From Rocky Mountain News: Trailhead Responds To Confidential Report

Complaints have been filed with both state and federal entities, tens of thousands of dollars are still not accounted for, and the Trailhead Group LLC wasn’t even reserved with the Colorado Secretary of State’s office until Colorado Confidential reporter Cara DeGette paid $25 to make it official.

And still the Trailhead Group, that is the GOP 527 organization registered with the IRS, maintains that everything is in order.

In a Rocky Mountain News article published today, Trailhead responded to investigative reporting from the Confidential, detailing financial discrepancies between the group and other 527s. From the News:

The director of the Trailhead Group says he’s not worried about complaints filed against his GOP political group over campaign finance issues because no laws were broken.

The blog Colorado Confidential last week accused the influential GOP group of money laundering, saying donations and contributions to and from other GOP groups don’t add up.

In turn, complaints were filed with the IRS by Colorado Citizens for Ethics in Government and with the secretary of state by the Democratic political group Colorado Clear Peak.

Philp blasted the Clear Peak, which is run by former Democratic Party chairman Tim Knaus.

While Clear Peak characterized the transactions as “money laundering,” Colorado Confidential never used that term. Instead, the Confidential outlined questionable reporting of financial transactions by Trailhead and other 527s.

Erin Rosa was born in Spain and raised in Colorado Springs. She is a freelance writer currently living in Denver. Rosa's work has been featured in a variety of news outlets including the Huffington Post, Democracy Now!, and the Rocky Mountain Chronicle, an alternative-weekly in Northern Colorado where she worked as a columnist covering the state legislature. Rosa has received awards from the Society of Professional Journalists for her reporting on lobbying and woman's health issues. She was also tapped with a rare honorable mention award by the Newspaper Guild-CWA's David S. Barr Award in 2008--only the second such honor conferred in its nine-year history--for her investigative series covering the federal government's Supermax prison in the state. Rosa covers the labor community, corrections, immigration and government transparency matters. She can be reached at erosa@www.coloradoindependent.com.