The Great Smoky Mountain Journal
Source:
Tuesday, January 01, 2019 02:47 PM
Hillary Clinton, DNC Accused Of Money Laundering During 2016 Presidential Race Using State Chapters To Circumvent Campaign Donation Limits
EXCLUSIVE: The Hillary Clinton Campaign and the Democratic National
Committee allegedly used state chapters as strawmen to launder as much
as $84 million in an effort to circumvent campaign donation limits, and
the Federal Election Commission ignored complaints exposing the
practice, a lawsuit filed Monday claims.
The Committee to Defend the President (CDP), a political action committee formally known as Stop Hillary PAC, filed its complaint with the FEC in December 2017 with the claims that the Hillary Victory Fund (HVF) solicited cash from big-name donors, and allegedly sent that money through state chapters and back to the DNC before ending up with the Clinton campaign.
As first reported by Fox News at the time, the CDP alleges in its complaint that about $84 million was funneled illegally from the DNC through state party chapters and back into the war chest of the Clinton campaign. The political action committee claims that even though the FEC acknowledged receipt of the complaint and claimed that an investigation would be conducted, the needle has barely moved.
“The Clinton machine has escaped accountability for its illegal practices for far too long,” Ted Harvey, CDP chairman, said to Fox News. “After months of review, the FEC has refused to address the Clintons’ $84 million money laundering scheme that violated several campaign finance laws.”
Officials with the CDP say that Clinton should be held accountable for what they claim are illegal methods used to finance her war chest for the 2016 presidential campaign.
On Monday, the CDP filed a lawsuit against the FEC with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. They claim that the commission failed to act, calling the inaction “arbitrary, capricious, contrary to law, and an abuse of discretion.”
A copy of the suit obtained by Fox News urges the court to exercise its statutory authority under the Federal Election Campaign Act and take action against what they say is an unprecedented scheme to circumvent federal campaign finance law.
“We urge the Court to step in and demand action from the FEC,” Harvey said. “The American people demand that our most corrupt political figures answer for their transgressions.”
In its original complaint, the CDP alleges that about $84 million was funneled illegally from the DNC through state party chapters and back into the war chest of the Clinton campaign.
“Based on publicly available FEC records, repeatedly throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, HVF would purportedly transfer funds to its constituent political committees, which included between 34 and 40 state parties,” reads a passage from a copy of the complaint. “On the very same day each of these transfers supposedly occurred, or occasionally the very next day, every single one of those state parties purportedly contributed all of those funds to the DNC.”
The complaint filed against the FEC said previous reports showed a series of transactions in which the HVF disbursed contributions to its state party committee members -- and they would receive the funds on the same day. The HVF would also allegedly disburse funds to up to 40 state parties at the same time, and those parties would send the money back within 24 hours.
It's alleged that $84 million was funneled illegally from the DNC through state party chapters and back into the war chest of Hillary Clinton's campaign.
The CDP received a letter of acknowledgment from the FEC in the days after their December 15 filing.
“You will be notified as soon as the Federal Election Commission takes final action on your complaint,” reads the letter, a copy of which was provided to Fox News. “Should you receive any additional information on this matter, please forward it to the Office of the General Counsel.”
Officials for the FEC declined to comment when reached for comment, citing an open investigation.
“A provision of federal campaign finance law requires that any Commission action on an enforcement matter be kept strictly confidential until the case is resolved,” reads an FEC statement provided to Fox News. “To comply with this legal commitment and to protect the interests of those involved, we have a policy of not commenting on matters that are before the agency.”
