Investigators dismiss allegation that Joe Kent had 'phantom job' to support run for Congress

FEC also says it had "insufficient" evidence to find that his employer violated campaign finance laws; Marie G-P says questions remain

Federal elections officials have dismissed allegations that Joe Kent and his employer created a “shell company” and “phantom job” to support his 2022 candidacy for Congress and that the company illegally paid for a poll on Kent’s behalf.

The Federal Elections Commission announced last week that it found “no reason to believe” the allegations, which surfaced in  the media in the late stages of last fall’s congressional campaign for Southwest Washington’s 3rd Congressional District.

Kent, a Clark County Republican, lost to Skamania Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez by less than a half percentage point. He is  challenging Gluesenkamp Perez’s 2024 re-election bid.

“Marie Perez and a willing local and national media ran with baseless lies about Joe Kent and his employer and he has been fully vindicated,”  Kent’s campaign said in a statement.” 

“Marie Perez’s blatantly false accusation that Joe, a 20-year Army combat veteran and CIA field operative, didn’t work for a living is abhorrent and she and the rest of the media that spread this lie owe Joe an apology,” the statement concludes.

In response,  Gluesenkamp Perez campaign spokesman Tim Gowen said “the only lie  being told here is by Joe Kent when he said this finding puts the issue to rest.”

The FEC report acknowledges ”that these are serious allegations and  questions related to Joe Kent’s sketchy employment history, but because the FEC couldn’t find conclusive proof they have decided  not to press forward with the complaint. Questions remain. We still don’t know what work,  if any, Joe Kent was doing for his six-figure salary or why his employer paid tens of thousands of dollars to poll the race,” Gowen said by email.

The 15-page report is based on  tax and other documents (not included in the report)  and sworn statements by Sam Reed, the CEO of Advanced Enterprise Solutions (AES), a  Virginia-based technology company.

Kent  and his “Joe Kent for Congress” campaign committee did not submit a substantive response to the allegations,” although the FEC notes that they “deny the allegations in their entirety.”

Nor does the report indicate what specific work Kent did for AES or identify clients or customers he serviced. The company reportedly helps governments and private companies analyze telecom systems.

AES denied that Kent was paid for a “no show” job  and told FEC investigators that Kent was engaged in projects around the world that required him to work remotely and at irregular hours.

Reed acknowledged that he personally paid $15,000 to $20,000 to Trafalgar polling to analyze the race, but he said he did not coordinate with Kent’s campaign and did not share the results with it.

Reed told the FEC  he hired Trafalgar for three reasons: to determine whether AES could lose a “uniquely skilled and difficult-to-replace’ worker if he was elected to Congress; he wished Kent success; and to help Reed recommend races that should be polled.

Federal election laws prohibit corporations from contributing to campaigns, and in 2022 individual contributions could not exceed  $2,900.  

The allegations arose in part from a former campaign worker and because Kent and his campaign had referred to his employer as American Enterprise Solutions, leading The Daily Beast to report in October 2022 that it could find no record for the company. Kent and his campaign,  acknowledging a mistake, amended his campaign filings to correct the company name.

The Daily Beast also reported that Byron Sanford,  Kent’s former campaign manager, alleged that Kent’s work for AES was a “phantom job” and that he did not think that (Kent) put any actual hours into doing things other than campaigning. When he scheduled Kent’s time, “there wasn’t enough time in the day to perform work for AES,” Sanford said.

The FEC reports that AES “explicitly denied that Kent was being paid for a ‘no show’ job and provides a consistent explanation that Kent’s work required that he be engaged on projects around the world working remotely with people in different international time zones. Mr. Kent’s work therefore cannot be placed neatly within a typically American eight-hours-a-day, five-days-per-week business schedule.”

While Sanford’s allegations raise questions, “on the balance there is insufficient information available to conclude that the payments were not for bona fide compensation,”  the FEC concluded. 

AES tried to discredit Sanford, calling him a disgruntled and dismissed former employee who had “motive to speak ill.”  In the report, FEC investigators said the unsworn statements of a fired campaign worker, when contrasted with the company’s documentation and “plausible explanations, ”  are “insufficient to demonstrate that Kent’s compensation was not exclusively” for work he did for AES.

AES shared paperwork disproving claims that it is “shell” company, according to  the FEC. It is a limited liability enterprise with “substantial revenues, expenses and profits.” It also disclosed  documents showing that Kent went to work for the company in 2019, nearly 18 months before launching his candidacy for Congress.

Kent told the press at the time that he had irregular but flexible work hours; that some  work weeks were lighter than others; and did not need to “check in” with a boss. He released tax filings showing AES paid him $110,000 in both 2021 and 2022.

Kent, an Oregon native,  ran for Congress after  U.S.  Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler voted to impeach former president Donald Trump following the Capitol riots on Jan. 6.  Herrera Beutler, a Yacolt-area Republican, had represented Southwest Washington for 12 years.

Trump endorsed Kent, who has blasted the prosecution of the former president and the Jan. 6 rioters over attempts to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the November 2020 presidential election.