Private Prison Giant’s ‘Illegal’ Cash Helped Elect Trump Ally Who Polices ICE

Photo Illustration by Victoria Sunday/The Daily Best/Getty ImagesThe largest U.S. immigration prison company illegally funneled 250,000 into a political network that helped elect a fresh face on the committee policing ICE, a watchdog has alleged. GEO Group, which runs more immigration detention centers than any rival, was named in a Federal Election Commission complaint filed May 27 by the Campaign Legal Center, as first revealed by the Daily Beast’s sister Substack PunchUp and Migrant Insider. Federal contractors are barred from political giving. The complaint alleges GEO broke that law when it paid the sum last July into a tax-exempt fund tied to Rep. Jim Jordan, 62, the Ohio Republican whose Judiciary Committee oversees ICE. The cash landed 11 days after President Donald Trump signed the law that nearly tripled ICE’s budget. The fund shares its leadership with a super PAC that backed a single congressional candidate last year, in Matt Van Epps, 43. Van Epps won a Tennessee special election in December and now sits on the House Homeland Security Committee, which also polices ICE. The man atop both Liberty groups, Ray Yonkura, spent nearly a decade as Jordan’s chief of staff, POGO had earlier reported. The watchdog’s Saurav Ghosh called it “the very definition of pay-to-play corruption.” GEO, the Liberty groups, and the offices of Van Epps and Jordan did not return requests for comment.*For the full article and many more scoops, head over to PunchUp.Read more at The Daily Beast.