That’s fraud. It’s basically the definition of fraud, making a statement, which is false, which you know is false, having others believe it is true, and getting those others to give you money based on the false statement.
It’s the equivalent of buying your own books to boost the NYT listing. Or, she owed him 100k for following her wish to tank the economy over the debt limit. I’d like to see her have to account for the origins of the cash she’ll pay.
I can’t think of a law that was broken. However, this story was at least partly promoted to raise donations for the YIT Foundation and anybody who donated money to these bozos would have grounds for a class action lawsuit for fraud.
A Republican-led investigation on Wednesday accused Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton of committing multiple crimes in office — including felonies — during an extraordinary public airing of scandal and alleged lawbreaking that plunged one of the GOP’s conservative stars into new political and legal risk.