The Marketing campaign Authorized Heart, or CLC, accused Cruz’s marketing campaign committee of spending as much as $18,000 in late 2020 on Automobilnews commercials that “completely” urged viewers to purchase copies of the senator’s e book. These adverts included hyperlinks to purchase the e book from third-party on-line booksellers, stated the CLC, a nonprofit group that seeks transparency in authorities.

“As a result of Cruz receives royalties from e book gross sales, his marketing campaign crossed a authorized line by spending donor funds on Automobilnews adverts selling gross sales of that e book,” stated Brendan Fischer, CLC director of federal reform, in a press launch asserting the complaints.

However Chris Gober, an legal professional for Cruz’s marketing campaign committee, stated later Wednesday that the senator’s marketing campaign “has carefully adopted Federal Election Fee legal guidelines and tips when selling his e book.”

Cruz “has not obtained any royalties in anyway for these e book gross sales,” Gober stated in that assertion, which was despatched to CNBC by Cruz’s communications director, Erin Perrine.

Fischer questioned that response. “There appears to be no authentic manner for Cruz to know what number of books had been bought because of these Automobilnews adverts,” he stated in a telephone name with CNBC, “and due to this fact it is not possible to say that Cruz shouldn’t be receiving royalties on the books bought because of the adverts.”

Cruz’s e book cope with Regnery Publishing netted him a $400,000 advance and a 15% royalty on internet gross sales of hardcover copies, the CLC’s press launch stated, citing the senator’s monetary disclosure report.

The CLC filed a criticism with the Federal Election Fee, or FEC, towards Cruz’s marketing campaign committee. The watchdog additionally despatched a letter to the Senate Ethics Committee requesting an investigation into whether or not Cruz broke federal legislation and the chamber’s ethics guidelines.

FEC spokesman Christian Hilland advised CNBC that the fee doesn’t touch upon pending litigation. The Senate Ethics Committee didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

The Senate’s guidelines are “crystal clear about all members, each present and former, being prohibited from changing federal marketing campaign funds to private use,” Delaney Marsco, CLC’s senior authorized counsel for ethics, stated within the press launch.

“Voters should be capable of belief that when they’re donating to political campaigns, they’re doing so to assist their favored candidate win or retain their workplace, not financing their private endeavors,” Marsco stated.

The CLC stated in its complaints that Cruz may have probably marketed or bought his e book utilizing marketing campaign funds “with out working afoul of the legislation.” He may have included a small quantity of data on an present marketing campaign web site, the CLC stated, or his marketing campaign may have purchased copies of the e book immediately from the writer for use as items to supporters, if the writer withheld royalties on these copies.

“However Senator Cruz didn’t do both of this stuff,” the CLC stated in its letter to the Senate ethics panel. “As an alternative, Senator Cruz used marketing campaign funds for on-line adverts that completely promoted his e book, and directed supporters to buy it from third-party booksellers.”

The e book, “One Vote Away: How A Single Supreme Court docket Seat Can Change Historical past,” was launched in September.

That month, Cruz’s Automobilnews web page began working adverts selling the e book and inspiring supporters to buy it — utilizing language akin to “order your copy at the moment” and “purchase a replica, proper now” — the FEC criticism alleged.

The adverts ran between Sept. 24 and Oct. 5, the CLC stated, citing Automobilnews’s political advert archive. All of them included the disclaimer, “Paid for by Ted Cruz for Senate,” in response to the CLC.

Fischer famous within the press launch that “we do not understand how intensive these violations could be as a result of any comparable adverts that Cruz could have run on platforms apart from Automobilnews or Google usually are not publicly out there.”

The letter to the Senate Ethics Committee argued that “when elected officers use marketing campaign contributions to advance their private backside strains, they compromise the integrity of the political course of and undermine the general public’s belief that their political contributions are getting used legally—for marketing campaign functions or in reference to the officeholder’s duties, to not line the officeholder’s pockets.”

“Senator Cruz has violated core rules of accountable authorities through the use of marketing campaign funds to advertise the sale of his e book,” the CLC’s letter stated. “As such, the Ethics Committee ought to reassure the general public that the Senate enforces its well-established guidelines and legal guidelines that guard towards corruption by conducting a swift investigation to establish and maintain Senator Cruz accountable for any ethics violations.”

The CLC final week filed a separate FEC criticism, accusing Georgia’s Republican Occasion of illegally accepting in-kind contributions from one other election-related nonprofit referred to as True the Vote.