WASHINGTON — Today, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging that billionaire Julio Herrera Velutini unlawfully funneled millions of dollars to a super PAC through his daughter, Isabela Herrera, in an illegal “straw donor” scheme. Between December 2024 and July 2025, Herrera purportedly contributed $3.5 million to the MAGA Inc. super PAC, months before Herrera Velutini received a pardon from President Trump in January 2026. CLC is urging the FEC to investigate the true source of these funds and to hold accountable all who took part in this straw donor scheme.  

Foreign nationals like Herrera Velutini, a Venezuelan national, are prohibited from spending in U.S. federal, state and local elections — including making donations to super PACs. “Straw donor” schemes are prohibited because they are used to hide the true source of contributions to entities like super PACs, which have become vehicles for wealthy special interests to spend an unlimited amount of money in U.S. politics. These schemes have also been used by those, including foreign nationals, seeking to circumvent legal prohibitions to spend money on elections.

Public records show that Isabela Herrera is a self-employed financial consultant in her mid-twenties whose only prior political donation was $20 given to Pete Buttigieg, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate. Despite her apparently modest financial means and lack of prior federal contributions, she was reported to have made a $2.5 million contribution to MAGA Inc. back in December 2024, followed by another $1 million contribution in July 2025. In contrast, Herrera’s father, Julio Herrera Velutini, had ample financial means and a much clearer motivation to contribute to Trump’s super PAC: he faced criminal bribery charges. After MAGA Inc. reported receiving millions of dollars contributed in Herrera’s name, her father received an extraordinarily lenient plea deal from federal prosecutors and then was later pardoned by President Trump in January 2026.  

“The timing and circumstances surrounding these contributions strongly suggest that Herrera Velutini flouted the law to corruptly seek presidential clemency, funneling foreign money to MAGA Inc. through his daughter,” said Saurav Ghosh, director of federal campaign finance reform at Campaign Legal Center. “This straw donor scheme, which undermined the transparency and integrity of our elections, follows the well-documented pattern of wealthy individuals financially supporting President Trump’s favored causes and projects — often in secret — in exchange for benefits, including pardons. Voters have a right to know the true sources behind all political contributions, and straw donor schemes of this kind make our elections less fair, transparent and representative of voters’ will. The FEC must investigate whether foreign money was secretly funneled into our nation’s political process.”

Foreign actors seeking to influence U.S. elections have often gone undetected in recent years due to a combination of inadequate electoral transparency laws and inaction by the FEC, which is responsible for enforcing federal campaign finance laws. Campaign Legal Center is urging the FEC to fulfill its duty to investigate and enforce the law in this case in order to protect our elections.

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The nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center advances democracy through law. We safeguard the freedom to vote, defend voters’ right to know who is spending money to influence elections, and work to ensure public trust in our elected officials.

Learn more about CLC. Don't miss out on our latest resources: Subscribe to President Trevor Potter's newsletter on LinkedIn or email, tune in to the latest season of our award-winning podcast, Democracy Decoded, and join our livestreamed events. 

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Today, the League of Women Voters of Ohio (LWVO) and CAIR-Northern Ohio filed a federal lawsuit challenging Ohio’s Senate Bill (SB) 293 for violating the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process clause. This new law puts eligible voters — particularly naturalized citizens — at risk of being purged from the voter rolls, without meaningful prior notice, even right up to Election Day.

The plaintiffs are represented by Campaign Legal Center, the ACLU Voting Rights Project and the ACLU of Ohio. The advocacy organizations filed this lawsuit after Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose declined to correct violations of the NVRA that were outlined in a letter they sent to him on January 22, 2026.
SB 293 directs Ohio’s secretary of state to systematically check and compare state voter registration data with the citizenship records of the state Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) and the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system. Individuals flagged under these citizenship-check requirements will have their voter registrations cancelled without prior notice or any opportunity to respond. These purges will take place at least once a month, continuing right up through elections.

This is problematic for three reasons:

• The citizenship data in these databases is outdated: The law directs the secretary of state to use databases that do not contain up-to-date citizenship information, which will lead to eligible voters, especially naturalized citizens, being wrongfully purged from the voter rolls.
• The law permits these removals on the eve of an election: This violates the NVRA’s prohibition on systemic reviews of voter data during the 90-day quiet period before an election.
• The law does not provide enough protection to ensure wrongly removed voters will be able to fix their registration in time to vote: SB 293 doesn’t require that the voter receive notice in time to clarify their citizenship status before being cancelled. This means that voters may not be able to correct this error in time to vote. This deprivation of the right to vote violates the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

“Instead of welcoming new voters who have gone to great lengths to participate in our democracy, SB 293 creates an unnecessary, discriminatory hurdle for naturalized citizens to cast their ballots,” said Jen Miller, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio. “Most Ohioans believe that democracy works best when we can all participate freely and fairly. That's why we’re headed to court — to ensure that all eligible Ohioans can trust that their registrations won’t be cancelled.”

“Eligible voters should be encouraged — not burdened — when exercising their fundamental right to vote,” said Caren Short, director of legal and research of the League of Women Voters. “The League is fighting discriminatory laws across the country that target naturalized citizens and other historically disenfranchised communities. These laws only serve to weaken our democracy and erode confidence in our elections. We’re proud to fight back against SB 293 in court.”

