April 18, 2016
Contact: Michael Briggs
Clinton-DNC Joint Fundraising Raises Serious Campaign Finance Concerns
NEW YORK – U.S. Sen. Bernie
Sanders’ presidential campaign on Monday
questioned “serious apparent violations” of campaign finance laws under
a joint fundraising deal between Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the
Democratic National Committee.
The questionable dealings were detailed in a letter from Brad Deutsch, the attorney for Sanders' campaign, to U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chair of the DNC. The letter questioned whether the Clinton presidential campaign violated legal limits on donations by improperly subsidizing Clinton’s campaign bid by paying Clinton staffers with funds from the joint DNC-Clinton committee.
Unlike Clinton’s presidential campaign committee, Hillary for America, the joint committee may accept large donations of up to $356,100. The first $2,700 of this amount is eligible for transfer to the Clinton campaign, $33,400 can be transferred to the DNC, with any remaining amount, up to $10,000, to each participating state party. According to public disclosure reports, however, the joint Clinton-DNC fund, Hillary Victory Fund (HVF), appears to operate in a way that skirts legal limits on federal campaign donations and primarily benefits the Clinton presidential campaign.
The financial disclosure reports on file with the Federal Election Commission indicate that the joint committee invested millions in low-dollar, online fundraising and advertising that solely benefits the Clinton campaign. The Sanders campaign “is particularly concerned that these extremely large-dollar individual contributions have been used by the Hillary Victory Fund to pay for more than $7.8 million in direct mail efforts and over $8.6 million in online advertising” according to the letter to the DNC. Both outlays benefit the Clinton presidential campaign “by generating low-dollar contributions that flow only to HFA [Hillary for America] rather than to the DNC or any of the participating state party committees.”
The questionable outlays “have grown to staggering magnitudes” and “can no longer be ignored,” Deutsch added.
The expenditures on advertising and fundraising are at best “an impermissible in-kind contribution from the DNC and the participating state party committees” to Clinton’s presidential campaign, the letter said. “At worst, using funds received from large-dollar donors who have already contributed the $2,700 maximum to HFA [Hillary for America] may represent an excessive contribution to HFA from these individuals.”
In addition, the joint committee has paid the Clinton campaign committee $2.6 million ostensibly to "reimburse" the Clinton presidential campaign staff for time spent running the joint committee. The unusual arrangement, Deutsch said, “raises equally serious concerns that joint committee funds, which are meant to be allocated proportionally among the participating committees, are being used to impermissibly subsidize HFA through an over-reimbursement for campaign staffers and resources.”
“While the use of joint fundraising agreements has existed for some time -- it is unprecedented for the DNC to allow a joint committee to be exploited to the benefit of one candidate in the midst of a contested nominating contest,” said Jeff Weaver, Sanders' campaign manager.
To read the letter, click here.###
The questionable dealings were detailed in a letter from Brad Deutsch, the attorney for Sanders' campaign, to U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chair of the DNC. The letter questioned whether the Clinton presidential campaign violated legal limits on donations by improperly subsidizing Clinton’s campaign bid by paying Clinton staffers with funds from the joint DNC-Clinton committee.
Unlike Clinton’s presidential campaign committee, Hillary for America, the joint committee may accept large donations of up to $356,100. The first $2,700 of this amount is eligible for transfer to the Clinton campaign, $33,400 can be transferred to the DNC, with any remaining amount, up to $10,000, to each participating state party. According to public disclosure reports, however, the joint Clinton-DNC fund, Hillary Victory Fund (HVF), appears to operate in a way that skirts legal limits on federal campaign donations and primarily benefits the Clinton presidential campaign.
The financial disclosure reports on file with the Federal Election Commission indicate that the joint committee invested millions in low-dollar, online fundraising and advertising that solely benefits the Clinton campaign. The Sanders campaign “is particularly concerned that these extremely large-dollar individual contributions have been used by the Hillary Victory Fund to pay for more than $7.8 million in direct mail efforts and over $8.6 million in online advertising” according to the letter to the DNC. Both outlays benefit the Clinton presidential campaign “by generating low-dollar contributions that flow only to HFA [Hillary for America] rather than to the DNC or any of the participating state party committees.”
The questionable outlays “have grown to staggering magnitudes” and “can no longer be ignored,” Deutsch added.
The expenditures on advertising and fundraising are at best “an impermissible in-kind contribution from the DNC and the participating state party committees” to Clinton’s presidential campaign, the letter said. “At worst, using funds received from large-dollar donors who have already contributed the $2,700 maximum to HFA [Hillary for America] may represent an excessive contribution to HFA from these individuals.”
In addition, the joint committee has paid the Clinton campaign committee $2.6 million ostensibly to "reimburse" the Clinton presidential campaign staff for time spent running the joint committee. The unusual arrangement, Deutsch said, “raises equally serious concerns that joint committee funds, which are meant to be allocated proportionally among the participating committees, are being used to impermissibly subsidize HFA through an over-reimbursement for campaign staffers and resources.”
