Clarion Ledger: Chris McDaniel Campaign Files Counter Complaint Against Campaign Legal Center
Chris McDaniel's U.S. Senate campaign has filed a complaint with the IRS against a nonprofit group that filed a federal elections complaint alleging his campaign and a super PAC illegally coordinated events and spending.
McDaniel in a news release called the Campaign Legal Center a "George Soros-backed anti-First Amendment front group" and said the group has violated tax laws prohibiting nonprofits from engaging in political campaign activity.
The nonpartisan, nonprofit Campaign Legal Center has received donations from the Open Society Institute founded by billionaire liberal political activist George Soros and from a Soros family foundation, among dozens of other groups and foundations it lists on its website.
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I’d like to say that I’ve never seen a non-profit take the brazen step of expressly engaging in political activities but CLC is well-known for using its status as a non-profit as a cover for directly trying to influence the outcome of elections,” McDaniel said in a statement.
The Campaign Legal Center responded that it was founded by Republican Trevor Potter, a President George H.W. Bush appointee to the FEC, and that it has a long history of filing complaints against candidates or PACs regardless of political affiliation.
CLC litigation director Adav Noti in a statement said: “CLC’s FEC complaint demonstrates, and McDaniel does not deny, that the super PAC Remember Mississippi has hosted multiple campaign events for him. These were not merely events that McDaniel happened to attend as a guest; they were dedicated to promoting his candidacy for Senate. It is illegal for super PACs to hold campaign events for candidates. And under longstanding federal law, the spending to put on such an event is a contribution to the candidate ... We care only that candidates follow the law.”
CLC on Monday filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission that alleges the Remember Mississippi super PAC was created by and is run by McDaniel and therefore has accepted more than $1 million in illegal contributions.
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The news release from McDaniel's campaign said CLC "uses its non-profit status as a front to engage in political activity for the express purpose of defeating political candidates for public office who disagree with their radical anti-speech views."