Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus wants the Justice Department to probe whether President Obama broke the law by filming a fundraising video in the White House.
In a letter sent Monday, Priebus asked Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate the June “Dinner with Barack and Joe” contest campaign video that offered contributors the chance to have dinner with Obama and Vice President Biden. Media reports last month questioned the legality of it being filmed on government property.
“According to multiple individuals with knowledge of the White House’s rooms and layout, the video appears to have been recorded in the Map Room,” Priebus wrote in the letter to Holder. “According to news reports, however, the White House Counsel has indicated that the video was filmed somewhere in the residential portion of the White House.”
A spokesman for the Democratic National Committee did not immediately return a request for comment. But a White House official told Real Clear Politics last month when the story first broke that the video does not break any laws.
The official argued that’s the case because it was filmed in the residence — where fundraising appeals can be made — and the video only invited people to participate in a raffle and rather than making a direct appeal for donations.
“It’s no different than what happened under eight years of George Bush and eight years of Bill Clinton,” the official told the website. (Obama’s White House meeting with ‘bundlers’ riles Republicans)
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