(RepublicanPress.org) – Joe Biden announced his decision to withdraw from the presidential race on July 21. He endorsed Kamala Harris’ campaign in a separate post a few minutes later. By 5 p.m., Harris’ campaign treasurer had filed Federal Election Commission (FEC) forms F99 and F1A to amend the Biden/Harris campaign’s Statement of Organization to reflect her status change from running as vice president to president in the 2024 election.
A quick review of the FEC’s website reflected the change and denoted that committee filings under the “Harris for President” designation. The site did note that the FEC hadn’t categorized or coded the new data submitted by the Harris campaign. It merely listed electronic forms filed by the vice president’s campaign.
The latest monthly report filed by the Biden for President Campaign (BFP) with the FEC showed it had cash on hand at the end of that reporting period (June 30), totaling $95,946,483.13.
Trump Campaign Files FEC Complaint
On January 23, David Warrington, the Trump campaign’s general counsel, filed a complaint with the FEC alleging that transferring funds from the BFP to Harris violated federal election laws. The commission hasn’t posted the filing to its website yet, but media outlets, like CNN and The Guardian, have reported on its content.
Warrington’s complaint alleged that the transfer amounted to “little more than a thinly veiled […] contribution from one presidential candidate to another.” For some inexplicable reason, he cited the $91.5 million the BFP had on hand on June 1 instead of the June 30 total of $95.9 million, a clerical error at best and not one expected to impact the outcome of the complaint.
The eight-page complaint explained that federal law prohibits federal candidates from keeping money contributed by donors “for elections in which they do not [ultimately] participate.” The filing claimed the Biden campaign had “shown no intention to properly refund or re-designate” the contributions it received for the November general election.”
Warrington’s complaint asked the FEC to block the transfer of the war chest to Harris. He also asked the commission to consider levying a fine against Harris or referring the matter to the Justice Department for potential criminal prosecution if it deemed the Harris campaign’s transfer effort unlawful.
Legal and election experts and former US attorneys contacted by media outlets noted that the facts surrounding the FEC complaint and Harris’ effort to transfer the money were uncharted territory. However, they pointed out that Harris would likely get to keep the money since she served as Biden’s running mate.
For instance, Fox News published an opinion piece penned by Heritage Foundation senior legal fellow Hans von Spakovsky, advising that the Biden for President Campaign “filed its registration statement with the FEC” as the “principal campaign committee” for both Biden and Harris, meaning she could access the funds once the official becomes the Democratic presidential nominee. He did note that if someone else replaced Biden, they could not use those contributions.
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