[EL] "Illegal contributions" from Ami Bera's father

[Smith, Brad]

The FEC has long pursued penalties against immediate family. During my time at the agency, we pursued matters against parents for contributing too much to their children, children for contributing too much to their parents, and husbands and wives for contributing too much to their spouses.

In Bera's case the original violation would appear to be a desire to contribute beyond the legal limit to his son's campaign. The money laundering and fraud only come about because of that initial legal prohibition on contributing to one's own immediate family member.

So the money laundering and fraud charges add to the violations and may have motivated the decision to prosecute, but it is still a crime for a father to knowingly and willfully contribute over $2700 to his son's campaign. If that feels wrong, adding the other charges might not alleviate that unease.

As I have often noted, the FEC sees many complaints. Some are clear violations of the law. Some are clearly not violations of the law. And a great many might be close calls, or based on contested fact and motive. But virtually none of them have much to do with fighting corruption.


Bradley A. Smith

Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault

   Professor of Law

Capital University Law School

303 E. Broad St.

Columbus, OH 43215

614.236.6317

http://law.capital.edu/faculty/bios/bsmith.aspx

________________________________
From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] on behalf of Larry Levine [larrylevine at earthlink.net]
Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2016 1:00 AM
To: 'David A. Holtzman'; 'Thomas J. Cares'; 'Election Law'
Subject: Re: [EL] "Illegal contributions" from Ami Bera's father

I guess they were concerned that his parents were going to corrupt him. Although, if that were the case they would have done it years ago.
Larry

From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of David A. Holtzman
Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2016 9:05 PM
To: Thomas J. Cares <Tom at TomCares.com>; Election Law <law-election at uci.edu>
Subject: Re: [EL] "Illegal contributions" from Ami Bera's father

Thomas, you may have seen an earlier version of the article.  Note:
"UPDATES
 . . .
2:37 p.m.: This article was updated with a quote and additional information from the U.S. attorney."
Without that I might have been baffled too.
The illegality was money laundering and fraud.
  - dah


On 5/10/2016 7:05 PM, Thomas J. Cares wrote:
'I have, in fact, done the crime': Rep. Ami Bera's father admits illegal campaign contributions
http://lat.ms/1sbbYts

I really would have thought constitutional rights to self fund would include the right of a very close relative, like a parent, to fund a campaign without restrictions. This feels very wrong. I don't see why such a restriction would survive any scrutiny - a large contribution from a parent is highly unlikely to create any conflict of interest that wouldn't already be there by virtue of them being your parent (especially if they are the kind of parent who would have made a large contribution, but for a law prohibiting it - (a parent who has surely otherwise been a supportive figure to the candidate)).

I am incredibly baffled by the contents of that LA Times story.

Also, I think it's kind of great if a candidate is so lucky to have a parent to fund them (I was a candidate once, but don't have parents with those kinds of resources). Much better for society to have candidates funded by parents than candidates funded by executives whose companies have business before Congress, albeit in smaller aggregated amounts. (Baffled).

Tom Cares


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