Jonathan S. Berkon

JBerkon@perkinscoie.com

D. +1.202.434.1669

F. +1.202.654.9684

August 10, 2020

VIA E-MAIL: AUDIT@FEC.GOV

Ms. Dayna C. Brown 

Acting Assistant Staff Director 

Audit Division

Federal Election Commission

1050 First Street NE 

Washington, DC 20463

Re: Grassroots Victory PAC Interim Audit Report Findings

Dear Ms. Brown:

We write as counsel for Grassroots Victory PAC (“GVP” or the “Committee”) in response to the

Interim Audit Report (“Report”). The Report, like the preliminary audit findings, buries the lede: 

the auditors found no new information that the Committee had not already disclosed to the 

Commission. The only finding is: “A comparison of GVP’s bank activity with its original reports 

filed with the Commission revealed that disbursements were understated by $106,674 for 

calendar years 2017 and 2018.” But, respectfully, it was not the audit that “revealed” this 

information. It was the Committee’s own proactive amendments in August 2018, long before the 

audit began. The Report should be modified to reflect that the reports on file when the audit

began accurately disclosed the Committee’s financial activity. 

As we discussed in our response to the preliminary audit findings, in early 2018, the Committee 

discovered unreported disbursements for its September, October, and November Monthly 2017 

reports and amended those reports. To discover the source of the discrepancies, the Committee 

hired a compliance firm to review its past reports and financial activities. This review identified

additional undisclosed disbursements as well as some previously reported contributions and 

disbursements that required amendment, and so the Committee amended its reports in August 

2018. This audit followed.

The Report does not explain why the auditors worked from the original reports rather than the 

amended reports that were on the public record before the audit began. In response to the 

Committee’s objection, the Report says, “Audit staff compared GVP’s original reports to its 

bank records to identify the degree to which GVP misstated the activity disclosed on its original 

filings.” This “explanation” is non-responsive. The Commission did not need an audit to identify 
Dayna C. Brown 

August 10, 2020

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the degree to which GVP erred in its original reports, because GVP had already informed the 

Commission of the degree to which it had erred in its amended reports. 

By focusing on GVP’s original reports, the Report presents a distorted picture of GVP’s current 

compliance with its disclosure obligations. The public record was correct before the audit began. 

The new information that the audit offers the Commission is not that GVP erred in its original 

reports, but rather that its most current reports are accurate. The Report should be modified to 

reflect that the Committee accurately disclosed its financial activity, on its own volition, through 

amended reports that preceded the audit.

Very truly yours,

Jonathan S. Berkon

Emily A. Hogin

Counsel for Grassroots Victory PAC

cc: James E. “Trey” Trainor III, Chair 

Steven T. Walther, Vice Chair 

Ellen L. Weintraub, Commissioner

Nicole Burgess, Audit Manager