Over 1000 donations totaling $1.3 million to the Donald Trump campaign are considered in violation of FEC rules.
On Monday, Timothy Jost, the treasurer of the Trump campaign, received a letter from the Federal Election Commission that pointed to 1,100 errors that were discovered in the latest financial filing.
The errors can be divided into two broad categories:
1) Donations were accepted from organizations that are not properly registered with the commission.
2) Many of the people have exceeded the amount permitted by the FEC.
The FEC is requesting that the donations be refunded. The campaign will have to return $1.3 million out of the $67 million raised in October, which was considered the best fundraising month for the Republicans, they brought in over $35 million from small donors or small-dollar donations. A small-dollar donation is a contribution of $200 or less.
In the last weeks of the campaign, Trump’s team was inspired by Bernie Sanders and Barack Obama and launched a very aggressive online campaign for contributions. The letter from the FEC read in part:
“If any apparently prohibited contribution in question was incompletely or incorrectly disclosed, you should amend your original report with clarifying information. In addition, please clarify whether the contribution(s) received from the referenced organization(s) is permissible.”
It went on to say:
“If any apparently excessive contribution in question was incompletely or incorrectly disclosed, you must amend your original report with the clarifying information.”
Larry Noble, of the Campaign Legal Center, said the FEC letter is fairly routine. President Obama and Senator Sanders had received similar letters.
During his battle against Hillary Clinton, Sanders received 1,500 erroneous donations. Hundreds, who felt the Bern, had donated more than $2,700 to Sanders and over a thousand of non-American citizens had contributed to the Vermont politician. A report at the time stated:
“But the sheer volume of potential violations by the Sanders campaign—the list flagged by the FEC ran 639 pages—appears to be unprecedented, and it suggests that the campaign’s operation has been unable to effectively manage its army of donors.”
During the primary season, Ted Cruz and Ben Carson were also flagged by the FEC.
