Trump son, in-law, campaigner charged
Donald Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort sued for meeting with Kremlin operators
Government watchdogs filed a complaint against Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort on Thursday with the federal agency that oversees elections, arguing that the three violated the law by meeting with a Russian who was offering purportedly damaging information on Hillary Clinton.
The complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) was signed by Common Cause, Campaign Legal Center, Democracy 21 and two campaign lawyers involved with those groups. It identified as respondents of the Trump campaign and Trump Jr.
Common Cause filed a complaint earlier this week with the agency. Thursday’s complaint added three attendees at the meeting—Manafort, who was Trump’s campaign manager at the time, Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, and Rob Goldstone, who arranged the meeting.
The complaint takes advantage of information disclosed in e-mail exchanges with Trump Jr., son of President Donald Trump, that detailed how and why the meeting in 2016 was arranged.
Bipartisan approval
The FEC is the only federal agency that can bring civil charges for violations of the campaign finance law. However, because the panel requires bipartisan agreement to move forward on any actions, critics have expressed concern that the agency was unlikely to take action.
Democrat US Rep. Grace Meng wrote to FEC on Wednesday asking it to take up Common Cause’s first complaint against Trump Jr.
Evidence
The organizations said in Thursday’s complaint that the e-mails provided evidence that Trump Jr. violated the law by asking a foreign national for something of value, which they argueD the law would define as “including the fruits of paid research, hacking or similar investigatory activity.”
“The evidence is clear that Donald Jr. knew that the offer of opposition campaign research came from the Russian government and the law is clear that giving such valuable research for free would have been a contribution to the Trump campaign,” said Brendan Fischer of the Campaign Legal Center.
The complaint said that Manafort and Kushner, by attending the meeting knowing the subject matter, were also liable.
Standard practice
Trump Jr. and the White House have insisted there was no wrongdoing.
President Trump said it was normal in US politics for campaign teams to look into allega- tions about their opponents as his son agreed to do before the meeting in June 2016.
“I’ve only been in politics for two years, but I’ve had many people call up ‘Oh, gee, we have information on this factor or this person or, frankly, Hillary,’” said the President.
“That’s very standard in politics. Politics is not the nicest business in the world but it’s very standard,” he said.
Democratic lawmakers want the FEC to bring civil charges against Donald Trump Jr. saying that the meeting violated the law.
The Department of Justice could bring criminal charges.