Back in May 2016, I wrote an article on Daily Kos with the headline “It's Not Money Laundering, It's a (possible) Violation of Campaign Finance Law (Section 30116)” to describe the reported arrangement of the Clinton campaign’s Hillary Victory Fund. Politico had just reported that the funds that were promised to the state parties through the Clinton campaign’s fundraising efforts were instead being directly diverted to the DNC, and then back to the Clinton Campaign.
At the time, it seemed like a pretty clear case of violating campaign finance laws. However, I woke up this morning to an article by Donna Brazile that links these likely violations to a systematic effort to financially bankrupt and then control the flow of funds from the DNC to benefit the Clinton campaign. According to Ms. Brazile:
Officials from Hillary’s campaign had taken a look at the DNC’s books. Obama left the party $24 million in debt—$15 million in bank debt and more than $8 million owed to vendors after the 2012 campaign and had been paying that off very slowly. Obama’s campaign was not scheduled to pay it off until 2016. Hillary for America (the campaign) and the Hillary Victory Fund (its joint fundraising vehicle with the DNC) had taken care of 80 percent of the remaining debt in 2016, about $10 million, and had placed the party on an allowance.
DWS and the Clinton campaign then arranged to bail out the DNC using the HVF, but without actually consulting or disclosing these efforts to the DNC’s officers. Again, from Ms. Brazile:
[Gary Gensler, the chief financial officers of the Clinton campaign] described the party as fully under the control of Hillary’s campaign, which seemed to confirm the suspicions of the Bernie camp. The campaign had the DNC on life support, giving it money every month to meet its basic expenses, while the campaign was using the party as a fund-raising clearing house.
According to Gensler, Hillary rode in like a White Knight and saved the DNC from its financial ruin. Her campaign then felt entitled to use the DNC like her personal fundraiser. I can’t describe it better than Ms. Brazile:
Individuals who had maxed out their $2,700 contribution limit to the campaign could write an additional check for $353,400 to the Hillary Victory Fund—that figure represented $10,000 to each of the thirty-two states’ parties who were part of the Victory Fund agreement—$320,000—and $33,400 to the DNC. The money would be deposited in the states first, and transferred to the DNC shortly after that. Money in the battleground states usually stayed in that state, but all the other states funneled that money directly to the DNC, which quickly transferred the money to Brooklyn.
“Wait,” I said. “That victory fund was supposed to be for whoever was the nominee, and the state party races. You’re telling me that Hillary has been controlling it since before she got the nomination?”
Gary said the campaign had to do it or the party would collapse.
“That was the deal that Robby struck with Debbie,” he explained, referring to campaign manager Robby Mook. “It was to sustain the DNC. We sent the party nearly $20 million from September until the convention, and more to prepare for the election.”
Of course, and this is the shocking part, the Clinton campaign’s arrangement with the DNC wound up being captured in writing as part of a joint fundraising agreement. This is the kind of agreement that’s necessary to ensure that the HVF would not violate campaign finance laws. The agreement says, in Ms. Brazile’s words:
The agreement—signed by Amy Dacey, the former CEO of the DNC, and Robby Mook with a copy to Marc Elias—specified that in exchange for raising money and investing in the DNC, Hillary would control the party’s finances, strategy, and all the money raised. Her campaign had the right of refusal of who would be the party communications director, and it would make final decisions on all the other staff. The DNC also was required to consult with the campaign about all other staffing, budgeting, data, analytics, and mailings.
That agreement was signed AUGUST 2015. A year before she could even conceivably think of saying that she was the elected nominee of the party. Hillary Clinton took control of the DNC’s operations in August 2015, and directly ran its strategy, operations, human resources decisions, and fund raising. The DNC was, quite literally, owned and operated by the Clinton campaign.
Ms. Brazile ends one of the most amazing articles I’ve ever read with the following reflection:
I urged Bernie to work as hard as he could to bring his supporters into the fold with Hillary, and to campaign with all the heart and hope he could muster. He might find some of her positions too centrist, and her coziness with the financial elites distasteful, but he knew and I knew that the alternative was a person who would put the very future of the country in peril. I knew he heard me. I knew he agreed with me, but I never in my life had felt so tiny and powerless as I did making that call.
I’m proud that Bernie did exactly that. He’s a far better person than I could ever imagine being when placed in that situation. He could have directly released this information, and destroyed her entire campaign in a fit of rage. But, for the party and for the American people, he campaigned for Hillary Clinton.
But, and let me make this clear, he was absolutely right when he said Hillary was not fit to be President. She lacks the ethical compass necessary to govern this country. She is deceitful on behalf of the rich and powerful, and she deserves no further role in directing the future of our party.