Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., deposited hundreds of thousands of dollars donated to his presidential and senatorial campaigns to a charity group run by his wife and stepson, the Washington Examiner reported Friday.
The Sanders Institute temporarily ceased operations during the senator's 2020 campaign for the Democrat presidential nomination "so there could not even be an appearance of impropriety," the Examiner reported. But according to campaign finance records, between April 2021 and November 2024, it received $775,000 from Sanders' presidential and Senate campaigns.
The organization received $350,000 from Sanders' presidential campaign in 2021, according to tax records, and more than $200,000 from his Senate campaign account in 2023, the Examiner reported, the same year the Sanders Institute reported just $228,000 in total donation revenue.
According to tax records, David Driscoll, Sanders' stepson, received $120,000 in compensation in 2023 as the Sanders Institute's executive director. The records do not disclose how much the senator's wife, Jane O'Meara Sanders, made while working as a fellow.
Using campaign funds for "personal use" is prohibited by the Federal Election Commission, according to the Examiner. Contributions to charities are not considered personal use "as long as neither the candidate nor any member of the candidate's family receives compensation from the charitable organization before it has expended the entire amount donated," FEC rules state. Funds donated from a campaign to a charity must also have been "used for purposes that do not personally benefit the candidate."
The Examiner reported that Sanders and his family's charity did not respond to requests for comment.