By Austin Alonzo, Janice Hisle
Contributing Writer
The Donald Trump campaign has filed a complaint against Vice President Kamala Harris seeking to stop her from using campaign money raised by President Joe Biden.
The complaint alleges that the newly announced 2024 presidential contender is “in the process of committing the largest campaign finance violation in American history.”
On Tuesday, David Warrington, the general counsel for Trump’s principal campaign committee Donald J. Trump for President 2024 Inc., filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission challenging the Harris campaign’s use of funds raised by Biden’s campaign committee.
Following weeks of intense political pressure, Biden dropped out of the presidential race on Sunday, and endorsed his vice president as his replacement on the Democratic ticket. On the same day, three FEC-registered committees filed paperwork to change their candidate from Biden to Harris.
Two of those committees, now called the Harris Victory Fund and the Harris Action Fund, should be able to disburse money freely under FEC rules. However, Biden’s principal campaign committee — formerly Biden for President and currently Harris for President — could be subject to a campaign finance law blocking Harris from accessing its funds.
$96 Million in Cash
At the end of June, according to its most recent federal disclosure, the principal Biden for President campaign committee held about $95.9 million in cash on hand.
Judith Ingram, a spokeswoman for the FEC, said she could not confirm that the commission has received the complaint. Citing federal statute, Ingram said the commission must keep any complaint confidential until it is resolved and closed.
In the complaint letter, Warrington, a partner at Dhillon Law Group Inc., said Harris’ effort to use the Biden for President money as her own “would constitute the single largest excessive contribution and biggest violation in the history of the Federal Election Campaign Act.”
Specifically, Warrington said Harris for President should be punished for taking an excessive contribution and for filing fraudulent forms.
Biden, not Harris, was the committee’s candidate and no federal forms identifying her as a candidate for president existed before Sunday. He said altering a document, as Harris for President did, is illegal.
“Contributions by federal candidate committees to other federal candidates are limited to $2,000,” Warrington said in the letter. “Yet, Biden for President is seeking to make an excessive contribution … more than 45,000 times the legal limit.”
According to Warrington, if Biden ended his candidacy, federal law bars him from keeping contributions. However, Biden for President is not showing any intention to start issuing refunds.
“The [FEC] should immediately open an enforcement matter, seek to enjoin this unprecedented illegal transfer, assess a civil penalty commensurate with the size and scale of this brazen violation, and refer this matter to the Department of Justice for prosecution as a knowing and willful violation of federal law,” Warrington said in the letter.
Representatives of Harris for President did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
‘Baseless Legal Claims’
However, in a statement provided to the media, Harris for President called the letter “baseless legal claims.”
In a message shared on social media, Harris for President said it has raised $126 million since Sunday.
The complaint letter came on the heels of a Monday interview given by FEC Chair Sean Cooksey, a Republican, who said the six-member, bipartisan commission will likely need to make a decision on Harris taking over the Biden for President campaign funds. That NPR interview came after Cooksey made a statement on social media citing an FEC provision that would force any candidate to “return or refund” all contributions “if the candidate is not a candidate in the general election.”
On Tuesday, Cooksey shared a letter he received from Rep. Joseph Morelle, D-New York, on the same day, calling for clarification of a “possible misrepresentation” of the statement he made on Sunday.
“As you know, a broad cross-partisan group of campaign finance experts agree that Vice President Harris may use the full resources that the Harris for President campaign has accumulated thus far,” Morelle said in his letter to Cooksey.
Responding on his X post, Cooksey said, “All I did was quote federal regulations.”
One of the campaign finance experts cited by Morelle, Campaign Legal Center President Trevor Potter, said Harris should be able to use the Biden for President money. Potter, a Republican, was an FEC commissioner from 1991 to 1995. The center is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that identifies itself as nonpartisan.
“Specifically, because Biden and Harris share a campaign committee, the vice president and her running mate can continue using the campaign’s existing funds for the general election if she is on the Democratic ticket as either the presidential or vice presidential nominee,” Potter said in a statement.
Months to Address a Complaint
In his letter, Warrington argued that Harris is not the nominee for either office as she has not formally received the nomination. In a Tuesday X post, Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison said the DNC will meet an Aug. 7 deadline to formally select its nominees.
Based on social media activity, former employees of Biden for President now say they are working for Harris for President. Harris for President is also sending out press messages signed by the committee and is actively soliciting additional employees on its website.
It remains unclear how quickly the situation could be resolved. According to a May 2012 document explaining the FEC’s process for dealing with complaints, it could take many months to fully address a complaint.
