The campaign of Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, has filed a complaint.
With the Federal Election Commission (FEC), arguing that US Vice President Kamala Harris couldn’t legally take over funds raised for President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign. The campaign account had about $95 million at the end of June.
Joe Biden, 81, ended his re-election bid four months before the presidential election and endorsed Kamala Harris, who quickly took control of Biden’s campaign accounts. According to her campaign, Harris secured enough delegate pledges on Monday night to win the nomination at the Democratic National Convention next month, scheduled for August 19.
David Warrington, the Trump campaign’s general counsel, described the proposed transfer as “a $91.5 million excessive contribution from one presidential candidate to another”.
The complaint accuses Harris of attempting to take Biden’s leftover campaign cash, calling it “a brazen money grab” and “the largest campaign finance violation in American history”, according to Reuters.
“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, as amended,” the complaint states, as reported by CNN.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who is now the presumptive presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, has raised an unprecedented $100 million from more than 1.1 million people for her presidential campaign, reflecting the groundswell of support in her favour.
“Team Harris raised more than $100 million between Sunday afternoon and Monday evening, now boasting more than 1.1 million unique donors since Sunday, with 62 per cent of them being first-time donors. This haul reflects money raised across the campaign, Democratic National Committee, and joint fundraising committees”, the Harris Campaign said on Tuesday afternoon.
Her campaign dismissed the Federal Election Commission (FEC) complaint.
“Republicans may be jealous that Democrats are energised to defeat Donald Trump and his Make America Great Again (MAGA) allies, but baseless legal claims – like the ones they’ve made for years to try to suppress votes and steal elections – will only distract them while we sign up volunteers, talk to voters, and win this election,” said Harris campaign spokesperson Charles Kretchmer Lutvak.
He highlighted the campaign’s success, mentioning, “raising $100 million in our first 36 hours and signing up 58,000 volunteers”.
Saurav Ghosh, a lawyer at the non-partisan group Campaign Legal Centre, said Harris could likely use Biden’s campaign money because she was already his vice-presidential candidate.
However, election regulators are unlikely to resolve the issue before the November 5 presidential election.
The Federal Election Commission said they were unable to comment on unresolved enforcement matters, reported Reuters.