Dem FEC Commissioner Potentially Violated Federal Ethics Laws With Trump Demand

[rangerrebew]

 Dem FEC Commissioner
Potentially Violated Federal Ethics Laws With Trump Demand
Posted By Joe Schoffstall On February 15, 2017 @ 4:57 am In Politics | No Comments

A Democratic Federal Elections Commission official may have violated federal ethics laws in her quest to have President Donald Trump provide proof that voter fraud occurred in New Hampshire during the 2016 elections, experts say.

FEC Commissioner Ellen Weintraub, who has for days called on Trump to prove his claim that he and former Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte lost in New Hampshire due to voter fraud, released an official statement Feb. 10 asking Trump to substantiate the scheme.

"According to widespread news reports circulating today, President Trump has alleged an astonishing voter-fraud scheme that he claims denied him and former Sen. Kelly Ayotte victory in the state of New Hampshire in the 2016 elections," the statement reads.



Article printed from Washington Free Beacon: http://freebeacon.com

URL to article: http://freebeacon.com/politics/dem-fec-commissioner-potentially-violated-federal-ethics-laws-trump-demand/

[Oceander]

I can't get the article to load for some reason.  What's the punchline?  What did she do that's illegal (just want to know).

[DCPatriot]

I can't get the article to load for some reason.  What's the punchline?  What did she do that's illegal (just want to know).

Matthew Whitaker, executive director of the watchdog group Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, told the Washington Free Beacon that Weintraub's actions could constitute an ethics and legal violation.

"If she is using her office for personal political purposes, then it would be a misuse of taxpayer funded resource and could be a political issue as well," Whitaker said. "Also, the FEC does have significant cases before it that it should be focusing on, for instance our complaints on the hybrid ads and the candidates conspiracy to coordinate with the super PACs."

weirdly written piece.   Hope this helps.

[EC]

The FEC doesn't have jurisdiction over voter fraud issues, therefore her demand is worthless.

[Frank Cannon]

I can't get the article to load for some reason.  What's the punchline?  What did she do that's illegal (just want to know).

Legally the FEC is only allowed to handle campaign finance and that is all. Elections and voting are run by states. She even specifically said this in Oct '16 when the matter came up.

However, the FEC does not have jurisdiction over voter fraud issues—a fact that Weintraub acknowledged in October 2016.

"This has GOT to be some kind of joke, right? What is the FEC doing abt [sic] recent reports of voter fraud?" someone asked Weintraub over Twitter.

"That's outside of the FEC's jurisdiction," Weintraub responded. "We do campaign finance *only*. The elections themselves are handled by the states."

She is specifically using her office for political reasons now by calling Trump to release information on fraud and that is illegal.

[driftdiver]

I can't get the article to load for some reason.  What's the punchline?  What did she do that's illegal (just want to know).

@Oceander
Article says FEC only does campaign finance.   They don't do voter fraud so her demand was illegal as it makes the request a political action and not a governmental action.

[GtHawk]

I can't get the article to load for some reason.  What's the punchline?  What did she do that's illegal (just want to know).

FEC doesn't have jurisdiction so punchline is possible ethic and misuse of public funds for personal political purposes according to what I read.
@Oceander

[Oceander]

@Oceander
Article says FEC only does campaign finance.   They don't do voter fraud so her demand was illegal as it makes the request a political action and not a governmental action.

Thanks.  And it seems a good point.  Mind you, I don't think anything will come of it, but it illustrates the dangers of government trying to control the way campaigns are run.  Inevitably it comes to regulating content, i.e., political matters.