A 2020 Republican candidate who lost her campaign to fill former Rep. Mark Meadows’ seat after he became White House chief of staff pleaded guilty Wednesday to breaking campaign finance laws by concealing the source of some of the money she loaned her campaign, the Justice Department said in a news release.
Lynda Bennett, 65, of Maggie Valley, North Carolina, was accused of borrowing $25,000 from a relative and then using it in what was reported as an $80,000 personal loan to her campaign in December 2019.
Bennett “knowingly and willfully” broke campaign finance laws by reporting “that the full $80,000 was a loan to her campaign using her own personal funds, rather than disclosing that $25,000 of that amount was a loan from another individual,” said the news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Columbia.
