FEC Unanimously Clears The Washington Post of Campaign Violation Claims
On Thursday, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) unanimously voted to dismiss allegations against The Washington Post, which were brought forth by the 2024 campaign team of U.S. President Donald Trump. The complaint accused the newspaper of making “illegal corporate in-kind contributions” to the unsuccessful Democratic presidential campaign of then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
The nonpartisan group OpenSecrets.org revealed that the FEC’s four commissioners decided against the Trump campaign’s claims that the Post had purchased social media advertisements to favor news articles that criticized the Republican candidate.
Attorneys for the Post—controlled by billionaire Jeff Bezos, who previously contributed $1 million to Trump’s inauguration and was seen with other high-profile billionaires like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg at the inauguration ceremony, and who has imposed restrictions on criticism of the president and his administration within the publication—described the allegations from the Trump campaign as “speculative and demonstrably false.”
According to a report by Dave Levinthal from OpenSecrets.org:
The Trump campaign had claimed that The Washington Post was engaging in a “dark money corporate campaign against President Donald J. Trump” and had used its digital advertising to promote Kamala Harris’s run for presidency… Furthermore, the Trump campaign contended that the Post did not qualify for what is known as a “press exemption” for political content, arguing that it was “not operating as a legitimate press entity.”
The FEC’s general counsel’s office disagreed with these allegations and recommended that the commissioners dismiss the complaint. This recommendation was based on the internal assessment of the agency’s resources and priorities. Levinthal noted that the counsel’s office found that the Post “appears to have been acting within its legitimate press function and thus its activities are protected” by the federal laws that exempt journalistic endeavors from such political restrictions.
The counsel concluded, “Given the low priority of this case and the clear applicability of the press exemption, we suggest that the commission dismiss the complaint, in line with the commission’s prosecutorial discretion to prioritize its responsibilities and allocate its resources effectively.”
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