Trump Illegally Attempts to Fire Federal Election Commission Chair Ellen Weintraub

Statement of Trevor Potter, Republican former chair of the FEC and president of Campaign Legal Center:

“In claiming to fire a commissioner of the Federal Election Commission, the president violates the law, the separation of powers, and generations of Supreme Court precedent. Congress explicitly, and intentionally, created the FEC to be an independent, bipartisan federal agency whose commissioners are confirmed by Congress to serve the vital role of protecting the democratic rights of American voters. As the only agency that regulates the president, Congress intentionally did not grant the president the power to fire FEC commissioners.

"As a former commissioner and chair of the FEC, serving under multiple presidents, I know firsthand the importance of this agency to a functioning democracy. I was appointed as a Republican in the last year of President George H.W. Bush’s presidency, and served through the Clinton presidency, because I was confirmed to a term appointment by the Senate.

"With multiple FEC commissioners serving on expired terms and one vacant seat, Trump is free to nominate multiple new commissioners and to allow Congress to perform its constitutional role of advice and consent. It’s contrary to law that he has instead opted to claim to ‘fire’ a single Democratic commissioner who has been an outspoken critic of the president’s lawbreaking and of the FEC’s failure to hold him accountable.”