DNC Paid Big Bucks to Email Scammer Posing as Chair Ken Martin, Officials Reveal

(AP Photo/Allison Robbert)

The Democratic National Committee sent approximately $29,000 to an email scammer posing as DNC Chair Ken Martin, a new report revealed.

NOTUS’ David Levinthal first reported on the email scammer on Tuesday, citing interviews with party officials as well as records previously unreported on.

According to a 2025 letter from Jack Baisden, Senior Campaign Finance & Reviewing Analyst at the Federal Election Commission, to the DNC’s treasurer, there was a “misdisbursement” to the tune of $28,860.92. The DNC responded to the inquiry in August, explaining there was a transaction that was the result of “fraudulent activity by an external third party.”

The response reads:

This is in response to your July 8, 2025 letter requesting additional information from DNC Services Corp./Democratic
National Committee (the “Committee”) regarding a misdisbursement of Committee funds. The identified transaction was the
result of fraudulent activity by an external third party. The Committee has no reason to believe that the transaction
involved any misappropriation or misconduct by Committee personnel. Committee staff discovered the issue quickly and
promptly notified its bank in order to recover the misdisbursed funds. The Committee maintains an internal controls
policy consistent with the Federal Election Commission’s safe harbor policy, and the Committee is taking further steps
to avoid similar events in the future.

A scammer reportedly sent a fraudulent email to the DNC in February, 2025, and the scammer was posing as Martin, an official told NOTUS. Martin had entered his role only days before the email was sent out, and the staffer who sent out the payment to the scammer has since been let go from the organization. Martin became DNC chair on February 1.

The DNC alerted law enforcement to the email scam. The error was reportedly caught in minutes, but the DNC only received $7000 of the payment that was sent out. As the report noted, the DNC has been facing cash flow issues. They reportedly put their Washington, D.C. headquarters up as collateral in order to secure a $15 million loan.

“The DNC takes seriously our duty to protect the funds provided to us by millions of patriotic Americans chipping in to fund our mission,” DNC spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg told NOTUS. “This was a one-off mistake that was promptly caught and addressed, and no similar issues have occurred since.”

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!