Back when Missouri Congressman Wesley Bell was St. Louis’s Prosecuting Attorney, he faced controversy over the hundreds of dollars in unpaid parking tickets he racked up in a county-owned Tahoe that he drove. Apparently, he thought he should be allowed to park wherever he wanted because his job was just that important. But while that may have taken place back in 2019, would you believe me if I told you Bell has now been implicated in another potential car-related scandal? Because Drop Site News, an independent news outlet, reports Bell used 2024 campaign funds to buy a friend’s Dodge Durango, and it only gets sketchier from there.
Whether or not Bell used campaign funds to buy the Durango isn’t exactly in question here. In federal election filings for Bell’s campaign, documentation shows that in the final weeks of the campaign, it spent $35,086.86 on an expense listed as “Campaign Auto.” Bell’s campaign later confirmed to Drop Site that money was used to buy an all-black Durango. Why would a campaign need to buy an SUV only weeks before it was set to wind down? And why did the money go to Central Bank in St. Louis? Was Bell paying off someone’s loan for them?
According to an unnamed source who spoke to Drop Site, that’s exactly what happened. The Durango reportedly belonged to Clay Farmer, someone who worked with Bell at the St. Louis County prosecutor’s office and is said to be a close friend of Bell. After buying the Durango from Farmer, Bell then hired him. Convenient how that worked out, huh? Oh, and Farmer reportedly still drives the Durango regularly now that he works for Bell.
You also have to wonder how they arrived at the sales price. Was the Durango really worth $35,000 at the time, or did the campaign overpay?
Sketchy behavior
When contacted for a comment, Anjan Mukherjee, an adviser to the Bell campaign, told Drop Site, “Wesley Bell strongly believes that taxpayer dollars should not be spent on campaign activity. Out of an abundance of caution for not misusing taxpayer money, Wesley may use the campaign vehicle to travel between campaign and/or official side events.” Drop Site said it reached out to Farmer for a comment, as well, but never heard back.
Now, that’s certainly an explanation, but the more you read about Bell, Farmer and the Durango, the sketchier it looks:
Bell and Farmer go back. After being elected prosecutor, Bell created a new position for him called “director of community engagement.” In 2019, in his budget request, Bell asked that Farmer be provided a 2020 Dodge Durango. Chris King, a spokesperson for the St. Louis County prosecutor’s office, looked into that hoped-for Durango and told Drop Site that, according to Bell, no Durango was ultimately provided by taxpayers to Farmer.
Additionally, in October 2022, Farmer listed a 2020 Dodge Durango R/T on Facebook Marketplace. Presumably, that’s the same Durango the Bell campaign bought, but if that’s the case, why did it fail to sell for two years? Did he end up underwater on a loan, struggle to find anyone willing to pay off the loan for him and then get bailed out by his friend, flush with campaign cash? No one’s saying yet, but it sure would be nice to get some answers.
But wait, there’s more
If you thought the parking tickets and the Durango would be the end of Bell’s car-related shenanigans with Farmer, think again. Drop Site also included a reminder that back in September 2022, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Bell spent about $130,000 of taxpayer funds on two SUVs — one for himself and one for Farmer. As Drop Site summed it up:
In September 2022, Bell used public money to order two new vehicles for himself and for Farmer. For himself, he bought a Ford Expedition Limited for $69,964 and for Farmer an Expedition XLT – unlike Bell’s, no leather seats – for $60,494, according to news reports at the time.
To find room in the budget, Bell had requested additional funds to hire new attorneys, and was given $700,000 in American Rescue Plan Act money for the purpose, local media reported. After hiring about half the attorneys he said he would, he shifted money from another fund for employees and used it to buy the vehicles.
Using money that was originally supposed to be used to hire lawyers to buy vehicles for a friend, as well as himself, seems pretty sketchy at best, and the timing would suggest the new SUV was what prompted Farmer to list his Durango originally. But it still doesn’t explain why Farmer then waited two years to sell the Durango (to his friend/soon-to-be boss’s campaign).
The good news is, Bell already has a challenger in his upcoming primary. Just last week, former representative Cori Bush announced she’s running against him. Hopefully, she succeeds in unseating him, and hopefully, we get some answers about what’s actually going on with Bell’s friend’s/employee’s Durango.
