Joe Biden's team expressed skepticism over Kamala Harris' "readiness" for the national stage during her 2016 U.S. Senate campaign, but were OK with exchanging donor lists and floating her for a board seat on the Beau Biden Foundation after she offered a $1,000 campaign contribution, The New York Post reported, citing emails found on Hunter Biden's infamous laptop.
Experts told the Post that if the convoluted deal went through, it may have skirted the Foundation's tax-exempt status and could have violated federal election law.
According to the report, Harris' campaign contacted Josh Alcorn, a top adviser to Beau Biden, in late 2015, just a few months after the former Delaware attorney general died of brain cancer.
In an email to Hunter Biden and Beau's widow Hallie on Dec. 30, Alcorn wrote, "Just an FYI — Kamala Harris's campaign reached out. They'd like to pay us about $1,000 for access to the email list. The money would go to the [Beau Biden] campaign, then be transferred to the foundation."
Former Federal Election Commission officials told the Post that donor-list swaps are common and legal among campaigns — as long as they are exchanged for current market rate — but funneling the Harris payment to the foundation in exchange for the donor list could be problematic.
Former FEC Chair Michael Toner told the Post, "Charitable organizations are not supposed to be involved in transactions with partisan campaign committees."
Former FEC Commissioner Hans von Spakovsky said if the foundation had used that donor list, raised $100,000, and then given it to Kamala Harris' campaign for $1,000, it's likely they went way over the $2,000 cap that campaigns are allowed to contribute to one another.
Two weeks after the email exchange, Alcorn floated Harris as a proposed addition to the foundation's board, although she never accepted the seat.
Other emails on the laptop show Joe Biden's team saying Harris would not be ideal as Joe Biden's running mate if he were to run for president in 2016. In an August 2015 email, Former Joe Biden press secretary Alexander Mackler wrote there were "no great choices. Almost has to be a woman ... can't be Kamala (she has a campaign and she's [sic] doesn't pass the 'ready' test)."
Kate McManus ✉
Kate McManus is a New Jersey-based Newsmax writer who's spent more than two decades as a journalist.
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