Diamond and Silk say under oath they weren’t paid by Trump campaign; FEC filings say otherwise
The conservative social media personalities known as Diamond and Silk claimed under oath at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday that they were never paid for their consulting work by President Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Federal campaign finance filings show otherwise.
{mosads}”We have never been paid by the Trump campaign,” Lynette Hardaway, who goes by Diamond, told Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas).
Filings with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) show that the campaign paid the duo $1,275 on Nov. 22, 2016, for “field consulting.”
The two later backtracked under questioning from Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), explaining that the Trump campaign had reimbursed them for airfare after they traveled to a campaign event. They insisted that they had never been paid for consulting work.
“We are familiar with that particular lie, we can see that you do look at fake news,” said Rochelle Richardson, the other half of Diamond and Silk, when the New York Democrat brought up the FEC receipt.
“I’m just trying to figure out who is lying here,” Jeffries said.
Bradley Crate, the Trump campaign’s treasurer, issued a statement Thursday afternoon chalking up the confusion to a “reasonable misunderstanding” based on semantics.
“The campaign’s payment to Diamond and Silk for field consulting was based on an invoice they submitted reflecting their costs for air travel to a campaign event,” Crate said. “The invoice was not supported by accompanying receipts, so as a technical matter, could not be reported as a reimbursement even though its purpose was to make them whole for their out-of-pocket costs.”
The two were invited by House Republicans to testify on social media companies’ alleged bias against conservatives.
Earlier this month, the duo received a message from Facebook saying that their videos were deemed “unsafe.” Facebook later said it was sent in error.
Updated at 4:20 p.m.
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