Trump Complains About Fund Transfer Helping Harris’ Presidential Campaign

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump’s campaign filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission Tuesday against Vice President Kamala Harris for accepting funds intended for President Joe Biden’s reelection.

Biden is rolling over $91.5 million from his own campaign to help Harris after he withdrew from the race on Sunday.

Trump says in his complaint that FEC rules do not allow that degree of discretion for a political candidate.

“Kamala Harris is seeking to perpetrate a $91.5 million dollar heist of Joe Biden’s leftover campaign cash — a brazen money grab that would constitute the single largest excessive contribution and biggest violation in the history of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971,” the complaint says.

Harris should have filed her own Statement of Candidacy but instead filed “fraudulent forms with the commission purporting to repurpose one candidate’s principal campaign committee for the use of another candidate,” the complaint says.

“There is no provision in federal campaign finance law for Kamala Harris to take over Joe Biden’s candidacy now by quite literally attempting to become him … and making off with all of his cash,” the complaint says.

The complaint faces an uphill struggle to find fault with the administrative procedures Biden and Harris used before they started collecting campaign funds.

They registered with the FEC under the name of the “principal campaign committee” for Biden and Harris. They used a single campaign fund for both of them.

It was renamed this week as the Harris for President, Harris Victory Fund and Harris Action Fund. 

In addition, FEC Commissioner Dara Lindenbaum posted a message on X — formerly Twitter — saying she agreed that if Harris “becomes the Democrat Party presidential nominee, she gets access to the [Joe Biden] campaign funds.”

A spokesman for Harris, who already has won enough delegates to become the Democratic Party presidential nominee, characterized the Trump campaign complaint as resentment.

“Republicans may be jealous that Democrats are energized to defeat Donald Trump and his MAGA allies, but baseless legal claims — like the ones they’ve made for years to try to suppress votes and steal elections — will only distract them while we sign up volunteers, talk to voters and win this election,” a Harris campaign statement said.

The six-commissioner FEC is supposed to enforce federal campaign finance laws that restrict how contributions and expenditures are done. It also administers the reporting system for campaign finance disclosure.

Critics of the FEC say its bipartisan oversight by Congress has meant it serves the interests of the politicians it was designed to regulate. Most FEC penalties are levied only after elections.

In addition, the replacement of an incumbent presidential candidate by his vice president is a first in American history that is not addressed under FEC regulations.

Trump is asking for an immediate FEC order to block the fund transfer, fines and a referral to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution against anyone involved.

Further speculation about whether Biden can transfer his campaign funds came from Charlie Spies, a former FEC attorney, in a Wall Street Journal op-ed this month. He said Biden would first need to become “his party’s legal nominee” before he could give the $91 million to Harris.

Harris reported that she raised about $100 million in campaign donations in the first 36 hours after Biden withdrew.

Whether the groundswell of donations continues for Harris is most likely to depend on the Democratic National Convention Aug. 19-22 in Chicago, Illinois.

The tech industry, including big Silicon Valley companies in Harris’ native California, traditionally has been a big supporter of Democratic presidential candidates. Several tech executives say they are waiting to learn more about Harris’ platform that she will discuss in more detail at the convention before deciding on donations.

Mark Pincus, founder of mobile gaming company Zynga, posted on X that he would “sit it out if [Harris] veers left (as Biden was starting to).”

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