She didn't need to invent the law-breaking when there was enough evidence for the perpetrators to be found guilty even under a government run by senior Vote Leave figures:

* 16 August 2017, the Constitutional Research Council was fined by the Electoral Commission for "Failure to notify the Electoral Commission of political contributions it made (including £435,000 to the DUP), and gifts it received." Most of the money to the DUP (a Northern Irish party) was spent on advertising that was not circulated in Northern Ireland. That province happens to have the laxest rules in the UK about disclosing the actual sources of donations.

* 11 May 2018, Leave.EU was fined by the Electoral Commission for "Failure to deliver complete and accurate pre-poll transaction report and post-poll spending information".

* 17 July 2018, Vote Leave was fined by the Electoral Commission for "Failure to deliver a complete and accurate spending return; failure to provide documents on time."

* 24 October 2018, the Information Commissioner's Office found that between 2007 and 2014, Facebook had broken the UK data law then in force, the Data Protection Act 1998, and applied £500,000, the highest penalty allowed under that Act.

* 1 February 2019, Leave.EU was fined by the Information Commissioner's Office for sending over a million emails to subscribers without consent.

* 19 March 2019, Vote Leave was fined by the Information Commissioner's Office for sending 196,154 unsolicited electronic messages to people.

These are just some of the crimes that have been investigated and where the evidence hasn't been hidden by either deleting data, or perpetrators hiding behind donor secrecy or "national security" excuses. Is it really that hard to imagine that a journalist might genuinely be motivated by trying to bring this law-breaking to the attention of the public?