WASHINGTON D.C.: A big Democratic Party fundraising group on Wednesday filed a complaint against the Federal Election Commission, accusing it of allowing Donald Trump to break campaign finance law by spending political donations on a 2024 presidential bid he has yet to launch.
The group, American Bridge, complained in March to the FEC about Trump's Save America fund. Under U.S. law, the fund can pay for political activities such as Trump's travel, hotel stays and contributions to political allies, but it cannot be used to fund the former Republican president's own election campaign.
American Bridge says Trump is flouting campaign finance laws by dropping frequent hints that he is planning to seek the White House again while having Save America pay for rallies nationwide and digital advertising promoting him. Wednesday's suit, filed in the U.S. Court for the District of Columbia, alleges the FEC has failed to act on the March complaint, effectively allowing Trump to raise money for a presidential run without declaring himself candidate.
"The Commission's inaction has allowed Mr. Trump to continue violating the law," American Bridge said in the suit. "As each day passes that Mr. Trump is accepting excessive contributions, he sets himself up to have an unlawful head start against his opponents."
Trump has repeatedly hinted at another White House run but has not officially declared himself a candidate.
Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Budowich has previously described American Bridge's complaint as "frivolous" and with "zero merit."
The FEC declined comment. When American Bridge filed the complaint in March, the FEC said it could not comment until the matter was resolved or closed.
The FEC's leadership includes three Republicans, two Democrats and an independent. It often deadlocks on contentious issues.
Trump launched his Save America fund days after losing the 2020 presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden.
The group has more than $100 million in the bank, a formidable war chest. Campaign finance analysts have speculated about the ways Trump could try to use the money should he run in 2024.
To date, it has been used to pay for rallies where Trump has appeared with Republican candidates for November's midterm congressional election and talked about another presidential bid.
Trump continues to top national polls among his party's possible 2024 presidential candidates, although other potential contenders have raised their profiles in recent weeks.
Democratic group sues US election watchdog over Trump’s $100 million war chest
https://arab.news/wrqr6
Democratic group sues US election watchdog over Trump’s $100 million war chest
- American Bridge says Trump is violating campaign finance laws by dropping hints he'll run again while Save America pays for rallies
Bangladesh mourns Khaleda Zia, its first woman prime minister
- Ousted ex-premier Sheikh Hasina, who imprisoned Zia in 2018, offers condolences on her death
- Zia’s rivalry with Hasina, both multiple-term PMs, shaped Bangladeshi politics for a generation
DHAKA: Bangladesh declared three days of state mourning on Tuesday for Khaleda Zia, its first female prime minister and one of the key figures on the county’s political scene over the past four decades.
Zia entered public life as Bangladesh’s first lady when her husband, Ziaur Rahman, a 1971 Liberation War hero, became president in 1977.
Four years later, when her husband was assassinated, she took over the helm of his Bangladesh Nationalist Party and, following the 1982 military coup led by Hussain Muhammad Ershad, was at the forefront of the pro-democracy movement.
Arrested several times during protests against Ershad’s rule, she first rose to power following the victory of the BNP in the 1991 general election, becoming the second woman prime minister of a predominantly Muslim nation, after Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto.
Zia also served as a prime minister of a short-lived government of 1996 and came to power again for a full five-year term in 2001.
She passed away at the age of 80 on Tuesday morning at a hospital in Dhaka after a long illness.
She was a “symbol of the democratic movement” and with her death “the nation has lost a great guardian,” Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus said in a condolence statement, as the government announced the mourning period.
“Khaleda Zia was the three-time prime minister of Bangladesh and the country’s first female prime minister. ... Her role against President Ershad, an army chief who assumed the presidency through a coup, also made her a significant figure in the country’s politics,” Prof. Amena Mohsin, a political scientist, told Arab News.
“She was a housewife when she came into politics. At that time, she just lost her husband, but it’s not that she began politics under the shadow of her husband, president Ziaur Rahman. She outgrew her husband and built her own position.”
For a generation, Bangladeshi politics was shaped by Zia’s rivalry with Sheikh Hasina, who has served as prime minister for four terms.
Both carried the legacy of the Liberation War — Zia through her husband, and Hasina through her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, widely known as the “Father of the Nation,” who served as the country’s first president until his assassination in 1975.
During Hasina’s rule, Zia was convicted in corruption cases and imprisoned in 2018. From 2020, she was placed under house arrest and freed only last year, after a mass student-led uprising, known as the July Revolution, ousted Hasina, who fled to India.
In November, Hasina was sentenced to death in absentia for her deadly crackdown on student protesters and remains in self-exile.
Unlike Hasina, Zia never left Bangladesh.
“She never left the country and countrymen, and she said that Bangladesh was her only address. Ultimately, it proved true,” Mohsin said.
“Many people admire Khaleda Zia for her uncompromising stance in politics. It’s true that she was uncompromising.”
On the social media of Hasina’s Awami League party, the ousted leader also offered condolences to Zia’s family, saying that her death has caused an “irreparable loss to the current politics of Bangladesh” and the BNP leadership.
The party’s chairmanship was assumed by Zia’s eldest son, Tarique Rahman, who returned to Dhaka just last week after more than 17 years in exile.
He had been living in London since 2008, when he faced multiple convictions, including an alleged plot to assassinate Hasina. Bangladeshi courts acquitted him only recently, following Hasina’s removal from office, making his return legally possible.
He is currently a leading contender for prime minister in February’s general elections.
“We knew it for many years that Tarique Rahman would assume his current position at some point,” Mohsin said.
“He should uphold the spirit of the July Revolution of 2024, including the right to freedom of expression, a free and fair environment for democratic practices, and more.”
