GOP campaign firm targeted by FBI removes web pages, social media
The day after the FBI raided the offices of a Maryland campaign consulting firm that has done work on national and local races, the firm deleted or locked much of its online presence.
The website for Strategic Campaign Group, which had previously featured more than a dozen pages detailing the firm's various campaign services, blog posts, social media, frequently asked questions and biographical information about its founders, has been pared down to just a homepage — which itself has several dead links still pointing to pages that were active one day ago.
In addition, Strategic Campaign Group's Facebook, Instagram and Google Plus accounts have all been closed, and the firm made its Twitter feed private. Its Pinterest and LinkedIn pages remain active.
On Thursday, FBI agents swarmed the firm's offices on Main Street in Annapolis, placing garbage bags over the windows to keep onlookers from peering inside while agents worked.
The investigation is part of an operation being run by the Washington, D.C., field office of the FBI, the agency confirmed to CBS News.
A phone call to Kelley Rogers, the firm's president, was not immediately returned Friday.
Rogers and his firm were among several defendants named in a 2014 lawsuit filed by former Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli, who said Strategic Campaign Group and another firm called StrikeForce ran a nationwide campaign donation scam.
Cuccinelli said the defendants raised $2.2 million from donors while pretending to be campaigning for him. Less than one-half of one percent of that money, $10,000, actually made it to the Cuccinelli campaign.
Rogers told reporters Thursday that the FBI investigation was related to allegations in the lawsuit.
Exhibits in the case show emails sent in September, October and November of 2013 to potential donors by StrikeForce and Strategic Campaign Group pleading for money to help Cuccinelli's campaign.
"Dear Patriot, We just launched our emergency Virginia Victory Money Bomb because Tea Party hero Ken Cuccinelli is about six points behind and he's desperately short on cash," read one email.
"So every single dollar we can raise to help Ken will make all the difference in the world," the email continues later on.
The defendants did not admit wrongdoing in the case. It was settled for $85,000 and the defendants turned a list of donors over to the campaign.
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