Former President Donald Trump’s campaign has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission claiming the transfer of funds from the Biden reelection campaign to the Harris presidential campaign is a violation of campaign finance rules.
The complaint is filed against Mr. Biden, Harris, the Biden campaign, and campaign treasurer Keana Spencer.
“Kamala Harris is seeking to perpetrate a $91.5 million dollar heist of Joe Biden’s leftover campaign cash — a brazen money grab that would constitute the single largest excessive contribution and biggest violation in the history of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended (the “Act”).”
The Trump campaign’s general counsel, David Warrington, accuses them of “filing fraudulent forms with the Commission purporting to repurpose one candidate’s principal campaign committee for the use of another candidate,” claiming that Harris simply replaced Biden’s name with her own rather than filing her own Statement of Candidacy.
“There is no provision in federal campaign finance law for Kamala Harris to take over Joe Biden’s candidacy now by quite literally attempting to become him via an amendment of his Form 2, assuming control of his campaign by amending Form 1, and making off with all of his cash,” wrote Warrington.
Warrington also accused Mr. Biden’s campaign of making an excessive contribution to Harris, saying, “This is little more than a thinly veiled $91.5 million excessive contribution from one presidential candidate to another, that is, from Joe Biden’s old campaign to Kamala Harris’s new campaign.
This effort makes a mockery of our campaign finance laws.
“Contributions by federal candidate committees to other federal candidates are limited to $2,000. Yet, Biden for President is seeking to make an excessive contribution over approximately $91 million dollars — more than 45,000 times the legal limit.”
In addition, the Trump campaign claims that since Mr. Biden dropped out of the race before transferring the funds to Harris, he’s prohibited from keeping the contributions.
The claim is expected to face strong pushback from the Harris campaign because when the campaign was originally registered with the FEC it was called the “principal campaign committee” for both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
According to ABC News, the committees into which money has been raised are the same, they just have been renamed Harris for President, Harris Victory Fund, and Harris Action Fund
“Republicans may be jealous that Democrats are energized to defeat Donald Trump and his MAGA allies, but baseless legal claims — like the ones they’ve made for years to try to suppress votes and steal elections — will only distract them while we sign up volunteers, talk to voters, and win this election,” Harris campaign spokesperson Charles Kretchmer Lutvak said in a statement.
Harris’ campaign said on Tuesday it had raked in more than $100 million in new donations between Sunday afternoon and Monday evening after Mr. Biden ended his reelection bid and endorsed her.