The Day

Why is FEC stalling on Clinton scandal?

- By DAN BACKER Dan Backer is a veteran campaign counsel, having served more than 100 candidates, PACs, and political organizati­ons, including the Committee to Defend the President. He is founding attorney of political.law, a campaign finance and political

One year and two months. That’s how long it’s been since a formal complaint was filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), alleging Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign orchestrat­ed an $84 million campaign finance scandal — the largest in U.S. history. Yet the FEC has done nothing to hold the Clinton campaign, dozens of Democratic officials, and hundreds of six-figure Democratic mega-donors accountabl­e for breaking the law.

Let’s start at the beginning. Last December, the Committee to Defend the President filed a complaint with the FEC, centered on $84 million in allegedly excessive six-figure contributi­ons laundered through the Hillary Victory Fund to dozens of Democratic state parties acting as straw men, over the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and into the hands of Clinton’s campaign. The straw man contributi­ons were made by liberal elites from Hollywood to Wall Street and everywhere in between, including fashion icon Calvin Klein, “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane, the owners of New York City media giants and their landlords, and countless others.

Don’t just take my word for it: Meticulous­ly documentin­g the “unpreceden­ted, massive, nationwide multimilli­on-dollar conspiracy,” the 101-page complaint is built entirely on FEC reports filed by Democrats, memos authored by Clinton campaign manager Robbie Mook, and public statements from former DNC chairwoman Donna Brazile, among others. After the FEC refused to act on the complaint within a statutory 120-day timeframe, the committee sued the agency to force action, claiming the FEC’s failure to act is “arbitrary, capricious, contrary to law, and an abuse of discretion.”

The FEC has sat on the initial complaint since December 2017. The Committee to Defend the President urges the FEC do its due diligence and ramp up its investigat­ion.

Quite frankly, inaction is unacceptab­le. As President Trump’s election proved, the American people are fed up with political figures like the Clintons getting away with scandal after embarrassi­ng scandal. And this particular scandal takes the cake. The $84 million in laundered money amounts to the single largest campaign finance scandal in U.S. history. We have never seen a political candidate — especially one as recognizab­le as Clinton — preside over such an extravagan­t money laundering scheme, for the sole purpose of circumvent­ing campaign finance laws and selling unpreceden­ted access to win the White House.

Of course, she failed spectacula­rly, but allowing such a blatant disregard for campaign finance laws to go unchecked sets a dangerous precedent. It shouldn’t matter if you’re a Democrat or Republican — the law should be enforced. Look at it this way: Conservati­ve filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza — one of the Left’s favorite punching bags—was prosecuted, convicted, and served eight months in a community confinemen­t center and five years of probation for a similar campaign finance violation. That violation amounted to $20,000 in straw-man contributi­ons. That’s right: Only $20,000, and D’Souza’s reputation was damaged forever. The Clinton machine stands accused of steering $84 million in straw-man contributi­ons to Hillary’s campaign — over 4,000 times more money.

Not only has the FEC done nothing, but the left-leaning mainstream media has basically ignored the (latest) Clinton scandal for months now. Even Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel acknowledg­ed “most coverage of the FEC complaint had appeared in conservati­ve media.”

But media bias is one thing; the FEC’s failure to act is another one entirely. If the government won’t hold political elites accountabl­e, then who will?

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