Donald Trump's campaign allegedly broke federal election laws, according to a compliant filed a Democratic super PAC to the Federal Election Commission,
NBC News reports.
When Melania Trump faced plagiarism accusations, Meredith McIver publicly shielded the candidate's wife by taking the blame as the speechwriter. The Democratic Coalition Against Trump claim this violates campaign finance law.
McIver is employed by the Trump Organization, a corporation owned by the billionaire real estate mogul. His campaign has not listed any payment to McIver, which a campaign is required to do.
"This incident is reminiscent of the John Edwards campaign finance scandal, which likewise involved work paid for by a corporation for a presidential campaign. As such, it is very troubling," Jon Cooper, Coalition chairman, told NBC.
The coalition does not have direct evidence of McIver being paid for speechwriting by the Trump Organization, but she does state: "I'm an in-house staff writer at the Trump Organization."
The statement was written on paper with the Trump Organization letterhead, not the Trump campaign's.
"There is reason to believe that Meredith McIver has been performing Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. campaign duties and is being compensated by the Trump Organization for those duties, and not by Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.," states the complaint.
"There is reason to believe that the Trump Organization is using its corporate name in other ways, and potentially is using its corporate name to facilitate contributions to Donald J. Trump for President, Inc."
"On the face of it, this looks like a corporate violation," Lawrence Noble, a lawyer for the Campaign Legal Center, told
The Washington Post. "It's very hard to tell exactly what's going on," he continued, "but it's possible that what they're doing is paying in advance for the use of staff."
According to Noble, the letterhead is also a legal problem, as "the Trump Organization should not be providing anything to the campaign that it's not getting paid for."
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