Trump campaign solicits foreign donations, in violation of FEC rules
Members of foreign governments have been receiving donation requests from the Donald Trump campaign.
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, shown here during a campaign event Saturday, has been accused on soliciting foreign donations in violation of FEC rules.
Evan Vucci/AP
The campaign of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is from foreign politicians, despite highly publicized FEC complaints against him, The Hill reported. Accepting donations from foreign nationals is in violation of FEC rules.聽
Mr. Trump of asking politicians in Iceland, Scotland, Britain, and Australia for donations, according to an FEC filing. The complaint was filed by two campaign finance watchdog organizations,聽Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21, after foreign media reported members of the government in their countries had received emails from the Trump campaign , as the Guardian reported.聽
"Donald Trump should have known better," Paul S. Ryan, deputy executive director of Campaign Legal Center, told the Guardian. "It is a no-brainer that it violates the law to send fundraising emails to members of a foreign government on their official foreign government email accounts, and yet, that鈥檚 exactly what Trump has done repeatedly."
The Trump campaign did not respond to The Hill's requests for comment, and Trump and his campaign have made no public statements on the matter.
The prohibits聽foreign nationals聽from donating to any local, state or federal US election. According to FECA, it is also "unlawful to help foreign nationals violate that ban or to solicit, receive or accept contributions or donations from them." Those who "knowingly and willfully" do so can be subject to fines, imprisonment, or both.
"If the Trump campaign has continued to solicit foreign nationals after the matter first came to light in June, this looks like either gross incompetence, gross negligence or willful conduct,"聽Larry Noble, the general counsel at the Campaign Legal Center, told the Hill.聽
The politicians聽receiving聽these emails come from a wide range of political parties, and many expressed confusion over why they had been contacted.聽
"," Katr铆n Jakobsd贸ttir, head of the Left Green Party, told Iceland Magazine.聽"The letter left me speechless."
Many of the politicians who received emails hold different political views that differ greatly from those of Trump.聽
"Quite why you think it appropriate to write emails to U.K. parliamentarians with a begging bowl is for your father's repugnant campaign is completely beyond me," MP Natalie McGarry,聽聽to a message attributed to Donald Trump, Jr, as US News and World Report reported.聽"Given his rhetoric on migrants, refugees and immigration, it seems quite extraordinary that he would be asking foreign nationals for money, especially people who view his dangerous divisiveness with horror."
Parliament members in the UK and Australia both confirmed they had received fundraising emails as recently as July 12, the Hill reported.聽
"This is kind of absurd. I don't know of anyone else in this situation who would just go on keeping on soliciting money from foreign interests," Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, told the Hill.聽"I think the fact circumstances here are unprecedented."聽
Mr. Wertheimer is considering taking the current FEC complaint聽a step further by launching a criminal complaint against the Trump campaign.聽
"There is no reason this should be happening," Mr. Noble said. "While US citizens do live abroad, they usually don't have foreign government email addresses or are members of parliament, so they can't try to explain this by saying they thought they were soliciting US citizens abroad."聽