🚨LIE, CHEAT, STEEL🚨 Michelle Steel Misdirected Taxpayers’ $1.2M to Her Campaign Print Shop, Manipulated Pandemic Program Meant to Feed Needy Seniors

Political for-profit print shop - in business with both disgraced politician Andrew Do and Michelle Steel - had never administered a grant program, mismanaged mandatory filings, and charged 3x more per meal than other non-profits awarded grants while failing to deliver the meals to seniors

Today, a new bombshell report from NPR's LAist exposed Michelle Steel's latest self-dealing scandal: misdirecting $1.2 million taxpayer dollars for a meal program meant to feed low-income seniors to her own campaign's mail and print shop, DTN Tech.

DTN Tech had no experience ever administering a federal grants program, charged taxpayers "more than triple the amount per meal" than comparable programs in other districts, and refused to make meals available for home delivery to these needy seniors like every other program. An independent audit also found that the company was over three years late in submitting mandatory reports on their spending and paid itself the highest allowable amount in administrative costs - while LAist discovered that "at least two-thirds of the county funding…went to restaurants" that were paying clients of Michelle Steel's campaign print shop.

Steel's scheme shares some damning connections with the bribery and corruption crimes committed by her longtime political ally, Andrew Do, who yesterday pled guilty to conspiring to steal millions of dollars meant to feed needy seniors. Notably, Do's district was "the only one besides Steel's to select a vendor without a known track record of providing taxpayer-funded meals."

In June of 2020, Steel and Do each voted to authorize each Orange County Supervisor to reward more than $1 million in federal CARES Act funding for programs of their choice, using a procedure that, according to LAist, "sidestepped the county's usual transparency for taxpayer money, and allowed supervisors to make those spending decisions without public votes or competitive bidding." This vote was listed as the first overt act in Andrew Do's guilty plea documents. Instead of choosing an experienced non-profit organization that could quickly and competently stand up such a program, Michelle Steel selected her campaign's for-profit mail and print vendor.

O.C. District Attorney Todd Spitzer called the funding method Supervisors Steel and Do used for their meals program a "horrible mistake by the board" that led to an unbelievable "lack of oversight," - and Michelle Steel took full advantage. To make matters worse, not only did the mail firm receive tens of thousands of dollars from Steel's campaign and thousands of taxpayer dollars from her congressional office…but also major business from Andrew Do.

Key findings from LAist's reporting:

Michelle Steel's unwavering support for Andrew Do is well-documented, with numerous public statements lauding his "leadership" and "character." When news broke in August of an FBI investigation into the Orange County Supervisor and Michelle Steel endorser, Steel's spokesperson declined to answer the Orange County Register's questions about Do, including if Steel had recently been in contact with him. Do and Steel have been allies for years, raising serious concerns about her judgment.

DCCC Spokesperson Dan Gottlieb:
"When handed the chance to provide low-cost meals to needy Orange County seniors in the middle of a crisis, Michelle Steel chose to go the Andrew Do route, betray taxpayers' trust, and line the pockets of one of her long-time campaign allies instead. This scandal is egregious and demands further investigation."

READ THE FULL REPORT HERE.