Federal Election Commission member Ellen Weintrob testifies on September 20, 2023 at Capitol Hill. Alex Wong/Getty Images hidden caption
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Democrats on the Federal Election Commission say President Trump is trying to inappropriately remove her from the post.
Ellen Weintraub announced Thursday evening that she had received a letter from Trump on January 31st.
“There is a legal way to replace FEC commissioners, and this isn’t,” she wrote on social media. “I was very fortunate to serve the Americans and stir up some good trouble along the way. That won’t change anytime soon.”
The FEC is an independent regulatory body created to administer and enforce campaign finance laws. The commissioner has been appointed by the president and has been confirmed by the Senate to serve a six-year term. It is not permitted to represent more than three of the FEC’s six seats.
Currently, there are vacant seats on the committee, with multiple members offering expiration conditions, including Weintraub.
Trevor Potter, former Republican FEC chairman and chairman of the Campaign Legal Center, said in a statement that Trump is permitted to appoint someone to Winetraub’s seat. However, he said the way he is trying to expel Weintraub is against the law.
“Trump is free to nominate multiple new commissioners and allow Congress to play a constitutional role in advice and consent,” he said. “It’s against the law that he chose to instead “dismiss” one Democratic chief, who was an outspoken critic of the president’s lawsuit and the FEC’s failure to hold him liable. ”
The Campaign Legal Center has filed a campaign finance complaint against Trump’s 2024 campaign.
Daniel Weiner – Director of the Brennan Judicial Center’s election and government program, critical of the president’s attack on the election process, said the attempted shooting would be expected to see the FEC consider complaints about Trump’s 2024 campaign He said it was time for the time being. , and complaints filed by his campaign against the Harris Campaign.
“The timing here is that the president and his best donor Elon Musk (who spent nearly $300 million to help the president elect) without considering Congress and various other checks. , when we’re engaged in a huge reorganization of the federal government, and the balance that exists in our federal government,” he said. “So this act of trying to fire democratic members of the FEC is all about the overall concerns about unidentified power and everything that people are supposed to prevent one or the other party from abusing that abuse. It’s just adding the idea that it’s ignoring the restraint of the federal government’s temporary management…and it’s very, very concerned.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Weiner said he never tried to fire a committee member from the other side without first consulting or cooperating with opposition parliamentary leaders.
He said it is not clear what will happen next, but the committee said it could cause a lawsuit as it cannot be removed without reason. And since Trump did not cite the cause of his letter to Weintrobe, there may be a basis for the lawsuit, Weiner said.
