Authored by Jeff Louderback via The Epoch Times,
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s marketing campaign is accused of receiving an unlawful contribution from the tremendous PAC working to get him elected president, based on a Federal Election Fee criticism filed by the Democratic Nationwide Committee.
Mr. Kennedy’s marketing campaign is “within the means of accepting a $15 million illegal in-kind contribution by coordinating their efforts to get him on the poll,” DNC authorized counsel Bob Lenhard stated in a Feb. 9 name detailing the FEC criticism.
Mr. Kennedy’s marketing campaign “has acknowledged that it’s time-consuming and costly for a first-time candidate to get on the presidential poll in all 50 states. Slightly than doing that arduous work itself, utilizing cash raised in compliance with the candidate contribution limits, the marketing campaign is taking a shortcut outsourcing what’s in any other case a core marketing campaign operate to an excellent PAC,” Mr. Lenhard added.
American Values 2024 is ignoring federal legislation, based on the criticism, Mr. Lenhard famous.
“The legislation does enable the tremendous PAC to boost limitless quantities of cash from rich people, firms, and unions for impartial expenditures. But it surely stays unlawful for an excellent PAC to supply items and providers on to a marketing campaign,” Mr. Lenhard stated.
Mr. Kennedy introduced in April 2023 that he would problem President Biden for the Democratic Social gathering presidential nomination. He has generated wide-ranging assist from conservatives, moderates, independents, and Libertarians all through his marketing campaign, though he hasn’t gained the identical favor from many Democrats.
Marketing campaign finance stories have proven that Mr. Kennedy is getting extra assist from Republican-leaning donors than from Democrats.
For months, Mr. Kennedy was confronted with roadblocks from the Democratic Nationwide Committee, which he stated was “rigging” the first course of to favor President Joe Biden. On Oct. 9, he declared his candidacy for president as an impartial.
American Values 2024 stated late final 12 months that it plans to spend as a lot as $15 million to assist get Mr. Kennedy on the poll in a number of states deemed vital to successful the election.
Mr. Kennedy has to this point certified to seem on the poll in a single state—Utah. Late final month, he reported that his marketing campaign gathered sufficient signatures to seem on the poll in New Hampshire. Mr. Kennedy is touring the nation and holding voter rallies in his effort to get on the poll in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, a feat he believes he’ll accomplish.
Mr. Kennedy famous that his favorability scores had been higher than President Biden and President Trump, and he’s forward of each candidates amongst People beneath the age of 45 in six battleground states, and amongst independents, based on polls.
Supporters of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hearken to the announcement that he’ll run as an impartial for president in Philadelphia on Oct. 9, 2023. (Jeff Louderback/The Epoch Instances)
When requested if the DNC is worried that Mr. Kennedy’s candidacy is a risk to President Biden’s reelection bid, DNC spokesperson Ramsey Reid known as the alleged FEC violation a “scheme.”
Billionaire Tim Mellon, certainly one of former President Trump’s largest donors, gave American Values 2024 “the precise $15 million paycheck, they stated that they would wish for poll entry.”
Mr. Reid known as the transfer “an effort to subvert our election legal guidelines” and “prop up” Mr. Kennedy.
Marketing campaign finance information point out that Mr. Mellon gave American Values 2024 $15 million in 2023. Mr. Mellon additionally contributed $10 million to pro-Trump tremendous PAC MAGA Inc. final 12 months, based on FEC filings.
Anthony Lyons, who’s co-chairman of American Values 2024, stated in an announcement that the tremendous PAC: “has been working independently from the marketing campaign in accordance with FEC precedent to get Bobby Kennedy on the poll in 12 states. Latest polling exhibits that as many as 40,000,000 People are ready to vote for Kennedy in November of 2024. The DNC needs to disclaim hundreds of thousands of individuals their primary constitutional voting rights in a relentless onslaught in opposition to democracy.”
“The Biden administration and the DNC clearly discover democracy inconvenient, wish to stifle any dissenting opinions and don’t consider that their candidate can win a free, open and honest election. I don’t know if all of this quantities to election fraud,” Mr. Lyons added.
“This FEC criticism is simply one other determined DNC tactic to defame Kennedy, vilify him, and drain his marketing campaign funds. The American individuals are too good to be fooled by these political video games,” he stated.
Mr. Kennedy responded to the criticism, alleging he’s being focused for political causes.
