Ted Cruz Misses Deadline To Explain 2012 Wall Street Loans

Tuesday was the Federal Election Commission's deadline for Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz to provide more information regarding personal loans he received from Citibank and Goldman Sachs during his 2012 Senate campaign. The regulatory agency has not yet received the answer it was looking for, reported PoliticalMoneyLine.

The two loans were to Cruz and his wife personally, but in January a spokesperson for Cruz's presidential campaign admitted to the New York Times that at least some of the money was used in the candidate's successful Senate bid in Texas. Nonetheless, the loans were not included on campaign disclosure forms.

The FEC faulted Cruz for reporting that a loan to his campaign was "derived from 'personal funds'" when it "should have been reported as derived from bank loans." In a Feb. 2 letter to the Cruz Senate campaign's treasurer, the agency demanded more information about the bank loans. The Times said the loans were as much as $750,000 and ultimately increased to a maximum of $1 million.

The campaign treasurer, Bradley Knippa, had until March 8 to respond. He did — but only to say that he had already provided additional information on Jan. 14, one day after the New York Times story broke.

Ted Cruz for Senate "proactively provided additional information to the Commission on January 14, 2016, and you can expect our cooperation to bring this matter to a quick and amicable resolution," wrote Knippa.

FEC filings also list Knippa as the treasurer for Cruz for President. Cruz is currently engaged in a tough race to define himself as the leading Republican alternative to presidential front-runner Donald Trump; this is an awkward time for additional public scrutiny into loans he received from major banks.