Free Republic

Former Commissioner of the Federal Elections Commission, Brad Smith, a preeminent expert on campaign finance law has taken to social media to lash out against the Manhattan trial that led to the conviction of former President Donald Trump. Judge Juan Merchan had prevented Trump’s defense team from seating Smith as a witness or even submitting his testimony to the jury. Smith had planned on testifying that Donald Trump’s filing of a “hush money” payment as a “legal expense” was not a crime against federal elections law. Indeed, federal prosecutors had passed up on the case prior to Alvin Bragg, the...

In April, Zack Exley was named director of Internet organizing for presidential candidate Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, making him the Democrat's point man on the cyber front in the battle for voters. His background: the operator of a satirical website called GWBush.com and the subject of a federal complaint filed by lawyers for George Bush, according to a report in the LA Times. Exley’s GWBush.com site in 1999 featured doctored photos of then-Governor Bush with cocaine residue under his nose. Exley also posted fake campaign statements under such headlines as "George II: Restoring the Throne to its Rightful...

March 5, 2004 Attention: Station Manager To Whom It May Concern: This is to inform you that the Moveon.org Voter Fund is currently airing or may be about to air advertisements on your station that violate federal election laws. Moveon.org Voter Fund is a non-federal political organization, a so-called “Section 527” organization. Such organizations are restricted in spending their money to influence federal elections, but the advertisement(s) they seek to air is to help defeat President Bush’s re-election. As a “soft money” Section 527 organization, Moveon.org Voter Fund’s actions are in violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act and the...