FEC Fines O 2008 Campaign $375k

[G8trGr8t]

in my best church lady voice

Isn't that convenient....

that they waited until after the election to announce that 0's campaign agreed to this...imagine what the fine would have been if Romney would have won and the FEC would ahve actualy went for prosecution instead of reaching a "settlement"...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politi...efc_story.html

President Obama’s campaign has agreed to pay a $375,000 fine to the Federal Election Commission, among the largest penalties in the agency’s history.

The fine was imposed after an audit of the campaign’s books showed that it failed to report the identities of donors who gave large checks in the weeks before the 2008 election, according to a copy of the agreement between the FEC and the president’s campaign.

The document shows that the Obama campaign failed to disclose the identities of donors responsible for $2 million in contributions in the weeks ahead of the election. The campaign also misreported the dates of $85 million in other contributions.

In addition, the Obama campaign also kept $1.3 million in contributions that were above the legal maximum allowed for a federal campaign, failing to return them within the 60 days required by law. The campaign kept almost $874,000 of those donations until the FEC discovered they were unlawful.

and this is just what they admitted to so it is pretty much a sure thing that the violations were much worse and more widespread than this. transparency and openness my arse...

[philnotfil]

Wait, it took them four years to get around to doing this?

[wargunfan]

Nothing to see here. Move along...move along.

[G8trGr8t]

Originally Posted by philnotfil

Wait, it took them four years to get around to doing this?

and it just happened to finish up right after the election...

like I said

Isn't that convenient

[wargunfan]

Look into my eyes and repeat after me ......I trust president Obama......I trust President Obama.....I trust President Obama.....I trust President Obama....

[brainstorm]

What happens to monies collected in these types of fines?

[ChartsandGrafs]

LOL, talk about a slap on the wrist.

Sounds like one of those comedic fines that are sometimes levied on Wall Street banks, where the fine is only a tiny fraction of the profit the bank made while breaking the rules. The bank will pay a small 10% fine, but will able to walk away with 90% in illicit gains.

Crime doesn't pay, except in America, of course.

[JerseyGator01]

As I've said many times on this board, the FEC is a paper tiger that is probably underfunded relative to the blubber in the rest of government.

What really makes this hysterical is that the first mentioned offense, last minute large donations, are what they say they focus on most. This is obvious if you have ever filled out a campaign finance report for a government watchdog agency. Campaign laws are such a joke.

CORRUPTION RULES!!!!!

[PIMking]

Originally Posted by wargunfan

Look into my eyes and repeat after me ......I trust president Obama......I trust President Obama.....I trust President Obama.....I trust President Obama....

I don't trust any idiot in Washington regardless of their party

[g8rjd]

Originally Posted by philnotfil

Wait, it took them four years to get around to doing this?

It has been my experience that the average time for a case to get to the FEC is around one election cycle (2 years). As you might guess, there are a lot of complaints about violations of the Act (many of which prove to lack any evidence). However, when the FEC did not have 4 members (which was a few years back), they were, effectively, paralyzed, since a vote of 4 is necessary to take ANY action on a complaint (Senate refusal to provide Advice and Consent to nominees at work). I'm guessing this complaint hit during that time period, limiting the general counsel's abliity to engage in an enforcement action at all. Then, once the paralysis was removed, it continued along the normal course (along with the rest of the backlog, which was huge), which included a FEC determination of reason to believe there was a violation, GC investigation, conciliation efforts, a possible probable cause finding, further conciliation efforts and, since there is a civil penalty, a conciliation agreement (rather than a suit in federal court). I've tried to find the case on the FEC's website, but it doesn't look like it has been released by them yet (pending enforcement matters are confidential until resolved by law).

For what it is worth, the folks in the FEC GC's office are very hard working, very fair, and incredibly non-partisan. However, in recent years, there has been an effort to increase the size of civil penalties (irrespective of the party) for violations of the Act by the Commission.

One other thing, despite what the article says, it's not a "fine" (a criminal sanction), it's a "civil penalty" (a civil sanction). Criminal actions, which are knowing and willful violations, are referred to DOJ's Public Integrity division. The FEC's cases are, largely, strict liability penalties.

[PowerGator]

Originally Posted by philnotfil

Wait, it took them four years to get around to doing this?

That's the first thing I thought.