The Center for Public Integrity wonders if actor Daniel Craig, best known for playing British super spy James Bond on the big screen, was tricked into donating almost $50,000 to a super PAC that supposedly supports Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.
A Mr Sanders’ team has been concerned that donors are sending their money to Americans Socially United rather than direct to his campaign, diverting much needed funding in the process.
Cary Lee Peterson, the founder of Americans Socially United, was overjoyed to have a large donation from Daniel Craig himself. Previously, Americans Socially United was dubbed “Bet on Bernie 2016” and still uses his name in its various websites, including betonbernie.com and pledgesanders2016.com. His campaign sent Peterson a cease and desist letter in June, which Peterson continues to disregard.
As supporters of Mr Sanders know – and appreciate – the socialist Vermont senator has made clear that he wants his insurgent campaign to be funded only by small donations from grassroots supporters and will not be seeking the support of so-called Super PACs.
Super PACs are political action committees that can raise unlimited funds for a candidate, contrary to a regular PAC, which can only accept up to a certain amount per person.
Craig told Variety that he made the donation “in good faith as I understood it to support Senator Sanders’ candidacy”.
Still, Peterson maintains his only motives are seeing Sanders elected as president.
He also claims he’s spent more than $1 million in his Sanders campaign on billboards, field organisers and other election materials.
Through his publicist, Craig confirmed to CPI that he did donate to Peterson’s group and that he so far “had no evidence to question that my donation has not been used as intended”. “Should that situation occur, then clearly, I will review my position”, Daniel said in a statement.
But it’s impossible to verify the legitimacy because he hasn’t filed any of the mandatory finance reports with the Federal Election Commission.