Direct Email Evidence Shows Vindman & His Campaign Unlawfully Accepted Contributions from a Large Hybrid PAC
Monday, August 26 –- Washington, D.C. --- On Thursday, the non-partisan ethics watchdog the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) filed a complaint requesting the Federal Election Commission (FEC) investigate whether Eugene Vindman and his Virginia House campaign unlawfully solicited and accepted multiple contributions from the VoteVets PAC in violation of the contribution limits under the Federal Election Campaign Act.
The facts and evidence in this case center around a documented email exchange between three parties: a reporter, Vindman's own campaign manager, and the political director of VoteVets PAC.
Recently, a media outlet contacted Eugene Vindman's congressional campaign with questions about his military service. In response, Vindman's campaign manager introduced the media outlet to a third party, Travis Tazelaar, who is the political director of VoteVets PAC. Vindman's campaign manager stated in an email: "I am looping in VoteVets who is going to be providing comment on our behalf to your initial inquiry . . . All future questions on this matter or any matters can be directed to him." Tazelaar, who identified himself as "Political Director, VoteVets", then dutifully responded to the media inquiry with a statement on Vindman's behalf. This shows the PAC is providing a service to the campaign by handling its communications.
For context, VoteVets, a “hybrid PAC”, has endorsed Vindman, made $10,000 in direct campaign contributions to him during this election cycle, and spent more than $400,000 on advertisements supporting his candidacy. All of these facts are prior to the email exchange, meaning that VoteVets has already supported the Vindman campaign to the allowed maximum and can legally give nothing more.
Federal law prohibits any candidate or campaign committee from accepting a contribution in excess of the federal law’s limits. For the 2023-2024 election cycle those limits are $5,000 from a hybrid PAC and no contributions in any amount from a super PAC. Contributions are broadly defined as “anything of value” made by any person for the purpose of influencing any election for federal office. “Anything of value” includes all in-kind contributions, such as the provision of goods or services without charge or at a charge less than the normal charge. “Coordinated communication” is clearly defined as a type of in-kind contribution.
In short, a campaign cannot coordinate with a PAC because doing so is an in-kind contribution. This is even more acutely true, when as is the case here, the "traditional" arm of the hybrid PAC has already made the maximum allowable contribution to the campaign.
“This is a very simple case, but an extremely significant one. A congressional campaign simply cannot use a PAC as a vendor for campaign services because doing so is an in-kind contribution. The emails from both Vindman's campaign manager and VoteVets political director make the facts and evidence straightforward. Additionally, our filing lays out in detail both the law and how the facts satisfy each legally required prong to find VoteVets activity is ‘coordinated communications.' In short, the law requires independence between the two parties and prevents the Vindman campaign from coordinating with VoteVets on communications—the email exchange and reply by VoteVets clearly demonstrate an active connection and coordination between the two entities. Making the situation worse is that the PAC also spent over $400,000 on ads supporting Vindman, when it appears the campaign and PAC were not independent from one another. Given the evidence, the approaching election date, and high dollar amounts involved, the Commission should act quickly to ensure the campaign is responsible for repaying any illegal in-kind contributions,” said Kendra Arnold, Executive Director of FACT.
A full copy of the complaint can be found HERE.
FACT is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting accountability, ethics, and transparency in government and civic arenas. For more on FACT, visit http://www.factdc.org/
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