Election officials question negative balance in D'Esposito account

WASHINGTON — Former Rep. Anthony D'Esposito, who is now the Labor Department’s top internal watchdog, is being asked by election officials for more details about a negative $12,770 cash balance being reported by his still-active congressional campaign committee.

"This suggests that you have overdrawn your account, made a mathematical error, or incurred a debt," a Federal Election Commission auditor wrote Sunday to "D’Esposito for New York," a committee registered as belonging to the former Long Island congressman.

The FEC letter requests the "D'Esposito for New York" committee to provide more details about its reported negative financial balance, or make amendments. D’Esposito (R-Island Park) lost a 2024 reelection bid and has not been officially campaigning or raising money for a congressional bid.

But his committee has spent more than $80,000 since he left Congress in January 2025, his filings show. A big chunk of those payments came in the first months of 2025, likely reflecting bills for services during his losing 2024 campaign. Still, the committee's negative cash balance continues to grow.

In January, D’Esposito became President Donald Trump’s Labor Department inspector general, whose job is to detect and prevent fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement at the agency.

Craig Holman, a lobbyist for Public Citizen, a nonpartisan group that emphasizes government accountability, said that as long as the congressional campaign committee maintains its records and complies with contribution limits, "it may continue operations on the presumption that the candidate may one day be running for office."

On Monday, the D'Esposito committee’s treasurer, Thomas Datwyler, responded to the FEC by acknowledging that the committee’s "register balance is in fact negative."

The request sent by the FEC Sunday to D'Esposito's committee also warned that any overdraft protection paid for by a bank on an account could represent a prohibited campaign contribution. But Datwyler dismissed any such concern, writing that, "due to a number of uncleared checks that were issued by the committee, the bank account balance is not negative or overdrawn."

It is not unusual for FEC auditors to point out bookkeeping errors or deficiencies in campaign committee filings and to make requests for clarifications or corrections.

D’Esposito has repeatedly said since late 2025 that his committee’s electioneering activities were frozen — amid speculation he was gearing up for a bid to retake his old seat, which he ultimately decided not to do.

Efforts by Newsday to contact D’Esposito and Datwyler about the negative balance went unanswered Monday.

A federal election committee not involved in a current campaign can still ring up expenses for such compliance costs as staffing, legal and other fees. But in most cases, the FEC gives the committee six months to wind down its spending.

While the FEC is in this matter is seeking more information about the debt, D’Esposito’s committee filings do contain details about what it has spent and paid for since he lost his congressional seat in January 2025.

A bulk of its $83,077 in spending — nearly half of it — went to campaign consulting, legal and accounting fees — with much of that for payments done in February 2025, likely tied to 2024 services.