“Republican FEC commissioners let Clinton campaign off the hook for super PAC coordination”

Open Secrets:

Deadlocked on a party-line vote, the Federal Election Commission has dismissed a complaint that Hillary Clinton’s campaign illegally coordinated with a super PAC during the 2016 presidential election cycle.
Continuing a recent trend with the embattled regulatory agency that is currently missing two of six commissioners, it was the Republican commissioners, not Democrats, who voted to stonewall enforcement action over the complaint. 


Just one month before the 2016 presidential election, Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint with the FEC alleging that the Clinton campaign illegally coordinated with Correct the Record, a hybrid PAC run by Media Matters for America founder David Brock. 


The group, which Brock himself described in a podcast as a “surrogate arm of the Clinton campaign,” spent millions to “correct” criticism of Clinton on social media and in the news media. The group worked closely with the Clinton campaign on opposition research, fundraising, polling, canvassing, press outreach and messaging. Together, the groups coordinated their response to potential threats to the campaign, such as the politicized Benghazi hearings. 


Able to collect unlimited sums from donors, Correct the Record reported spending nearly $10 million during the 2016 election. The group was funded mostly through big-dollar contributions from wealthy Democratic donors and $1 million from Priorities USA Action, the super PAC that spent $132 million backingClinton’s unsuccessful 2016 presidential bid.  
Campaign Legal Center argued that Correct the Record’s numerous coordinated efforts to help the Clinton campaign were valuable enough to constitute illegal in-kind contributions from an outside group. Correct the Record argued it could legally coordinate with the Clinton campaign as it posted its communications online — attempting to use an FEC exception that allows for individuals and blogs to post political content on the Internet.  


FEC attorneys sided with Campaign Legal Center. Noting that the super PAC didn’t limit its efforts to posting content online, they recommended the commission hold both the Clinton campaign and Correct the Record in violation of campaign finance law over unreported, excessive in-kind contributions. 

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