Trump thinks it's fine to sic Ukraine and China on Biden. Here are some of the problems with that. by writerknowles
President Trump asserted Friday that he had “a right to go to a foreign country” to seek an investigation into allegations of corruption.
This raises two interrelated issues. One is that, on the face of it, Trump was asking two foreign governments, Ukraine and China, for what would amount to help in his reelection campaign. The Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, which was signed into law the following year by then-President Richard Nixon, prohibits foreign nationals from contributing “anything of value” to a federal election campaign or candidate.
Story continues“When the FEC has looked at what are things of value, sometimes it is hard to put a precise dollar value on something, but that doesn’t mean that it has no value,” Weintraub said. “We have valued mailing lists, polling data, opposition research, intangible items that are still things of value even though they don’t come with a particular price tag on them. The point is that the ban is on anything of value from a foreign source.
The FEC does punish individuals and campaigns for civil violations of campaign finance law, sometimes issuing fines. Criminal violations fall to the Justice Department, but in the Ukraine matter Attorney General William Barr himself was involved, making the prospect of prosecution extremely remote at best.
Well, two of them, at least: Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said on Twitter that “the President’s brazen and unprecedented appeal to China and to Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden is wrong and appalling.” And Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., said in a written statement to the Omaha World-Herald: “Americans don’t look to Chinese commies for the truth. If the Biden kid broke laws by selling his name to Beijing, that’s a matter for American courts, not communist tyrants running torture camps.
“I don’t know if that’s a real request or him just needling the press knowing that you guys are going to get outraged by it,” Rubio told reporters Friday.
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