A Donation Mystery

Playbook: “Is someone trolling Tim Sheehy, or is he trolling Montanans? The GOP establishment’s pick to take on Democratic Sen. Jon Tester backed Trump last spring — so it was surprising when somebody listing Sheehy’s name and address gave the maximum donation to Sen. Tim Scott’s (R-SC) presidential campaign in June. (This was three days after Trump became the first former president in history to face federal criminal charges.) To make matters more head-scratching, the donation listed Sheehy’s occupation as ‘plane crasher’ — and it came five days before our now-colleague Ursula Perano reported for The Daily Beast on the existence of a lawsuit against Sheehy for a fatal plane crash that happened while he was piloting.”

“Campaign donations using fake famous names do happen, so it could have been a prank. But the Scott campaign later amended the report (a common practice) to list the occupation as owner of Little Belt Cattle Co., which is Sheehy’s real job.”

New York Times: GOP infighting and Democratic mischief animate Montana Senate race.