The Tea Party Express says it has refunded several thousand dollars in contributions made in the name of a woman who’s been dead for almost four years.
Last week, the Center for Responsive Politics found that the tea party group had taken in $7,500 over the past two years from Joan Snyder Holmes, even though Holmes died in February 2007.
Holmes’ widow, Lee Holmes, is also a big-time funder to the Tea Party Express and other conservative causes.
The group wrote a letter to the FEC yesterday explaining that Lee Holmes had been responsible for the donations under his late wife’s name. The group said it’s returned $8,000 to Holmes.
“We were unaware that Mr. Holmes’ wife was deceased,” the letter reads.
The $8,000 appears to include the $7,500 that was donated under Holmes’ wife’s name, plus $500 Lee Holmes gave in 2009 that was over the legal annual limit of $5,000.
Reporting contributed by Alex Sciuto
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