Trump Is Going After Biden Campaign Funds

Former President Trump's campaign is attempting to block the transfer of $91 million from the campaign of President Biden to that of his VP Kamala Harris. The Trump campaign filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday, accusing Biden and Harris of "the largest campaign finance violation in American history," per Fox News. The complaint claims Biden and Harris violated the Federal Election Campaign Act and the will of donors "by making and receiving an excessive contribution of nearly one hundred million dollars, and for filing fraudulent forms with the Commission purporting to repurpose one candidate's principal campaign committee for the use of another candidate."

According to the Trump campaign, "federal law requires [Harris] to have filed a Statement of Candidacy and for her name to have appeared in the name of her authorized committee." The complaint claims Harris instead amended Biden's statement of candidacy "to replace his name with hers" and renamed the Biden for President principal campaign committee, which CBS News points out was registered not only for Biden, but for Harris, too. "There is no mechanism under the Act for one individual to end another's federal candidacy by simply amending the other's Form 2," the complaint reads. Indeed, "altering a document submitted to a federal agency is a violation" in itself.

Trump campaign general counsel David Warrington said the transfer would be "little more than a thinly veiled $91.5 million excessive contribution from one presidential candidate to another ... more than 45,000 times the legal limit," per CNN and CBS. But the Harris campaign argues the claim is "baseless." The Campaign Legal Center and at least one FEC commissioner have said Harris would have legal access to the funds once named the Democratic nominee, per CBS and CNN. Still, the case could "get tied up in FEC proceedings for years," an election law expert tells CNN. The outlet notes the FEC is unlikely to take action before Election Day "given its slow pace of resolving enforcement questions." (More Donald Trump 2024 stories.)