‘F*** It, I Quit’ Reporter Under Investigation

Charlo Greene, the Alaskan television reporter who quit her job on-air to advocate for the legalization of marijuana, currently has a campaign-finance investigation against her.

Greene, who is now infamously known as the reporter who declared “F*** it I quit” on air, is currently locked in a battle with the Alaska Public Offices Commission over whether they can subpoena her advocacy group, the Alaska Cannabis Club, over documents they believe show that she violated the state’s campaign disclosure laws with her IndieGoGo crusade. Specifically, that she used it to illegally advocate on behalf of a ballot measure.

Essentially, the Alaska Public Offices Commission wants to know whether Charlo Greene used crowdsourcing funds to advocate for a ballot initiative to legalize recreational pot use.

Alaska Dispatch News reports that, based on agenda documents released by APOC and in order to better understand whether Greene was in compliance with campaign disclosure laws, the commission asked Greene in early October to produce documents related to her IndieGogo fundraising campaign. That campaign netted the Cannabis Club with over $8,400 in donations.

Alaska law requires all entities advocating for candidates or campaigns to register with the commission. All donations and expenditures related to campaign activities must be submitted to the commission.

While Greene registered her group with the commission on October 2, filing a handful of independent expenditures, she then stopped and began challenging the agency’s jurisdiction over her fundraising efforts.

In an interview Thursday, Greene contended that she filed with the organization to comply with finance disclosure laws for the small amount of advocating she did do for the marijuana effort. But, she says, the IndieGogo campaign should not be subject to APOC reporting requirements because it was fundraising for her organization, not the ballot measure.

According to Huffington Post, Charlo said the order should be worrisome to those who take a stand on any issue.

“If you publish your personal stance on any issue, then this government agency believes they have the authority to ask for emails, bank-account information, all of your records. That’s scary.”

In September, Greene revealed that she was the owner of a medical marijuana business during a live newscast, in addition to quitting her job. And shortly after, she launched an IndieGoGo online fundraising crusade to continue her fight for marijuana legalization. The effort raised more than $8,400.

Alaska Public Offices notes that she has not been found in violation of the law. “But without a reasonable investigation, no determination can be reached,” the commission wrote in a three-page order.

According to Mediaite, Greene pointed out that she did not receive the funds from her IndieGoGo operation until three weeks after the election, in which Ballot Measure 2, which legalized small amounts of marijuana and paraphernalia for personal consumption, was passed.

“(APOC) is saying the IndieGogo was formed for the ballot measure, and it wasn’t,” she told the Dispatch-News, adding that she would challenge the subpoena. “It was formed for our freedom and fairness fight, which didn’t end on Nov. 4 because marijuana is still not legal across the entire nation.”

This month Oregon and Alaska joined Washington and Colorado as states that have approved legal marijuana.

[Image courtesy of YouTube]