“While the use of joint fundraising agreements has existed for some time -- it is unprecedented for the DNC to allow a joint committee to be exploited to the benefit of one candidate in the midst of a contested nominating contest,” said Jeff Weaver, Sanders' campaign manager.
To read the letter, click here.
Hillary
for America
Bernie 2016
April 18, 2016 fundraising email
Subject: "This should anger EVERYONE"
There’s something I need to share with you, Irma, and it’s probably going to anger you. It should probably anger everyone. Here it is:
Our opponent is bending campaign finance rules to their breaking point all so Wall Street fat cats and people like Walmart's Alice Walton can get away with giving hundreds of thousands of dollars in a single contribution to benefit the Clinton campaign.
You already know about the fundraiser Hillary Clinton held where a couple could contribute $353,000 to sit at a table with George Clooney. That money doesn’t go directly to the Clinton campaign, it goes to something called the "Hillary Victory Fund" – another account that has raised almost $35 million.
Well, for MONTHS the Clinton campaign has been saying the primary purpose of that fund is to support the DNC and state parties. But that’s not even close to true.
According to the Hillary Victory Fund’s most recent FEC report, the vast majority of the money they spent in 2016 – $25 MILLION – went directly towards helping the Clinton campaign itself.
So, what can we do about it? We can either sit back and shrug our shoulders at yet another obscene injustice. Or, we can fight. I say we fight.
Democratic National Committee
April 18, 2016 statement
“The DNC offered to engage in the same joint fundraising efforts with all the major presidential candidates early in the cycle and we welcome the efforts of the candidates to help raise money for the DNC and state parties now to ensure we can build out the infrastructure to win in November.”
Mark Paustenbach
National Press Secretary & Deputy Communications Director
Statement from Hillary for America Campaign Manager Robby Mook
Hillary for America Campaign Manager Robby Mook released the following statement in response to the latest false attacks from Sanders campaign:"The
Sanders campaign's false attacks have gotten out of hand. As Senator
Sanders faces nearly insurmountable odds, he is resorting to baseless
accusations of illegal actions and poisoning the well for Democratic
candidates up and down the ticket. It is shameful that Senator
Sanders
has resorted to irresponsible and misleading attacks just to raise
money for himself.
Instead
of trying to convince the next generation of progressives that the
Democratic Party is corrupt, Senator Sanders should stick to the issues
and think about what he can do to help the Party he is seeking to lead.
Furthermore,
we call on Senator Sanders to end his frivolous and cynical lawsuit
against the DNC, which continues to drain resources needed to help
Democrats up and down the ticket win in November
,
and protect the progress we've made under President Obama."###
For Immediate Release, April 18, 2016
Bernie 2016
April 18, 2016 fundraising email
Subject: "This should anger EVERYONE"
There’s something I need to share with you, Irma, and it’s probably going to anger you. It should probably anger everyone. Here it is:
Our opponent is bending campaign finance rules to their breaking point all so Wall Street fat cats and people like Walmart's Alice Walton can get away with giving hundreds of thousands of dollars in a single contribution to benefit the Clinton campaign.
You already know about the fundraiser Hillary Clinton held where a couple could contribute $353,000 to sit at a table with George Clooney. That money doesn’t go directly to the Clinton campaign, it goes to something called the "Hillary Victory Fund" – another account that has raised almost $35 million.
Well, for MONTHS the Clinton campaign has been saying the primary purpose of that fund is to support the DNC and state parties. But that’s not even close to true.
According to the Hillary Victory Fund’s most recent FEC report, the vast majority of the money they spent in 2016 – $25 MILLION – went directly towards helping the Clinton campaign itself.
So, what can we do about it? We can either sit back and shrug our shoulders at yet another obscene injustice. Or, we can fight. I say we fight.
So, this is distressing, but it’s probably to be expected. The Clinton campaign has raised the majority of its money from people giving the maximum amount of money under the law and her super PACs have raised more than $15 million from Wall Street and the financial industry alone.
Do you believe we can change a corrupt system by taking its money? Bernie Sanders says no, and that’s the choice New Yorkers face on Tuesday.
The choice you face right now, is are you willing to contribute $2.70 to fight back and win this primary, the White House and take our country back from the billionaire class? You can do that here:
https://go.berniesanders.com/
This is the most important week and a half of the campaign. How we respond in this moment could mean the difference between victory and defeat.
In solidarity,
Jeff Weaver
Campaign Manager
Bernie 2016
Democratic National Committee
April 18, 2016 statement
“The DNC offered to engage in the same joint fundraising efforts with all the major presidential candidates early in the cycle and we welcome the efforts of the candidates to help raise money for the DNC and state parties now to ensure we can build out the infrastructure to win in November.”
Mark Paustenbach
National Press Secretary & Deputy Communications Director
