The matter that will keep all Democrats glued to their screen
Last month saw Gifford’s, the not for profit organization filing a suit against the Federal Election Commission. The suit was instituted against it for negligence in taking action against Trump and other Republican politicians.
It has been established beyond doubt that the illegal contribution to Trump’s election campaign has exceeded by a whopping nine thousand two hundred and fifty-nine times the limit that was set by Congress.
The suit lies against the FEC for failing to take cognizance of the plaintiff’s complaint. We know that the lawsuit mentions the US President Trump thirty-five times!
The crux of the matter
On 24th April this year, the Federal Election Commission was in hot water when it was sued by a former Republican, Senator Gabrielle Giffords. Giffords started the non-profit organization under 501 (c) (4) after she survived an assassination attempt.
The main contention of the Plaintiff is that the FEC failed in its statutory duty to enforce the Campaign Finance Laws against the National Rifle Association. The suit lies in the District Court of Columbia and it challenges the commission for the omission to act on its administrative complaint.
The Plaintiff further contends that the Election Commission has allowed the NRA (National Rifle Association) to violate the campaign laws thereby helping Donald J Trump. Giffords has over a period of nine months, filed four separate administrative complaints and none of the complaints have been acted upon even after the expiry of 120 days from the date of the complaint.
The petitioner contends that the NRA violated the Campaign Finance Laws by using an intricate and complex network of shell companies that were started only to channelize illegal money.
The shell company has further coordinated election campaigning expenditure of seven candidates for their federal office posts.
The complaint says that it has helped the senators and president Trump to amass US$ 35 million of illegal in-kind contribution which exceeds 9,259 times the limit set by Congress.
The six senators named in the suit besides Trump are:
- Senator Tom Tillis
- Senator Cory Gardner
- Senator Tom Cotton
- Senator Ron Johnson
- Senator Matt Rosendale
- Senator Josh Hawley
Adam Skaggs, the official spokesperson and Counsel of the Giffords Law Center has been quoted saying that “the FEC is supposed to be the nation’s election watchdog, but in this case it didn’t bark, or bite or even whimper”.
The National Rifle Association has gone on record denying any wrongdoing by it. The suit claims that the National Rifle Association has a nexus with the Republicans that it supported over last three elections. There is also proof that the agency that handles NRA’s campaigns was also handling the senator’s election campaigns.
The counsel further contended that the NRA is guilty of not only engaging in a complicated scheme to coordinate spending but also took steps to conceal its involvement.