Seth Wenig / AP Photo
The circling vultures are getting closer: A former RNC official tells The Daily Caller, which originally broke the story about Michael Steele’s lavish expenses, that Steele orchestrated a deal with the Michigan GOP with the possible intention of circumventing federal funding limits. According to The Daily Caller’s source, Steele asked the Michigan GOP to raise half a million dollars for the RNC, money which he almost immediately gave back to the Michigan GOP—a scheme that inflated the RNC’s 2009 fundraising numbers. Fundraising reports show that 15 Michigan donors maxed out their donations on the last day of 2009, donating $456,000 to the RNC; over the next two months, $500,000 was reimbursed from the RNC to the Michigan GOP. The Daily Caller also notes that the scheme allowed the 15 donors to give much more money to the Michigan GOP than they would have been allowed to under federal campaign laws; had they sought to donate their money directly to the Michigan GOP, they’d have only been allowed to give a maximum of $10,000 each.