“SB 293 is a direct threat to the fundamental right to vote and will disproportionately harm naturalized citizens across Ohio,” said Faten Husni Odeh, executive director of CAIR-Northern Ohio. “Naturalized citizens have fulfilled every legal requirement and sworn an oath to this country; singling them out with new barriers is discriminatory and unacceptable. Under the guise of election integrity, this law undermines our democracy, and CAIR-Northern Ohio is proud to stand alongside the ACLU and the League of Women Voters to challenge this voter suppression and defend equal access to the ballot for every eligible Ohioan.”

“Ohio’s new law continues a troubling trend of undermining the freedom to vote through unnecessary, error-prone and unlawful voter purges,” said Anna Baldwin, director of voting rights litigation at Campaign Legal Center. “This law will unjustly target naturalized citizens in the state through the reliance on faulty data that disproportionately impacts these new citizens and violates the National Voter Registration Act. We already have strict laws in place that ensure only U.S. citizens can register and vote in federal elections. We’re asking the court to prevent Ohio from enforcing this law in a way that violates the NVRA and respects Americans’ due process rights, so that all Americans can make their voices heard in the upcoming election.”

“Ohio’s SB 293 is an unlawful purge program masquerading as election integrity,” said Davin Rosborough, deputy director of the ACLU Voting Rights Project. “By relying on outdated and inaccurate citizenship databases, the state is setting up eligible voters—especially naturalized citizens—to be wrongly stripped from the rolls. Eligible Ohioans should not have to discover on Election Day that they can no longer participate.”

"Senate Bill 293's requirement that there be systematic voter purges is discriminatory and unlawful and it threatens to disenfranchise perfectly eligible voters," said Freda Levenson, chief legal officer of the ACLU of Ohio. "Using manifestly unreliable data to cull our voter rolls doesn’t protect the integrity of our elections - it harms it. Secretary LaRose's refusal to correct SB 293's NVRA violations outlined in our letter was extremely disappointing. To uphold the law and protect democracy in our state, we are left with no other option than litigation."

Read more about the case here. Follow the latest updates on this case here.

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The nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center advances democracy through law. We safeguard the freedom to vote, defend voters’ right to know who is spending money to influence elections, and work to ensure public trust in our elected officials.

Learn more about CLC. Don't miss out on our latest resources: Subscribe to President Trevor Potter's newsletter on LinkedIn or email, tune in to the latest season of our award-winning podcast, Democracy Decoded, and join our livestreamed events. 

WASHINGTON — On February 11, President Donald Trump announced that he sent nominations to the Senate to fill two vacant seats on the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Trevor Potter, president of Campaign Legal Center (CLC) and former Republican chairman of the Federal Election Commission, issued the following statement regarding the nominations and urging the Senate to ensure the FEC maintains its independence:

“President Trump has nominated Ashley Stow and Andrew Woodson to fill two of the four vacant seats on the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the federal agency dedicated solely to enforcing election laws. The FEC's critical role in protecting voters and maintaining a level playing field for political campaigns is as important as ever with midterm elections fast approaching.

“One year ago, President Trump issued an executive order (EO) in which he claimed to take control of all independent agencies, including the FEC. His EO purported to demand that the FEC conform its legal actions to President Trump's own interpretations of the law. For an agency whose role is to enforce the law against political candidates, parties, members of Congress and the president himself, this rejection of the agency's traditional and essential independence is unacceptable.

“It is therefore crucial that the Senate exercise its constitutional role to ensure that these and any future nominees to the FEC will fulfill their statutory obligation to ensure the agency's continued independence, even in the face of pressure from the very administration putting forth their nominations. The Senate should refuse to confirm any nominees who are unwilling to make this commitment to protect and preserve the FEC’s independence, even if that means the FEC remains inactive ahead of the midterms. The danger to our democracy in the absence of such a commitment is too great to risk.”

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The nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center advances democracy through law. We safeguard the freedom to vote, defend voters’ right to know who is spending money to influence elections, and work to ensure public trust in our elected officials.

Learn more about CLC. Don't miss out on our latest resources: Subscribe to President Trevor Potter's newsletter on LinkedIn or email, tune in to the latest season of our award-winning podcast, Democracy Decoded, and join our livestreamed events. 

WASHINGTON — Congress is set to vote on the SAVE America Act, a new bill that is similar to the 2025 SAVE Act and would dramatically reshape how Americans register and vote. Campaign Legal Center has consistently opposed legislation of this kind because it attempts to restrict the freedom to vote, strain election systems, and upend long-standing democratic practices.

In advance of a vote in Congress on the SAVE Act, Bruce V. Spiva, senior vice president at Campaign Legal Center, released the following statement:

“I urge lawmakers to reject the SAVE America Act. The debate in Congress over this dangerous bill comes as the FBI is seizing ballots from the 2020 election, President Trump is calling for our elections to be ‘nationalized,’ and the U.S. Department of Justice is suing more than 20 states to get access to voters’ private data. This is not a coincidence. The forces that are driving the Trump administration’s anti-voter agenda are also pressuring Congress to pass legislation that would silence millions of Americans by making it harder to participate in our elections. The SAVE America Act must be defeated.”