In 2020, Kanye West ran for president. It was not a serious effort at achieving political office. West’s campaign mostly amounted to a Twitter announcement, an Elon Musk endorsement, a bizarre Forbes interview, and an even more bizarre campaign rally in Charleston, South Carolina. Before making his own presidential bid, West has spoken repeatedly in favor of incumbent president Donald Trump. According to a new report, West’s whole campaign was driven by Republican operatives who were hoping to siphon off votes from Joe Biden and ensure a Trump victory.

West ran his campaign as an independent, claiming that his political party would be called the Birthday Party “because when we win, it’s everybody’s birthday.” Now The Daily Beast reports that Republican forces supported West’s campaign efforts and that they kept their participation secret in ways that could constitute a violation of federal campaign laws.

The Daily Beast claims that powerful Republican law firm Holtzman Vogel was secretly driving the West campaign and that West’s campaign paid a number of Republican consultants without reporting that they were paying some of these figures. Holtzman Vogel also represented Trump in a lawsuit against Pennsylvania, one of Trump’s efforts to stop ballots from being counted. West’s campaign also reportedly paid a number of law firms associated with Trump’s voter-suppression efforts. One election watchdog tells The Daily Beast, “It’s pretty clear Kanye was a GOP plant, whether he knew it or not.” You can read the full, extensive Daily Beat report here.