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…