• March 29, 2024

Bernie Sanders Accepts Illegal Contributions…Over 3,000 of Them

Bernie-Sanders-Money-In-Politics

The FEC has notified the Sanders campaign that they have over 3,000 illegal donations and they have until March to refund all the improper donations.  Most of the illegal donations fall into 2 categories.  One is individual donors going over the legal limit.  Then there were a lot of illegal contributions from foreign nationals.  Now, before you start complaining that Sanders is being smeared, let me let you in on one little fact.  The only records the FEC has for the campaigns are the records those campaigns hand in.

Barack Obama was cited for the same thing in both 2008 and 2012 and his campaign didn’t return the money, instead using it for the campaign, with the intent of returning the money after the elections.  For this, the FEC fined his campaign $375,000.  That is one of the largest fines ever assessed to any campaign.  The FEC made it clear to the Sanders campaign that if they return the illegal donations are returned by the end of March, it will work in their favor when the FEC hands down his punishment.

“Although the Commission may take further legal action concerning the acceptance of [excessive or prohibited] contributions, your prompt action to refund the prohibited amount will be taken into consideration.”

Don’t bet on it.  The head of the FEC, Ann M Ravel is a rabid Hillary booster.  If the Sanders campaign doesn’t do what the FEC has instructed them to do the letter says the next step would be a complete audit of the campaign.

This comes on the heels of their last report to the FEC which also had a number of illegal contributions.

Related post