Miami judge rules on disclosing dark-money donors in ‘ghost candidate’ case

A Miami-Dade judge has blocked the public release of the identities of donors to a political organization that is being investigated as part of a prominent election fraud prosecution.

Circuit Judge Ariana Fajardo Orshan ruled on Thursday that the identities of donors to Let’s Preserve the American Dream, or LPAD, should remain secret because the organization is a third party in the case against Republican political operative Frank Artiles. The donors are listed in bank records subpoenaed by prosecutors.

“While they’re not asking for a list of your members, reviewing those records is basically tantamount to a list. It is a who’s who of names, prominent names in our social community, locally, statewide and nationally,” she said during the hearing on Thursday.

“If these people wanted to give this money and be public about it, then they wouldn’t do it in this forum.”

Unlike political committees, which are legally required to disclose their donors, dark-money groups are not required by law to do so, which makes them useful for funders who don’t want their identities revealed when backing certain campaigns or causes. Under the order, the rest of the bank records — including sums of money — can still be released.

Artiles, a former Florida state senator, is accused of paying a no-party candidate more than $40,000 to run and try to sway the outcome of the state Senate District 37 election in 2020. Under Florida public records law, much of the evidence gathered against him is public record and many records have already been released to the media.

But the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office investigation has been sprawling and has roped in prominent players in Florida politics, including dark-money groups tied to powerful corporate donors.

Investigators are trying to uncover the money sources that, they say, played a role in the election scheme. As part of the probe, prosecutors subpoenaed records from LPAD, a Tallahassee-based nonprofit run by Ryan Tyson, a top GOP pollster in Florida. The nonprofit had hired Artiles’ consulting firm.

As of yet, nobody connected with the group has been charged, although prosecutors have signaled that they are targets of the probe.

Tyson went to court to ask that bank records related to the group be limited. The Miami Herald and other media organizations said the records were public under Florida law. “LPAD asserts it has been unfairly vilified, harassed and retaliated against by the media,” the judge’s order read. “LPAD believe they have suffered guilty by association despite their full cooperation with the State Attorney’s Office and lack of criminal charges against them.”

The judge agreed, saying LPAD had lost donors and “suffered reputational harm.”

This story was originally published March 24, 2022 at 3:34 PM.