“This is a scandal” and “an indictment of the system” — but probably legal, one legal watchdog told POLITICO.
“At a high level, it perfectly captures so much of what’s wrong with our big money campaign finance system,” said Chlopak, who was a senior lawyer at the Federal Elections Commission, which monitors campaign contributions and spending. “The state of the law and the state of the enforcement agency is abysmal,” McGehee said in an interview. “But this is a scandal, and the notion that our government works where candidates go to industry and promise government action in exchange for large amounts of money is an indictment of the system.”“Isn’t that what campaigning is?” Bradley Smith, chair of the Institute for Free Speech and former chair of the Federal Election Commission, said of Trump’s ask to the oil executives.
“To the extent that there is this suggestion that these executives raise a $1 billion on Trump’s behalf, that would potentially violate federal law,” Chlopak said. “A billion dollars is far above the limits. A candidate can’t make that request.” At the April dinner, Trump also promised to slash the Biden administration’s tax credits for electric vehicles and spend less government money developing wind power, according to The Washington Post. Those are both