Within hours of President Joe Biden announcing he was suspending his 2024 campaign for the White House, which he did through a letter posted on X, his campaign quickly moved to change from the "Biden for President" to the "Harris for President" on official Federal Election Commission forms. They did this so Harris can access nearly $100 million in already raised campaign funds.
But according to FEC Commissioner Sean Cooksey, a transfer of funds to Harris isn't that simple.
FEC Chair @SeanJCooksey explains that candidates can ask the FEC for legal advisory opinions when dealing with novel situations, such as Biden dropping out at this late stage. Instead, the campaign treasurer just signed over the entire war chest over to Harris. They know that by… pic.twitter.com/APAKeQc900
— Laura Powell (@LauraPowellEsq) July 24, 2024
11 C.F.R. § 110.1(b)(3):
— Sean Cooksey (@SeanJCooksey) July 21, 2024
"If the candidate is not a candidate in the general election, all contributions made for the general election shall be either returned or refunded to the contributors or redesignated ..., or reattributed ..., as appropriate."
Election law attorney Charlie Spies agrees.
Don’t let the Democrats fool you...their sneaky little plan to give Kamala Harris Biden’s campaign cash could be illegal. @cspiesdc breaks down the legal technicalities involved in the transfer. @JackieDeAngelis @BrianBrenberg pic.twitter.com/feSSfqXbY9
— The Bottom Line (@BottomLineFBN) July 22, 2024
The Trump campaign filed a complaint with the FEC Monday over the move, which could force the commission to at least consider whether the change is in compliance with the law and make a ruling.
"Kamala Harris is in the process of committing the largest campaign finance violation in American history and she is using the Commission’s own forms to do it," the complaint states. "The Commission must not and cannot sit idly by while one candidate takes nearly one hundred million dollars from the authorized committee of another, in violation of the Act and the will of the donors who gave the money in the first place."
"Kamala Harris were a candidate for something in 2024, federal law requires her to have filed a Statement of Candidacy and for her name to have appeared in the name of her authorized committee. But Kamala Harris’s name does not appear in the name of her purported authorized committee, ‘Biden for President,’ and, until Sunday, no Statement of Candidacy existed for her. Then Sunday, rather than filing her own Statement of Candidacy, she merely altered Joe Biden’s to replace his name with hers. There is no mechanism under the Act for one individual to end another’s federal candidacy by simply amending the other’s Form 2. Moreover, in that purported amended Form 2 Harris designated ‘Biden for President’ as her principal campaign committee and then renamed it. Altering a document submitted to a federal agency is a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1519.3," it continues, arguing the transfer is, "a brazen money grab that would constitute the single largest excessive contribution and biggest violation in the history of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended."
In the meantime, Democrats seem very nervous about Cooksey's skepticism and are doing their best to intimidate the FEC into silence.
House Democrats are now trying to silence me as @FEC Chairman for raising questions about President Biden giving VP Harris all of his campaign cash. All I did was quote federal regulations.
— Sean Cooksey (@SeanJCooksey) July 23, 2024
Why are Democrats afraid of the law? pic.twitter.com/pYPJOSkPbh
Partisan House Democrats are attacking the FEC Chairman for quoting the law.
— Charlie Spies (@cspiesdc) July 23, 2024
The letter goes on to say that Democrat lawyers are defending Harris...and also admits that a reasonable person reading the law would conclude that what Harris is doing is illegal! https://t.co/sKomx3vDjU
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