by Frank Holmes, reporter
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: A Democratic presidential candidate has broken the law but may face no consequences whatsoever.
Vice President Kamala Harris has started off her 2024 presidential campaign in the long tradition of Democrats ignoring the law — but this time, she may just face the music.
Harris, together with President Joe Biden, broke federal campaign finance laws when they simply handed off nearly $100 million in donations after Joe stepped down as the Democrats’ candidate, according to their own administration’s chief campaign finance expert.
Not only did the Biden-Harris 2024 campaign break election laws, they did it so blatantly they didn’t even bother to check whether their action was legal, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) Chairman Sean Cooksey.
What happens to campaign donations when the candidate they’re intended for drops out of the race?
“A lot of it depends on when they drop out,” Chairman Cooksey told Laura Ingraham on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle Monday night. “Here we have a situation in which a candidate is dropping out before they’re the formal nominee. What should usually happen in that case under the law is that candidate, first, needs to give back all their general election money.”
“That doesn’t seem to be what’s happening here,” Cooksey continued.
Instead, he said, “what the Democrats are going to do is…take the money and run: Give it to the Harris campaign, not bother to get any FEC guidance, and just deal with any consequences on that after the election.”
An astounded Ingraham asked whether the Biden campaign inquired about the legal status of their campaign chest transfer—and Cooksey said they hadn’t lifted a finger to ask for the FEC’s streamlined process, which gives them an “expedited review in 20 days.”
“They decided not to do that,” said Cooksey. “They just changed the paperwork on their committee, slapped a new name on it—calle it the Harris for President committee—and it looks like they’re about to spend all that money and deal with any enforcement matters or lawsuits later.”
“There are a lot of people” with “open questions about whether any of this was legal,” Cooksey said.
In other words, Harris thinks she can spend all the money donors intended for Joe Biden, break FEC law, and get away with it…and she may just be right. As usual, the Biden/Harris folks might skate.
“At the FEC…we don’t have an ability to release a restraining order or to stop it,” Cooksey told Ingraham. With so few days until the election, he said, it’s “really unlikely” the FEC is going to be able to write up a legal complaint and complete an enforcement matter before election day.
“I think the only way that parties want to challenge this—whether it’s the Trump campaign or donors who feel they’ve been wronged—they’re going to have to go straight to court,” he said.
Anyone who donated any amount, even a dollar, to Joe Biden could file a lawsuit—especially if he or she happens to live in a conservative area that reports to a Trump-appointed judge. They could even begin a class action lawsuit of all angered Biden donors.
But rather than wait on Democrats, President Donald Trump filed his own lawsuit in federal court the very next day.
“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,” wrote Trump campaign general counsel David Warrington in his FEC complaint.
He also called Harris’ actions “fraudulent” and a “mockery of our campaign finance laws.”
The Harris campaign responded that Donald Trump was “jealous” of her runaway popularity.
Polls show she ranks less favorably than Joe Biden, who was so unpopular he bowed out of the race.
But Kamala and Joe have been busted—by their own FEC chairman, whom President Trump appointed just days before the 2020 election, and who was confirmed that December—about the time the legacy media collectively deemed Joe Biden our “president-elect.”
If successful, the Trump lawsuit could tie up $91.2 million in Harris campaign funds.
The judge could even draw up an injunction banning the party from using that money while the entire drama plays out in court.
If the case moves slowly, it could drag out through the entire presidential campaign.
That would almost cut Kamala’s $204 million cash-on-hand in half, all with the bang of a gavel.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if the Democrats, who hoped to win the 2024 presidential election by waging lawfare against President Donald Trump, lost through a legitimate lawsuit?
Donald Trump is going to try to make sure it will — but it’s not clear if the lawsuit will even make the court’s docket, let alone that he’ll prevail.
Maybe the only silver lining is that having Kamala Harris illegally scarf up campaign cash that she has no right to touch isn’t the worst thing a Democrat has done to him this month.