“The DNC is accusing my marketing campaign of FEC violations within the type of secretive exercise—exercise that’s so secretive it’s on the Poll Entry HQ of my web site,” Mr. Kennedy wrote on X, previously Twitter.
“After the day that they had yesterday, it’s comprehensible they’d wish to put the give attention to another person. The DNC is in no place to claim morality over anybody—they refused to have a major and have labored in opposition to the desire of the folks prior to now few elections. It’s unhappy to see the social gathering my household constructed crash and burn,” he added, referring to the particular counsel report launched yesterday that made damning findings in regards to the president’s “poor” reminiscence.
Mr. Kennedy has known as poll entry legal guidelines for impartial and third-party candidates “among the many worst types of voter suppression in America as we speak” and stated that state officers ought to work collectively to “streamline and standardize poll entry procedures.”
Poll entry restrictions “artificially prop up the two-party duopoly,” Mr. Kennedy added, noting {that a} Gallup ballot performed in September 2023 confirmed that 63 p.c of American adults agree that “the Republican and Democratic events do such a poor job of representing the American folks that one other alternative is required.”
FEC Involvement
The DNC’s allegations mark the second time the FEC has grow to be concerned in issues relating to Mr. Kennedy.
Final month, the FEC requested Mr. Kennedy’s marketing campaign to make clear wage funds made to a member of the family.
In a letter first obtained by CNBC, the FEC questioned whether or not funds made by the Kennedy marketing campaign to the candidate’s daughter-in-law, Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, between July 1 and Sept. 30 exceeded “honest market worth.”
The correspondence signifies that the Kennedy marketing campaign should present the FEC data relating to “funds to members of the candidate’s household that probably represent private use of the committee’s marketing campaign funds.”
The FEC threatened authorized motion in opposition to the marketing campaign if the funds didn’t meet honest market worth pointers for authentic marketing campaign providers.
Based on monetary disclosures, the Kennedy marketing campaign reported paying Ms. Kennedy round $70,000 for administrative providers.
Ms. Kennedy was not named within the FEC letter, however she was the one member of the family on the marketing campaign payroll between July and September, based on CNBC.
A former undercover CIA agent who’s married to Mr. Kennedy’s son, Robert F. Kennedy III, Ms. Kennedy joined the Kennedy marketing campaign as digital director in Might 2023, based on an announcement from the marketing campaign.
Final October, Ms. Kennedy was named marketing campaign supervisor, changing former Democrat Congressman and presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, who stepped down days after Mr. Kennedy introduced that he would run for president as an impartial.
“I requested Amaryllis to run my presidential marketing campaign for a similar purpose my uncle, John F. Kennedy, requested his brother, Robert F. Kennedy, to run his marketing campaign,” Mr. Kennedy stated in an announcement. “There’s no one who may probably be simpler on this place than Amaryllis Kennedy.”
“RFK Jr. has broadly complained in opposition to the weaponization of federal businesses, together with the Secret Service, in opposition to his marketing campaign. It’s curious that the FEC has the capability to research this non-issue when authentic complaints in opposition to top-level Democrats and Republicans have sat dormant for years,” the assertion defined.
The FEC set a Feb. 13 deadline for the marketing campaign to supply particulars on the funds.
Mr. Kennedy’s marketing campaign has additionally been specializing in the findings of a 388-page report relating to Justice Division particular counsel Robert Hur’s 13-month investigation that discovered President Biden “willfully retained and disclosed categorized supplies after his vice presidency when he was a personal citizen.”
Citing a scarcity of enough proof to ascertain his guilt “past an affordable doubt” and the way he would seem to a jury, Mr. Hur declined to pursue prices in opposition to the president.
“At trial, Mr. Biden would possible current himself to a jury, as he did throughout our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, aged man with a poor reminiscence,” the particular counsel wrote.
Mr. Kennedy instructed NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo that “we’ve reached a time the place it’s not character assassination to ask authentic questions on his (President Biden’s) competency.”
Americans have a proper to know if their president is able to making choices that require complicated ranges of considering, Mr. Kennedy stated.
“There are entrenched pursuits and particular pursuits in authorities that truly profit from having a president who shouldn’t be fully competent. Their energy will increase as a president’s energy decreases,” Mr. Kennedy continued, including that President Biden ought to take part normally election debates.
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