McClatchy: John Bolton’s Pro-Tillis Spending in 2014 Violated Election Laws, Complaint Claims
A group headed by the man President Donald Trump has picked as his next national security adviser violated federal election law in its production of pro-Thom Tillis ads during the 2014 election, a federal complaint filed Thursday alleges.
The Campaign Legal Center, in its complaint to the Federal Election Commission, claims that John Bolton’s Super PAC made “illegal, excessive and unreported in-kind contributions” to Tillis’ successful Senate campaign in North Carolina and/or the North Carolina Republican Party by “financing coordinated communications through the use of a common vendor, Cambridge Analytica.”
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The Campaign Legal Center cites “a Cambridge Analytica staffer’s online portfolio and other published reports” as reason to believe the super PAC made coordinated communications through the use of a “common vendor.”
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MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow first reported on the Campaign Legal Center complaint and the website, and said the site was changed after her producers contacted Glister.
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Super PACs, or independent expenditure-only committees, may raise and spend unlimited sums for or against political candidates, but they are prohibited from donating directly to candidates and they may not coordinate with candidates. The Campaign Legal Center said Bolton’s actions violated the law.
In the complaint, the Campaign Legal Center says “there is reason to believe” that Cambridge Analytica used or conveyed information about the NC GOP and/or the Tillis’ campaign’s “plans, projects, activities or needs.”