Trump inauguration official accused of embezzling Ohio disaster funds
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Pat Lee, a Republican operative, will never be able to fundraise for charity in Ohio again.
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Debris from a Norfolk Southern freight train lies scattered and burning along the tracks, on February 4, 2023. (AP)
To assist in preparation for the inauguration, President-elect Donald Trump's team hired a man who was on the board of a nonprofit accused by the Ohio attorney general of embezzling funds intended for victims of the Norfolk Southern train catastrophe in East Palestine, Ohio, The Intercept reported.
Patrick Lee, the inaugural committee's deputy director and public liaison, was on the board of the Ohio Clean Water Fund, an LLC founded in Ohio days after the train crashed in February 2023.
Trump's visit to East Palestine became a focal point in his presidential campaign. The Ohio Clean Water Fund, claiming to represent the Second Harvest Food Bank, raised over $141,000 for families affected by the East Palestine disaster. However, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost's office later described the collaboration as fraudulent, with the food bank denying any connection.
Despite this, the Ohio Clean Water Fund sent the food bank $10,000 while keeping the remaining $131,000, according to the attorney general's office.
Yost subsequently described the Ohio Clean Water Fund as a "sham charity", saying it "must turn over more than $131,000 in pocketed donations so the money truly does benefit East Palestine."
A lawyer for Lee denied the allegations, stating that the payment made by Lee's organization was not an admission of guilt. Lee, not officially named as a defendant, did not address his involvement with the Ohio Clean Water Fund, which shared an address with his Virginia home.
In a settlement with Ohio Attorney General Yost, Lee and the Ohio Clean Water Fund agreed to pay a six-figure reparation and were restricted from certain philanthropic activities in Ohio in exchange for dropping the accusations against them.
Yost’s lawsuit revealed that the "charity" had pocketed at least $131,000 of the donated funds while sending only $10,000 to the food bank.
The East Palestine train crash became a major political issue in the 2024 presidential race, with Trump's team emphasizing his visit to the catastrophe scene while comparing it with Biden's absence.
Since the June 2023 settlement, LCM Strategies has received payments from Ohio Republican state representatives Justin Pizzulli and Adam Mathews, who told The Intercept he was not familiar with Lee, the fund, or details of misuse, pointing out that LCM was engaged as a subcontractor rather than directly by his campaign.
While FEC records show that neither Trump's campaign nor the Republican National Committee explicitly recruited Lee during the 2024 campaign season, past reports and sources corroborate his involvement as a former deputy director of public interaction for Trump's inauguration committee.
Lee was not the only political figure connected to the alleged "sham charity".
Mike Peppel, founder of the Ohio Clean Water Fund, previously worked for Republican Congressman Mike Rulli. In August, Peppel settled with Yost, agreeing to pay reparations and cease some charitable activities to avoid litigation. Reports later indicated that Rulli had rehired Peppel, and Rulli's campaign had worked with Lee's firm, LCM Strategies, in 2021 and 2022.
