Robert Burns, a political consultant at Brevard County, was fined $24,500 for violating election laws. Burns has been found to have committed campaign finance violations, including not reporting contributions or spending.
Robert Burns, a Brevard County political consultant and founder of Space Course Trocket, was ordered by a state judge to pay $24,500 in fines related to this week’s election fraud case.
These fines were made during Burns’ “a pattern of nonreported contributions received and during active campaigning against multiple candidates.”
According to court filings this week, the Florida Election Commission sent 84 letters for failing to file a report Burns ignored, resulting in accusations.
In the judge’s case summary, he has made campaign funds for Burns to act in a “significantly Cavalier” way, and to personally use it at ATMS in poker rooms in the state while the accounts are in a negative balance. It says it has been retracted.
Last August, Burns violated election laws that he “willfully” violated, because he did not report political contributions, made fraudulent spending and did not include appropriate disclaimers in his campaign ads. It has been revealed.
Burns’ accusations stem from reporting committed violations with friends on Campaign Finance and Florida’s Political Action Committee. Judge Lawrence Stephenson, held over five cases at the Florida Election Commission, upheld 50 charges against Burns and his friends in Florida, dismissing 54.
The court has made dozens of campaigns after Burns failed to file six months’ worth of financial reports with the Friends of Florida PAC despite more than 80 notifications sent to PO Boxes registered in the name of Burns. I supported the Florida spent about $20,000 during that time, collecting about $20,000. Part of it provided funding for political ads at the Indian Town Race and for Randyfine State Assemblyman who ran against Burns’ clients in the 2020 Republican primary race.
In his defense, Burns said in court proceedings that his actions were “not malicious, but due to my lack of experience with the complicated web of campaign finance law.”
However, the judge disagreed, writing that Burns’ claim of honest mistakes was unreliable.
The judge ruled that Burns failed to properly label six Facebook ads in both the Indian Town Campaign and the state legislature campaign.
When Burns allegedly filed the necessary disclaimer on Facebook, he allegedly replaced it in his own disclosure language, the court refused to defend this in accordance with the ruling.
“The ads clearly violated regulations, and Mr. Burns made the conscious decision to omit the essential language from both the advertising image and accompanying text,” Stevenson wrote in his decision.
Burns is also facing unrelated federal charges related to claims of small business loan fraud during the Covid-19 pandemic. The case continues to pass through the court.
When Florida reached out to Burns for comment today, he responded by email suggesting that Florida was writing about the issue today, as he ran a competing news site.
When Stevenson first ruled that Burns had violated election laws last August, Burns had a different view.
“Four years ago, I tried something myself I had never done before. I was running a Political Action Committee. During the Covid-19 pandemic, it became even more challenging. That’s not what I intend to do again. During that time, I was unable to follow the letter of law in certain instances related to reporting requirements and spending,” Burns said in a statement.
Tyler Vasquez is Florida’s Brevard County Watchdog Reporter today. Please contact Vazquez at 321-480-0854 or tvazquez@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @tyler_vazquez.
