FEC Violation: Personal Use of Campaign Contributions

     The Forbes article also noted that there was an unspecified and unexplained $90,000.00 payment the Trump campaign made to the Trump corporation for legal expenses. Did that money go to pay for legal expenses or did it end up in Trump's pocket. This is something Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg will be able to testify about, and he has an immunity agreement.

     The title of this section includes "FEC Violation," but in reality, what we are dealing with are federal crimes because of the amount of money involved and the intent of the perp:

The FEC has exclusive civil enforcement jurisdiction over federal campaign finance law and is thus the primary agency dedicated to enforcing such laws. At the same time, however, the DOJ has concurrent criminal jurisdiction over more egregious campaign finance law violations. This may sound a bit confusing, but it’s really not. So, what’s the distinction?



In simple terms, it’s the difference between a mistake or negligence and a scheme or conspiracy. Both violations may result in similar outcomes but the road traveled to get there is what’s of the utmost importance. The legal standard employed to suss out the two forms of campaign finance law violations is that of willfulness.