The Trump campaign filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday over the transfer of funds to Vice President Kamala Harris’ new presidential bid.
President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign quickly transferred its organizing might to Harris after his announcement Sunday that he would not seek as second term after all amid concerns about his age. That included handing over the keys to Biden’s massive war chest.
“Kamala Harris is seeking to perpetrate a $91.5 million dollar heist of Joe Biden’s leftover campaign cash — a brazen money grab that would constitute the single largest excessive contribution and biggest violation in the history of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended,” David Warrington, the general counsel for the Trump campaign, wrote in the filing, obtained by The New York Times.
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Warrington went on to claim that FEC rules prohibit federal candidates from “keeping contributions for elections in which they do not participate.”
The vice president’s team has maintained the funds were raised on a joint Biden-Harris ticket, adding it believes the allegations are “baseless … like the ones they’ve made for years to try to suppress votes and steal elections.”
“Republicans may be jealous that Democrats are energized to defeat Donald Trump and his MAGA allies,” Charles Lutvak, a spokesman for the Harris campaign, said in a statement to media outlets. “But baseless legal claims — like the ones they’ve made for years to try to suppress votes and steal elections — will only distract them while we sign up volunteers, talk to voters, and win this election.”
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It’s unclear how the FEC will decide the matter, and it could take months to resolve. But the Times notes the Trump campaign is seeking to gum up the wave of support behind the vice president, who is now the presumptive Democratic nominee after a majority of delegates voiced their support for her bid.
Harris has also had no trouble raising money on her own thus far. In 24 hours, her campaign raised a record-breaking $81 million in donations from nearly 900,000 small donors.