Bernie Sanders’ Team Just Accused Hillary Clinton of Violating Campaign Finance Rules
"On the eve of the New York primary, the Bernie Sanders campaign accused Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee of skirting campaign finance rules by using funds from a joint fundraising committee to benefit Clinton's presidential run.
In a letter to embattled DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Sanders campaign attorney Brad Deutsch questioned whether the Clinton campaign had "violated legal limits on donations" through activities associated with the Hillary Victory Fund. The HVF is a joint fundraising committee, which raises and spends money on behalf of Hillary for America (Clinton's official campaign committee), the DNC, and 33 state Democratic parties.
The Sanders campaign said that the way the committee was set up allowed it to receive individual donations worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, aruging that some donations to the committee exceeded up to 130 times the $2,700 individual donors are allowed to contribute to campaigns under federal election rules. A lot of that money is flowing to Clinton's campaign to pay for campaigning activities and salaries, Deutsch said, in "serious apparent violations" of the law.
Bernie Sanders’ Team Just Accused Hillary Clinton of Violating Campaign Finance Rules
2016 US ELECTION
Bernie Sanders’ Team Just Accused Hillary Clinton of Violating Campaign Finance Rules
By Liz Fields
April 18, 2016 | 2:35 pm
On the eve of the New York primary, the Bernie Sanders campaign accused Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee of skirting campaign finance rules by using funds from a joint fundraising committee to benefit Clinton's presidential run.
In a letter to embattled DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Sanders campaign attorney Brad Deutsch questioned whether the Clinton campaign had "violated legal limits on donations" through activities associated with the Hillary Victory Fund. The HVF is a joint fundraising committee, which raises and spends money on behalf of Hillary for America (Clinton's official campaign committee), the DNC, and 33 state Democratic parties.
The Sanders campaign said that the way the committee was set up allowed it to receive individual donations worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, aruging that some donations to the committee exceeded up to 130 times the $2,700 individual donors are allowed to contribute to campaigns under federal election rules. A lot of that money is flowing to Clinton's campaign to pay for campaigning activities and salaries, Deutsch said, in "serious apparent violations" of the law.
In total, individuals can give up to $358,000 to the joint fundraising committee, should a Democratic donor choose to max out to Clinton's campaign, the DNC and each state party. But the Clinton campaign itself can only accept $2,700 from each individual donor, which is processed through the joint fundraising committee and passed on to her campaign. The Sanders team is arguing that the remaining high-dollar donations are still benefiting her, even though the money is not directly flowing through her campaign's coffers.
"Bernie 2016 is particularly concerned that these extremely large-dollar individual contributions have been used by HVF to pay for more than $7.8 million in direct mail efforts and over $8.6 million in online advertising," Deutsch wrote in the letter.
The Sanders campaign claimed that, "at best, the joint committee's spending on direct mail and online advertising appears to represent an impermissible in-kind contribution" — essentially a gift that must be reported as if the Clinton campaign itself spent the funds — "from the DNC and the participating state party committees."
"At worst, using funds received from large-dollar donors who have already contributed the $2,700 maximum to HFA [Hillary for America] may represent an excessive contribution," the letter read."
https://news.vice.com/article/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-victory-fund-dnc-campaign-finance-rules
= new reply since forum marked as read
and bookmarked for the next time a Clinton supporter has something to say about down ticket fundraising.
Thanks for the thread!
