Has Trump Decided Not to Run Again
Autonomous Group Says Trump Is Breaking Campaign Law past Not Declaring for 2024
The complaint to the Federal Election Commission accuses Donald Trump of improperly using his existing political committees to advance a presidential run.
A Autonomous super PAC said it is filing a formal complaint with the Federal Election Commission on Mon accusing Donald J. Trump of violating entrada finance law by spending political funds on a 2024 presidential bid without formally declaring himself a candidate.
The complaint uses Mr. Trump'due south ain words about a 2024 run — "I know what I'm going to do, but we're not supposed to exist talking almost it all the same from the standpoint of campaign finance laws," he said in the fall — to charge him of improperly using his existing political committees to advance a presidential run.
Federal rules require those who raise or spend more than than $5,000 in support of a presidential entrada to annals with the Federal Election Commission.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly teased that he plans to run for president again, saying at the Conservative Political Action Briefing final month, "We did it twice and we'll do it again." But though he formally filed for re-election the day of his inauguration in 2017, Mr. Trump has not done then for 2024. Such a filing would set off restrictions on how he could raise and spend entrada money, including his existing war chest.
Trump-controlled committees entered 2022 with $122 million in the banking company — far more than the Republican Party itself.
"He should accept to adhere to the police force in a way that all other candidates practice," said Jessica Floyd, the president of American Span, the Democratic grouping that is filing the complaint. "When he says 'I'k going to do it a third time,' that'south non flirting. That'south more a toe dip."
Ms. Floyd noted that Mr. Trump'south citations of campaign law show clear intentions to evade the existing rules. "It'due south non like he doesn't know what he's doing," she said.
Taylor Budowich, a spokesman for Mr. Trump, called the complaint frivolous.
"America is spiraling into disaster because of the Democrats' failures, and instead of reversing course, they are busy filing frivolous complaints that accept zippo merit," he said.
Mr. Trump told the Play tricks News host Sean Hannity in July 2021 that he had made up his mind about another White House bid. A month later, he said on Fox News again that it was "unbelievably stupid" entrada finance laws that prevented him from directly stating his intentions.
"Let me put it this way: I retrieve you'll exist happy, and I remember that a lot of our friends will be very happy. But I'thousand non actually allowed to answer it," Mr. Trump said then. "It makes information technology very hard if I exercise."
Goose egg legally bars Mr. Trump from declaring he is running for president. But he would exist subject to boosted fund-raising limits and disclosure requirements if he did so.
Once a pol has decided to run for federal office and begun fund-raising, the person is supposed to file paperwork declaring the candidacy. There is besides an acting stride for those who are "testing the waters" of a run.
The American Bridge complaint says Mr. Trump has crossed both thresholds, though the line is notoriously blurry.
For now, Mr. Trump's main PAC, called Relieve America, is registered every bit a committee that tin can spend on behalf of others, and the PAC did give away $350,000 to other candidates in 2021, though that sum is far less than the amount the PAC has spent on Mr. Trump'southward own properties.
The complaint would appear unlikely to generate any crackdown past the Federal Election Committee, which is equally divided between commissioners aligned with the Autonomous and Republican parties, and often deadlocks on contentious matters. The watchdog bureau's investigations process is also notoriously slow. A complaint to the committee related to the pre-candidacy activities of Jeb Bush-league, who appear his run for president in 2015, was yet in court as recently as Dec 2021.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/14/us/politics/trump-campaign-fec-violation.html