Free Republic

The chairwoman of the Federal Election Commission has raised new concerns about the legitimacy of elections like that of President Trump, who lost the popular vote but won an Electoral College victory. Ellen Weintraub, who has stepped up criticism of Trump’s claims of voter fraud, said she is worried that Americans will lose faith in elections where the Electoral College and not the popular vote rules. Appearing on MSNBC, she said that when she explains the U.S. system to foreign observers, they appear confused. Weintraub said she explains that typically a presidential candidate wins both the Electoral and popular vote...

WASHINGTON—Federal Election Commission (FEC) Chairman Ellen Weintraub’s renewed feud with President Donald Trump over voter fraud allegations from the 2016 election has the ranking House Committee on Administration Republican asking some pointed questions about excessive partisanship within the regulatory panel. “Recently, I believe this tone of partisanship has been amplified by some at the Commission,” Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) said in a letter to the FEC’s leadership made public Tuesday. “Partisan attacks only serve to undermine your work and the work of the entire Commission staff,” Davis said. He was writing on behalf of the three Republicans on the Administration...

A conservative nonprofit has filed a federal lawsuit accusing the Hillary Clinton campaign of violating election laws when it paid British citizen Christopher Steele to gather Kremlin-provided political dirt on candidate Donald Trump. Though not stated outright, the lawsuit argues that Democrats violated an admonition issued last week by Federal Election Commission Chairman Ellen L. Weintraub. She decreed that political campaigns cannot accept “anything of value” from foreign nationals. The lawsuit from The Coolidge Reagan Foundation says the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee accepted something of a value from a foreign national, Mr. Steele, in the form of Kremlin...

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) has declined a proposal by Democrat Commissioner Ellen Weintraub to undertake new rulemaking regarding alleged foreign influence in the 2016 election to target conservative media including the Drudge Report and Breitbart News, stating it “cannot support proposals that would burden the free speech rights of American citizens based on incomplete information about foreign activities in the 2016 election.” The FEC has declined to consider new rulemaking over alleged foreign influence in the 2016 presidential election that could target conservative media including InfoWars and Breitbart News. In a statement released by Vice Chair Caroline Hunter and...

“If you thought the IRS targeting — scandal, controversy, whatever you want to call it — was forgotten, think again,” said CNN’s Jake Tapper, introducing Dana Bash’s report last night on House Oversight Chair Darrell Issa’s expansion of the probe. Issa requested information from the Federal Election Commission after leaked e-mails suggested that coordination may have taken place between the two agencies in pursuit of conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status. That may increase the focus on one particular figure in the scandal, as well as potentially add more to it: CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO House Oversight Committee...

Rep. Darrell Issa's demand follows CNN report of contact between the IRS and FEC House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa demanded Wednesday that the Federal Election Commission turn over records of more than five years of communications with the Internal Revenue Service -- a move that significantly expands the California Republican's ongoing probe of alleged federal targeting of conservative groups. In a letter to FEC Chairman Ellen Weintraub -- a Democrat -- Issa cited CNN reporting on Monday that raises "the prospect of inappropriate coordination between the IRS and the FEC about tax-exempt entities." Among other things, Issa asked for...