World News
Trump campaign files FEC complaint after transferring money to Kamala Harris
The Trump campaign has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission Tuesday on transferring funds to Vice President Kamala Harris’ new presidential bid.
President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign quickly handed its organizing power to Harris after he announced Sunday that he would not seek a second term after all due to concerns about his age. That included handing over the keys to Biden’s vast war chest.
“Kamala Harris is attempting a $91.5 million heist of Joe Biden’s leftover campaign funds – a brazen cash grab that would constitute the largest excessive contribution and largest violation in the history of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended.” David Warrington, the Trump campaign’s general counsel, wrote in the filing: obtained by The New York Times.
Photo by Dominic Gwinn / Middle East Images / Middle East Images via AFP
Warrington further alleged that FEC rules prohibit federal candidates from “retaining contributions for elections in which they do not participate.”
The vice president’s team has maintained that the money was raised on a joint Biden-Harris ticket, adding that it believes the allegations are “baseless… as they have been making for years in an effort to vote to suppress and steal elections.”
“Republicans may be jealous that Democrats are energized to defeat Donald Trump and his MAGA allies,” Charles Lutvak, a spokesman for the Harris campaign, said in a statement to the media. “But baseless legal claims – like the ones they have been making for years to suppress votes and steal elections – will only distract them while we sign up volunteers, talk to voters and win this election.”
Photo by DOMINIC GWINN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images
It is unclear how the FEC will rule on the issue, and it could take months to resolve. But the Times notes that the Trump campaign is trying to stoke the wave of support behind the vice president, who is now the presumptive Democratic nominee after a majority of delegates expressed support for her bid.
Harris has also had no trouble raising money himself so far. Within 24 hours, her campaign raised a record $81 million in donations from nearly 900,000 small donors.
