The Democratic National Committee (DNC) hit Robert F. Kennedy Jr. with a Federal Election Commission (FEC) complaint Friday alleging illegal coordination with a super PAC collecting signatures for him to appear on the ballots in various states.
American Values 2024 announced in December that it would spend $15 million on collecting signatures for Kennedy to appear on the ballot in 15 states. The DNC filed an FEC complaint Friday alleging the effort is an illegal in-kind contribution to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign.
“Put simply, to qualify for the ballot under state law, American Values 2024 must coordinate its activity with Mr. Kennedy and his campaign in a way that violates federal campaign finance laws,” the complaint alleges. (RELATED: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Qualifies For First State Ballot In Utah)
PHOENIX, ARIZONA – DECEMBER 20: Independent Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks during a campaign rally at Legends Event Center on December 20, 2023 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)
Kennedy’s Campaign Manager Amaryllis Fox Kennedy said in a statement provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation that this is “a nonissue being raised by a partisan political entity that seems to be increasingly concerned with its own candidate and viability.”
“Just to be clear about the facts — as a people-powered movement, this campaign makes all of the official petition formats it receives from each state’s Secretary of State office available for volunteers to print at home from our public website, along with submission instructions to mail their completed petitions to our secure signature validation and processing vault,” Kennedy said. “We receive parcels of signatures from our volunteer groups all over the United States.”
“To my knowledge, we have yet to receive any signatures from American Values PAC or any PAC, nor have we provided any information that is not available to every volunteer and media outlet on our public website,” she continued.
Tony Lyons, founder of American Values, called the complaint “just another desperate DNC tactic to defame Kennedy, vilify him and drain his campaign funds,” according to the Washington Post.
“The DNC wants to deny millions of people their basic constitutional voting rights in a relentless onslaught against democracy,” Lyons said.
“Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign is flouting campaign finance law by outsourcing a critical campaign function – the collection of signatures required to appear on the ballot – to an outside Super PAC that is funded by Donald Trump’s top donor this cycle,” DNC senior adviser Mary Beth Cahill said in a statement.
The bipartisan group No Labels, which is working for a third-party presidential ticket, filed a complaint with the Department of Justice (DOJ) in January alleging there is a “a highly coordinated, conspiratorial, partisan, and often unlawful conspiracy – involving individuals both inside and outside government – to deny Americans their constitutional right to choose the leaders who represent them.”
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