The Trump campaign team filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Tuesday (July 23), alleging that Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign team misappropriated President Biden’s campaign funds.
According to The New York Times, after President Biden announced his withdrawal from the presidential race on Sunday (July 21) and endorsed Vice President Harris as the Democratic presidential candidate, some of Biden’s campaign donation accounts were renamed “Harris for President”.
David Warrington, a Trump campaign advisor, wrote in the complaint that “Harris is trying to steal $91.5 million from Biden’s remaining campaign funds.”
Warrington claimed that there is no provision in federal campaign finance laws that allow Harris to take over Biden’s candidacy, and that she is “manipulating his campaign activities” by simply modifying the FEC-filed forms.
He stated, “This is a brazen theft that will constitute the largest and most egregious violation of excessive donations in the history of the Federal Election Act of 1971.”
The complaint demands a criminal investigation into this behavior, alleging that renaming the committee for Harris is a “fraudulent act.” It also claimed that Biden should be forced to return the donations instead of transferring them to Harris.
The complaint aims to prevent Harris from accessing these funds. Although most campaign finance experts believe Harris is entitled to these funds as she is Biden’s vice presidential candidate, the final decision by the Federal Election Commission is still unclear.
Chairman of the Federal Election Commission, Sean Cooksey, told National Public Radio (NPR) on Monday (July 22) that Biden’s unprecedented action of passing his campaign funds to Harris may prove to be complex and subject to legal challenges.
However, Cooksey’s predecessor, Democratic FEC Commissioner Dara Lindenbaum, told The Hill in an interview, “It is clear that Vice President Harris can continue to utilize the campaign committee and its funds.”
Charles Lutvak, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign team, dismissed the complaint as “lacking legal basis” and pointed out the strong fundraising activities of the campaign team.
In a statement, he said, “The Harris team will continue its work in battleground states on the basis of our 250-plus campaign offices and over 1,300 coordinators – just as we raised $100 million in the first round of fundraising, with $240 million in cash on hand when we launched this week.”
Harris’s campaign has broken fundraising records since launching on Monday, raising over $80 million in the first 24 hours.