Tag Archives: FEC

The Center for Public Integrity reports: Federal Election Commission Vice Chairman Matthew Petersen announced his resignation today. This means the agency that enforces and regulates the nation’s campaign finance laws will effectively shut down — something that hasn’t happened since 2008 — because it won’t have the legal minimum of four commissioners to make high-level decisions. Petersen’s resignation, first reported …

CNN reports: The Democratic chairwoman of the Federal Election Commission on Friday challenged President Donald Trump to provide evidence of the voter fraud he insists cost him New Hampshire in 2016 or quit talking about it. In a letter to Trump, Ellen Weintraub said the country’s democracy depends on “the American people’s faith in our elections. Your voter-fraud allegations run …

The Washington Post reports: Federal Election Commission Chairwoman Ellen Weintraub released a statement Thursday making clear that candidates for public office may not receive help from a foreign government, in what appeared to be a warning to President Trump, who said he would consider taking information about an opponent from another country. Tweeting her statement, Weintraub wrote, “I would not …

Politico Influence reports: How vulgar or threatening a name can you give your PAC? That’s a question the Federal Election Commission is grappling with amid an uptick in PACs with overtly threatening names. On Wednesday, someone registered a new PAC with the FEC with a long, sexually explicit name that starts “I pegged Donalt [sic] Trump’s Ugly Old Bitch Ass.” …

Bloomberg reports: Donald Trump’s presidential campaign may have illegally coordinated with the National Rifle Association in the final weeks of the 2016 presidential election, two watchdog groups said in a complaint filed Friday with the Federal Election Commission. The NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action and its political action committee, the NRA Political Victory Fund, placed $25 million worth of television …

The Daily Beast reports: “Judge” Jeanine Pirro is the voice of law and order in President Donald Trump’s cable news echo chamber, making it particularly noteworthy that she has been flouting federal election rules for years. The lawyer-turned-Fox News host mounted an ill-fated run for the U.S. Senate in 2006, when she vied for the Republican nomination to challenge then-Sen. …

Roll Call reports: A politically connected contractor made a $500,000 contribution this spring to a pro-Trump super PAC the day after it received a payment of almost the same amount as part of a Department of Defense contract, a watchdog group said. The Campaign Legal Center flagged that contribution and a $50,000 contribution from another company to a super PAC …

Politico reports: The FEC will not investigate President Donald Trump’s political campaign for enriching his businesses after considering a complaint from a liberal watchdog group, which alleged that Trump’s boasting about his hotels and use of his private jets constituted a violation of campaign law. The agency released its decision Friday, two years after the complaint was filed during the …

NBC News reports: Current and former Federal Election Commission officials tell NBC News it could take a year or longer for the FEC to address the case of whether Trump Organization lawyer Michael Cohen’s $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels represents an unreported in-kind, contribution to the Trump campaign. The FEC, which is charged with administering and enforcing …

Politico reports: The Federal Election Commission has launched a preliminary investigation into whether Russian entities gave illegal contributions to the National Rifle Association that were intended to benefit the Trump campaign during the 2016 presidential election, according to people who were notified of the probe. The inquiry stems in part from a complaint from a liberal advocacy group, the American …

Law & Crime reports: Two complaints filed today accuse President Donald Trump and his 2016 campaign of violating federal campaign finance laws by not reporting $130,000 in hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels. The complaints in question were filed by non-profit and nonpartisan watchdog group Common Cause, which was founded in 1970 by Republican John W. Gardner. …

Law & Crime reports: The Federal Election Commission (“FEC”) is allegedly turning a blind eye to influence peddling orchestrated by a private prison company which made illegal contributions to a pro-Trump Super PAC. In response, non-partisan public interest watchdog, the Campaign Legal Center (“CLC”) filed a lawsuit against the FEC alleging the agency violated federal law by unlawfully delaying enforcement …

Courthouse News Service reports: A nonpartisan group of election law experts on Wednesday accused the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 president campaign of violating federal financial disclosure laws to hide payments for a dossier that alleged connections between then-candidate Donald Trump and Russia. In a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission, the Campaign Legal Center says the …

USA Today reports: Sorry, Deez Nuts, Left Shark and Toy Testicles. The folks over at the Federal Election Commission are not amused by your claims to be running for the presidency, and this week they announced plans to crack down on the wave of fake candidates filing paperwork with the agency. “The Commission has authorized staff to send verification letters …

The Hill reports: Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s Florida primary opponent, Tim Canova, says he’s preparing a legal complaint against the outgoing DNC chair as a result of information revealed in the latest batch of Wikileak emails. “The Wikileaks emails indicate that Debbie Wasserman Schultz used DNC resources to assist her reelection campaign in violation of federal law,” said Tim Canova, a …

But so far only four bottom-of-the-pile candidates have asked for it. Talking Points Memo reports: NBC has agreed to give 12 minutes of air time to a handful of Republican presidential candidates who filed for equal time after Donald Trump, who is also seeking the GOP nomination, hosted “Saturday Night Live” earlier this month, Variety reported. Ohio Gov. John Kasich, …

The Washington Post reacts to the above map released this week by the Federal Elections Commission: Pretty remarkable no? The cliche about Democrats being the coastal party and Republicans being the party of the interior of the country is born out by this map. Outside of a pocket of liberalism in Minnesota (a long time progressive stronghold) and Illinois (a …

The Hill reports: Donald Trump’s financial disclosure filing with the Federal Election Commission is now public. A campaign release from when he filed his massive 92-page disclosure touted Trump’s net worth of more than $10 billion dollars. “This report was not designed for a man of Mr. Trump’s massive wealth,” the statement said, noting that many of the boxes max …

Former GOP presidential candidate Fred Karger, the eternal thorn in the backside of NOM, has struck again. The Federal Election Commission is asking former presidential candidate Rick Santorum, Iowa evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats and an anti-gay marriage organization to tell the agency why it should not investigate an allegation that they violated campaign finance limits during the last election. …

Read the entire ruling. The FEC originally fined the campaign $82,600, the same amount of the payment to David Duke, but the fine was reduced after mediation. The fine, it should be noted, was for attempting to cloak the payment on federally required campaign expenditure forms. It is not against the rules to buy mailing lists from the KKK or …