana and stepped away from the group after joining President Donald Trump's Cabinet in March.


Last month, the FEC asked SEAL PAC to explain why its report for the first six months of 2017 showed it had $408,882 in the bank as of Jan. 1, when its final 2016 report showed a balance of $215,633 on Dec. 31. The PAC said the data file accounting for the surge in cash it reported having did not transfer correctly to the FEC.

“The committee is now rebuilding the missing ... data file to compile lost data from the prior uploaded report,” a representative for SEAL PAC wrote in the response. “If needed, FEC technical support will be contacted for further data recovery and amendment assistance.”

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SEAL PAC's former treasurer, Vincent DeVito, left the organization earlier this year to join Zinke at Interior, where he is a senior adviser on energy policy. The group's new treasurer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The PAC reported raising $415,253 in the first six months of this year, much of which came from small donors, and spending more than $1 million over that same period, mostly on direct mail consultants and related expenses. The PAC continues to work with the same handful of political operatives it did when Zinke was in charge, many of whom have drawn criticism from other GOP candidates.

In its response to the FEC on Friday, SEAL PAC explained that the direct mail and other activities on which it spent the vast majority of its money “did not contain expressed advocacy,” or specific suggestions on which candidates or measures to vote for.

SEAL PAC also said it took steps to obtain missing information about some donors and refund donations it received or contributions it made that were above legal limits.