The Trump campaign filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Tuesday, accusing Vice President Harris’ campaign of improperly taking control of President Biden’s campaign funds when he dropped out of the race on Monday.
Complaints, The New York Times reportedThis comes after Biden’s campaign account changed its name to “Harris for President” on Monday following Biden’s announcement that he would not seek reelection.
“Kamala Harris is attempting to steal $91.5 million from Joe Biden’s remaining campaign funds — a brazen financial theft that represents the largest overcontribution and largest violation in the history of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended,” Trump campaign adviser David Warrington wrote.
The lawsuit seeks to block Harris’ access to campaign funds, and while many campaign finance experts believe she is legitimately entitled to access them as Biden’s running mate, it’s unclear how the Federal Election Commission will ultimately rule.
Harris’ campaign has broken fundraising records since the start of her campaign on Monday, raising more than $80 million in the first 24 hours.
The complaint calls for a criminal investigation into the practice, arguing that changing the name of the committee to Harris is fraudulent and that Biden should be forced to refund the donations rather than shifting them to Harris.
The Harris campaign is “committing the largest campaign finance violation in American history, and is using the committee’s own documents to do so,” Warrington wrote.
Federal Election Commission Chairman Sean Cooksey, a Republican appointed by Trump, suggested Monday that he might oppose allowing Harris access to the funds.
“The short answer is, I think it’s really complicated,” Cooksey said. He spoke on NPR’s “Morning Edition.”“What he’s trying to do is transfer the entire committee, all the cash and assets to someone else.”
“I think it’s going to have to go through the FEC,” Cooksey added. “It’s probably going to be challenged at the FEC and it’s probably going to be challenged in court.”
Dara Lindenbaum, a Democrat who chaired the committee last year, pushed back against the suggestion that Harris doesn’t have access to those funds.
“It’s clear that Vice President Harris can continue to use her campaign committee and its funding,” Lindenbaum told The Hill.
Steve Roberts, a former attorney for Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswami, was also skeptical of Cooksey’s comments.
“This interpretation is likely wishful thinking,” Roberts told The Hill.
“Since announcing his candidacy in 2024, it would be reasonable to interpret the Biden campaign committee as a joint committee between Harris and Biden. [and] “Biden and Pence are perhaps unique because they are incumbents, otherwise in 2020 Trump and Pence would not have had a joint committee, they would have set up separate committees and set their own contribution limits,” he explained.
Harris campaign spokesman Charles Luttwak dismissed the concerns, noting the campaign’s fundraising is going well.
“Team Harris continues to build out 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 enrolled 58,000 volunteers,” he said in a statement to The Hill.
“Republicans may be jealous of Democrats’ determination to defeat Donald Trump and his MAGA allies, but their baseless legal claims, like their longstanding 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.”
Taylor Giorno contributed.
The story was updated at 7:27 p.m. E.T.
