Conservative activist James O’Keefe released another undercover sting video on Monday that he claimed proved Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton illegally coordinated with an outside organization.
But what O’Keefe considered illegal activity is most likely not, election law experts told Business Insider.
The sting video posted by O’Keefe and produced by his organization, Project Veritas, showed Democratic operative Bob Creamer claiming Clinton personally wanted activists dressed up as Donald Duck outside of Trump events to promote that he had not released his tax returns.
The group Creamer tasked with carrying out the work was Americans United for Change, a liberal non-profit.
The O’Keefe video claims that this would be illegal coordination under the FEC rules, citing unnamed election lawyers. Seems pretty clear that even if (and a big if) the actions described in the O’Keefe video are true, this is not coordination on a public communication as described in 11 CFR 109.21(c). Jason Torchinsky advanced a soft money argument against the Donald Duck alleged coordination. But there’s no solicitation here, and I’d need to hear more from Jason or others as to how this argument would work.
And then there’s also this delicious aspect of the story in Business Insider:
In a statement to Business Insider, the Clinton campaign highlighted how a recent report showed O’Keefe’s own venture, Project Veritas, was funded by Trump’s charitable foundation.
“Wow,” said Zac Petkanas, a Hillary for America spokesman. “The latest so-called blockbuster video from this discredited right wing activist who was funded by Donald Trump’s sham foundation uncovers a legal ploy to highlight that the Republican nominee hasn’t released his tax returns. By the way, did we mention that Donald Trump still hasn’t released his tax returns?”
A recent story in the liberal blog ThinkProgress, which drew on a Washington Post database, revealed that Trump’s foundation gave $10,000 to Project Veritas on May 13, 2015.
Project Veritas is a non-profit that is in the same 501 C-4 classification as Americans United for Change. Last week, O’Keefe was invited by the Trump campaign to be a guest at the final presidential debate, and was later available in the spin room following the Las Vegas event.