Democracy 21 and CREW file Justice Department complaint requesting investigation into whether Bolton Super PAC and Trump campaign violated criminal law
Democracy 21 and CREW file Justice Department complaint requesting investigation of whether the John Bolton Super PAC and Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. violated criminal law
In a complaint filed today with the Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Democracy 21 and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) called on the agencies to investigate whether Cambridge Analytica LLC, its parent company SCL Elections Ltd., its former CEO Alexander Nix, its former Vice President Stephen Bannon, and other unknown parties criminally violated the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) by “directly or indirectly participating in the decision-making process of the John Bolton Super PAC and Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.”
The complaint also requested an investigation of whether the John Bolton Super PAC and Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., conspired with or aided and abetted SCL Elections Ltd., Cambridge Analytica LLC, Alexander Nix and others in criminal violations of the law. Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. was the “principal campaign committee of President Donald Trump during the 2016 election cycle,” according to the complaint.
The complaint was filed based on 52 U.S.C. § 30121(a)(1) and 11 C.F.R. § 110.20(i), which prohibit foreign nationals from participating directly or indirectly in “the decision-making process of any person […] with regard to such person’s Federal or non-Federal election-related activities.”
“There are very serious questions that must be investigated about whether the John Bolton Super PAC and the Trump presidential campaign committee violated criminal law in connection with their involvement with Cambridge Analytica and others. In the course of such an investigation, the role that John Bolton may have played in the questionable activities of his Super PAC will need to be examined,” said Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer.
In an op-ed by Wertheimer, and Norman Eisen, White House ethics czar for President Obama, they pointed out that “if Bolton knew or should have known that his super PAC received illegal foreign support, that is highly relevant to the new position he will assume next month as national security adviser.”
The op-ed said that “if an appointee has benefited from illegal foreign support, this creates the risk of more revelations that could worsen that person’s exposure. All of that is, of course, not just relevant to personnel vetting, but to obtaining a security clearance — even an interim one of the kind this administration is known for.”
In the complaint, Democracy 21 and CREW wrote:
On July 22, 2014 – two weeks after the John Bolton Super PAC made its initial payment to Cambridge Analytica LLC – Laurence Levy, a partner in the law firm of Bracewell & Giuliani, sent a confidential legal memorandum to Stephen Bannon and Alexander Nix, among others, in their capacities as managers of Cambridge Analytica LLC. The memo advised them on the steps that they would have to take to comply with the prohibition on foreign national participation in United States elections while providing services to the John Bolton Super PAC and other federal political committees.
The complaint proceeded to describe how, despite the Levy memo, foreign nationals, including whistleblower Christopher Wylie, were involved in “providing strategic advice to the John Bolton Super PAC regarding [its] independent expenditures.”
The complaint noted:
SCL Elections Ltd., Cambridge Analytica LLC, Stephen Bannon, and Alexander Nix ignored the legal advice provided by Bracewell & Giuliani while participating in election-related activities for the John Bolton Super PAC.
The complaint also stated that Alexander Nix, a foreign national and former CEO of Cambridge Analytica, described his work for the Trump presidential campaign in broad terms when speaking to an undercover reporter: “We did all the research, all the data, all the analytics, all the targeting, we ran all the digital campaign, the television campaign, and our data informed all the strategy.”
If this statement is true, Nix’s work for Trump and his campaign failed to comply with federal law and with the lawyer’s advice to Cambridge Analytica that Nix as a foreign citizen could not be involved in managing “the work and decision-making functions, relative to campaign messaging and expenditure.”
The complaint states that the FECA “prohibits foreign nationals from making contributions or expenditures in connection with a Federal, State or local election.” It continues:
FEC regulations and advisory opinions interpret this prohibition broadly as prohibiting a foreign national from “directly or indirectly participat[ing] in the decision-making process of any . . . political committee . . . with regard to that [committee’s] Federal or non-Federal election-related activities, such as decisions concerning the making of contributions, donations, expenditures, or disbursements in connection with elections for any Federal, State, or local office or decisions concerning the administration of a political committee.”
Read the full complaint here.
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