Suspicion is swirling around the broadcaster of Ted Cruz's podcast after a $630,850 payment was made to a PAC that supports the Texas GOP Senator.
Federal Election Commission data shows the large sum was paid by iHeartMedia to theTruth and Courage PAC, making up a third of its revenue since the beginning of 2023. As Newsweek pointed out, critics are calling for an investigation to be launched, but Cruz says he's done nothing wrong.
Senate rules forbid Cruz from accepting gifts from any company that employs lobbyists, as iHeartMedia does, unless they are of "nominal value," the Houston Chronicle reported.
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iHeartMedia's vice-president of public relations said the payments to Truth and Courage PAC are "associated with those advertising sales" for the podcast.
"Sen. Cruz volunteers his time to host this podcast and isn't compensated for it," Rachel Nelson said.
A watchdog group filed a complaint against Cruz back in 2022 with the Senate Ethics Committee over previous payments from iHeartMedia to the pro-Cruz PAC, but the complaint was later dismissed after the committee found that Cruz had abided by regulations.
But according to senior legal counsel for the Campaign Legal Center Shanna Ports, the new revelations raise "the question of whether this is an unlawful contribution" since it's possible that Cruz solicited donations of over $5,000 to his PAC, which would be illegal.
A spokesperson for Cruz told the Houston Chronicle that Cruz appears on his podcast "times a week for free."
"He does this to pull back the veil on the corrupt inner workings of Washington, none of which ever get fairly covered. How convenient that the mainstream media and the cogs in the machine of the Biden-Pelosi Democrat Party want this to stop," the spokesperson said.