But, what does election law say about foreign donations? If I'm a US citizen, can I make a donation from my foreign bank account?
If I can, what's the candidate/campaign's obligation to determine the source of the funds? If they confirm I'm a US citizen, is that all that is needed?
And, is it any different for these advocacy groups, who are supposed to be independent of the campaign?
A shorter version of my questions: sure, it's clearly questionable and/or unethical. But, was it a violation of any federal law?
http://www.fec.gov/pages/brochures/foreign.shtml
The ban on political contributions and expenditures by foreign nationals was first enacted in 1966 as part of the amendments to the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), an “internal security” statute. The goal of the FARA was to minimize foreign intervention in U.S. elections by establishing a series of limitations on foreign nationals. These included registration requirements for the agents of foreign principals and a general prohibition on political contributions by foreign nationals. In 1974, the prohibition was incorporated into the Federal Election Campaign Act (the FECA), [HTML] [PDF] giving the Federal Election Commission (FEC) jurisdiction over its enforcement and interpretation.