Newt 2012 released the following statement from campaign Communications Director Joe DeSantis, responding to the ABC News story regarding payments from Renewing American Leadership (ReAL) to Gingrich Communications:
"Despite all the innuendo in the ABC story, their team of journalists did not find any activity that was not fully supported by the law. That's because both ReAL and Gingrich Communications took great care to make sure all resources were being used legally and ethically. Most of the payments from ReAL to Gingrich Communications were to compensate the time of ReAL's part time executive director, who was an employee of Gingrich Communications. This is perfectly normal and common practice. The rest was to purchase books, which ReAL used for their fundraising efforts. The book purchases were made "at cost" meaning there was zero profit made by Gingrich Communications or Newt on the sale."
Newt Gingrich, Gingrich Campaign Press Release - Responding to Baseless Insinuations from ABC News Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/298354