Former President Donald Trump did not break the law by helping a woman pay her groceries by giving her $100 at a store in Pennsylvania.
Social media was aflame, claiming the former president committed a federal crime, but a former chair of the Federal Election Commission said those claims are “absurd.”
While at the Sprankles grocery store in western Pennsylvania, Trump gave cashiers $100 as a woman was checking out.
“Here,” Trump said. “It's going to go down a little bit. It just went down $100.' 'We'll do that for you for the White House, alright?”
People on social media claimed it was illegal for a presidential candidate to hand out cash to voters while others claimed Trump violated federal election laws. Not so, Hans von Spakovsky, the former head of the Federal Election Commission, told Daily Mail.
“Trump was obviously making what he considered to be a charitable donation and that in no way implicates any federal laws governing elections," he told Daily Mail. “'The 'swirls' on social media about this are ridiculous.”
Election law expert Mike Dimino, a professor of law at Widener University Commonwealth Law School, agreed with Spakovsky.
“It is illegal to pay someone to vote at all, to refrain from voting, or to vote for a specific candidate. It is not, however, illegal to give money to other people per se,” Dimino told Daily Mail. “If it were, candidates would be prohibited from donating to charities or giving money to homeless people, or maybe even tipping a waiter or hairdresser.
"The question is whether the payment was for a vote or was purely gratuitous. Everything I have seen about the incident seems to indicate that there was no quid pro quo.”
Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
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