The Trump campaign filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday alleging that Vice President Kamala Harris tried to leverage political contributions for President Biden, accusing her of committing “the largest campaign finance violation in American history.”
“Kamala Harris is attempting to extort $91.5 million from Joe Biden’s remaining campaign funds in a brazen financial grab that constitutes the largest overcontribution and largest violation in the history of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971,” Trump campaign general counsel David Warrington wrote in a complaint to the Federal Election Commission.
The complaint was filed against Harris, Biden, the 81-year-old president’s primary campaign committee, which was renamed the Harris Presidential Campaign Committee on Sunday, and the committee’s treasurer.
He also called efforts to divert $91.5 million remaining in Biden’s campaign account to Harris “fraudulent” and a “flagrant mockery of campaign finance law.”
Warrington argues that there is “no provision in federal campaign finance law that would allow Kamala Harris to take over Joe Biden’s candidacy and ‘take control of the campaign’ simply by amending documents filed with the Federal Election Commission.”
They also argue that Harris, 59, is ineligible to inherit Biden’s war chest because she never filed a letter of intent naming Biden as one of her nominees.
The lawsuit calls Harris a “separate candidate seeking the Democratic nomination” and says the transfers amount to “substantial and excessive contributions from President-elect Biden to the Vice President.”
“The Commission must immediately find reason to believe and bring this ongoing violation to a swift end,” Warrington’s letter concluded.
Harris campaign spokesman Charles Luttwak said the complaint was “without merit.”
“Team Harris continues to ramp up our 250+ coalition offices and 1,300+ coalition staff across battleground states, just as we launched this week with $240 million in cash, raised $100 million in the first 36 hours and signed up 58,000 volunteers,” Luttwak said in a statement.
“Republicans may be jealous of Democrats’ determination to defeat Donald Trump and his MAGA allies, but their baseless legal claims, like their long-standing attempts to suppress the vote and steal the election, will only distract them until we can recruit volunteers, talk to voters, and win this election,” he added.
Harris campaign officials also argued that the Biden campaign’s various fundraising committees have always been committees authorized by both the president and vice president and are the same except for the name changes.
Federal Election Commission Chairman Sean Cooksey (appointed by former President Donald Trump) He told NPR Trump warned Monday that Biden’s “unprecedented” move to hand over the keys to his campaign finances to Harris could be “complicated” and spark legal battles.
“I think it’s going to have to go through the Federal Election Commission,” Cooksey said. “It’s probably going to be challenged at the FEC and it’s probably going to be challenged in court.”
But Cooksey’s predecessor, Federal Election Commissioner Dara Lindenbaum, a Democrat, has argued that Harris is entitled to receive campaign contributions.
“It’s clear that Vice President Harris will continue to use the campaign committee and its funds,” Lindenbaum said. He told The Hill on Monday.
If Harris does not ultimately win the Democratic presidential nomination or is deemed ineligible to receive the funds, the money could be transferred to the Democratic National Committee or a super PAC aligned with the eventual candidate.
An Associated Press poll of delegates conducted Monday found that the vice president currently has enough delegate support to win the nomination.
