Kamala Harris Faces Campaign Finance Complaint for Alleged Federal Law Violation

Does Vice President Kamala Harris’ run for president have a right to inherit the Biden-for-president campaign war chest?

Not if a heavyweight conservative group has anything to say about it.

The conservative group, Citizens United, and Republican Party officials from 16 states and the Virgin Islands have filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission aimed at stopping what the groups call an “egregious violation” of federal election law.

In the complaint filed Wednesday, the group Citizens United and the GOP officials objected to Harris taking over more than $90 million in campaign funds raised before Sunday’s announcement that President Joe Biden was dropping out of the race.

The complaint demanded the FEC “investigate this unlawful conversion of campaign funds and assets without delay.”

“It speaks volumes that more so-called ‘good government’ groups aren’t sounding the alarm about this egregious violation,” a news release announcing the complaint said.

The root of the complaint is simple: Whatever their current offices are, neither Biden nor Harris are currently their party’s nominee for president.

The complaint cited federal election law — US Code 16(a)(7)(D) — which states that “contributions made to or for the benefit of any candidate nominated by a political party for election to the office of Vice President of the United States shall be considered to be contributions made to or for the benefit of the candidate of such party for election to the office of President of the United States.”

It also cited an advisory opinion that, according to the complaint, was issued by the FEC in 2008 (when Biden sought the Democratic nomination against a field that included Barack Obama). The opinion said, according to the complaint, that “presidential and vice presidential candidates of the same political party may a single authorized committee so long as they are the nominees of that party.”

Since neither Biden nor Harris have been officially nominated, according to the complaint, Harris is ineligible to take over the war chest.

Citizens United is a conservative organization, of course, but even the liberal NPR acknowledged in a report on Tuesday that there were questions about the money.

The report cited a social media post published Monday by FEC Chairman Sean Cooksey — a Republican appointed in 2020 by then-President Donald Trump — citing federal campaign finance regulations that that “if a candidate is not a candidate in the general election” the money needs to be refunded or officially redesignated.

“I think it’s really complicated, is the short answer,” he told NPR.

“I think it’s going to have to go through a process through the FEC. I think I expect there’s going to probably be challenges to that at the agency and probably in the courts, as well.”

However, a Democratic member of the FEC, Vice Chairwoman Ellen Weintraub, told NPR the matter is cut and dried — and Harris has a right to the funds.

“It doesn’t look that complicated to me,” she said.

Harris’ name has been part of the Biden fundraising committee, she said.

“The bottom line is it’s the same committee,” Wientraub, who has served on the FEC since being appointed in 2002 by then-President George W. Bush, told NPR. “She’s always been part of that committee; she never had a separate contribution limit apart from this committee that her name’s already on. It’s not just me. Lawyers all over town seem to be saying the same thing.

“Someone could undoubtedly come up with a technical argument, and I would keep an open mind, but it doesn’t seem all that complicated to me.”

On Wednesday, Citizens United filed that “technical argument.”

But the group — which won a landmark Supreme Court case in 2010 that bears its name — isn’t playing it as “technical” at all.

In fact, the Citizens United release urged the FEC to act in response to what it called the Harris campaign’s “brazen violations of federal campaign finance law by misappropriating $96 million in Biden for President campaign funds.”

“The FEC must investigate this unlawful conversion of campaign funds and assets without delay,” the news release said.

The real question is whether the FEC will investigate and come to a decision in time to affect the 2024 election.

That appears unlikely, NPR reported.

“Harris would almost certainly have access to the funds through the compressed campaign, and there’s little to nothing the FEC can do about it because of the timeline,” NPR reported.

“Campaign violations are often penalized years later, and monetary penalties are usually relatively nominal to the millions, if not billions, of dollars spent on campaigns,” the report noted.

Weintraub, the Democrat with a long history on the FEC, seemed resigned to exactly that outcome — for some reason.

“The odds of all this happening and getting resolved before November are, practically speaking, not very good,” she told NPR.

And Democrats and the Harris campaign have every reason to hope she’s right.