A lawsuit filed in DC District Court last week provides evidence that the Hillary Victory Fund violated FEC campaign limits and essentially “laundered” $84M in donations through “dozens of state political party committees to the Democratic National Committee and, ultimately, to Hillary for America.”
The story which was reported by the Investor’s Business Daily and then picked up by Margot Cleveland of The Federalist has virtually been ignored by the left-leaning national news media. The plaintiff in the case is listed as the Committee to Defend the President, and the defendant is the Federal Election Commission.
Oh, What a Tangled Web We Weave
This is a classic case of the often-quoted line from a Sir Walter Scott: “Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.” The complaint goes on to say:
“The Court was unable to anticipate the extent and sheer audacity with which Democrats would conspire to circumvent, evade, and effectively nullify candidate contribution limits.”
Anyone in the political game who has given a dollar to a political campaign knows that a single donor can contribute up to $2,700 to a candidate, $10K to a state party committee and just over $33K to a national party. The attorney-of-record in this complaint, Dan Backer told the IBD that, “These groups can all get together and take a single check from a donor for the sum of those contribution limits—it’s legal because the donor cannot exceed the base limit for any one recipient. And state parties can make unlimited transfer to their national party.”
So-called “bundlers” -- from the left and right -- use this legal loophole all the time. However, once the money hits the Democratic or Republican National Committees other campaign limits kick in. And this is where the lawsuit nails Hillary and friends to the wall. This 86-page complaint filed with the FEC includes almost 20 pages of Excel spreadsheets detailing a shell game of laundering millions of dollars.
The Federalist reveals how this money web operated:
“For instance, the HVF [Hillary Victory Fund] reported transferring $19,500 to the Mississippi Democratic Party on November 2, 2015, and the Democratic National Committee reported receiving $19,500 from the Mississippi Democratic Party on November 2, 2015. But the Mississippi Democratic Party never recorded the receipt or the disbursement of the $19,500, and without the Mississippi Democratic Party controlling the funds, the HVF’s contribution to the DNC violated campaign finance law.
Over a 13-month period, FEC records show some 30 separate occasions when the HVF transferred contributions totaling more than $10 million to the DNC without any corresponding record of the receipt or disbursement from the state parties, thus illegally leap-frogging the state Democratic parties.”
SCOTUS: McCutcheon v. FEC Ruling
In 2014 in McCutcheon v FEC, in a majority opinion written by Justice Antonin Scalia, the U.S. Supreme Court said:
“One problem, however, is that the District Court’s speculation relies on illegal earmarking. Lest there be any confusion, a joint fundraising committee is simply a mechanism for individual committees to raise funds collectively, not to circumvent base limits or earmarking rules. See 11 CFR §102.17(c)(5). Under no circumstances may a contribution to a joint fundraising committee result in an allocation that exceeds the contribution limits applicable to its constituent parts; the committee is in fact required to return any excess funds to the contributor. See §102.17(c)(6)(i).”
Chasing the Wrong Tail
The Hillary Victory Fund is in deep doo-doo. No question about it. There is a mountain of evidence included in this complaint that cannot be ignored or denied. HVF orchestrated the dispensation of its money during the 2016 Presidential Election Campaign with little regard for the law.
All this is right under the noses of the elite leftist media and yet very little is written about it. While Mueller and friends are looking for a needle in a haystack, someone just might want to turn their attention to the elephant in the room.
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