Is Donald Trump Running for President Again
Democratic Group Says Trump Is Breaking Campaign Law by Not Declaring for 2024
The complaint to the Federal Election Commission accuses Donald Trump of improperly using his existing political committees to accelerate a presidential run.
A Democratic super PAC said information technology is filing a formal complaint with the Federal Election Commission on Monday accusing Donald J. Trump of violating campaign finance constabulary by spending political funds on a 2024 presidential bid without formally declaring himself a candidate.
The complaint uses Mr. Trump's own words about a 2024 run — "I know what I'm going to exercise, but nosotros're not supposed to be talking well-nigh it yet from the standpoint of campaign finance laws," he said in the fall — to accuse him of improperly using his existing political committees to advance a presidential run.
Federal rules require those who heighten or spend more than $5,000 in support of a presidential entrada to register with the Federal Election Commission.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly teased that he plans to run for president again, maxim at the Conservative Political Action Conference last month, "We did it twice and nosotros'll do it again." But though he formally filed for re-election the day of his inauguration in 2017, Mr. Trump has not done so for 2024. Such a filing would set up off restrictions on how he could heighten and spend campaign coin, including his existing war chest.
Trump-controlled committees entered 2022 with $122 million in the banking company — far more than the Republican Political party itself.
"He should accept to adhere to the law in a way that all other candidates practise," said Jessica Floyd, the president of American Bridge, the Autonomous group that is filing the complaint. "When he says 'I'thou going to exercise it a tertiary time,' that's not flirting. That'southward more than than a toe dip."
Ms. Floyd noted that Mr. Trump's citations of campaign law testify clear intentions to evade the existing rules. "It'due south not similar he doesn't know what he'south doing," she said.
Taylor Budowich, a spokesman for Mr. Trump, called the complaint frivolous.
"America is spiraling into disaster because of the Democrats' failures, and instead of reversing course, they are decorated filing frivolous complaints that have zero merit," he said.
Mr. Trump told the Fox News host Sean Hannity in July 2022 that he had fabricated up his mind well-nigh another White House bid. A month later, he said on Fox News again that it was "unbelievably stupid" campaign finance laws that prevented him from directly stating his intentions.
"Let me put it this way: I call back you'll be happy, and I think that a lot of our friends volition be very happy. Merely I'1000 non actually allowed to answer information technology," Mr. Trump said then. "It makes it very difficult if I do."
Nothing legally bars Mr. Trump from declaring he is running for president. But he would exist subject area to additional fund-raising limits and disclosure requirements if he did so.
In one case a politician has decided to run for federal role and begun fund-raising, the person is supposed to file paperwork declaring the candidacy. There is likewise an interim stride for those who are "testing the waters" of a run.
The American Bridge complaint says Mr. Trump has crossed both thresholds, though the line is notoriously blurry.
For at present, Mr. Trump's primary PAC, called Save America, is registered equally a committee that can spend on behalf of others, and the PAC did give away $350,000 to other candidates in 2021, though that sum is far less than the amount the PAC has spent on Mr. Trump'southward own properties.
The complaint would appear unlikely to generate any crackdown past the Federal Ballot Commission, which is as divided between commissioners aligned with the Democratic and Republican parties, and oft deadlocks on contentious matters. The watchdog agency's investigations procedure is too notoriously slow. A complaint to the commission related to the pre-candidacy activities of Jeb Bush, who announced his run for president in 2015, was withal in court every bit recently equally December 2021.
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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/14/us/politics/trump-campaign-fec-violation.html
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