Thu. Nov 21st, 2024
Occasional Digest - a story for you

A complaint has been lodged with the U.S. Federal Election Commission by Donald Trump's campaign accusing Britain's ruling Labor Party of illegal interference in the U.S. presidential election to help get Kamala Harris into the Oval Office. File Photo by Tannen Maury/UPI
A complaint has been lodged with the U.S. Federal Election Commission by Donald Trump’s campaign accusing Britain’s ruling Labor Party of illegal interference in the U.S. presidential election to help get Kamala Harris into the Oval Office. File Photo by Tannen Maury/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 23 (UPI) — Donald Trump‘s campaign filed a complaint with the U.S. Federal Election Commission alleging “blatant foreign interference” in the upcoming presidential election by Britain’s ruling Labor Party.

The former president’s team accused Labor of paying almost 100 activists to travel from the United Kingdom to the United States to “volunteer” for the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz Democratic Party ticket, claiming it is illegal under U.S. election law, according to the complaint filed by counsel for the Trump campaign.

The complaint also alleged that the British party has held meetings with officials of the Harris campaign.

A news release Tuesday on the Trump-Vance website alleged Britain’s “far-left” Labor Party was a source of inspiration for Harris’ “dangerously liberal policies and rhetoric” and that in recent weeks it had recruited and sent party members to campaign for her in critical battleground states in an effort to “influence our election.”

“When representatives of the British government previously sought to go door-to-door in America, it did not end well for them,” it reads, referring to Britain’s defeat in the American Revolutionary War almost two-and-a-half centuries ago.

“In two weeks, Americans will once again reject the oppression of big government that we rejected in 1776,” Trump-Vance Campaign Co-Manager Susie Wiles said in a statement.

“The flailing Harris-Walz campaign is seeking foreign influence to boost its radical message –because they know they can’t win the American people.”

The complaint is based on a call out on LinkedIn by Labor head of operations Sofia Patel last week for people to come forward to fill 10 spots available to join almost 100 current and former party staff heading the United States in which prospective takers were told their accommodation would be taken care of.

The since-deleted post states that the people Patel had gathered together were heading to North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Virginia in the coming weeks, saying that there are 10 remaining spots “for anyone available to head to the battleground state of North Carolina — we will sort your housing.”

Patel is also alleged to have emailed party staff at the beginning of August appealing for volunteers to travel to the United States to “help our friends across the pond elect the first female president.”

A foreign entity providing accommodation or other in-kind benefits for someone from overseas performing duties for a U.S. election campaign could technically constitute an illegal campaign contribution, even if that person is not receiving payment or wages.

The Labor Party has insisted those involved are all volunteers and that they are staying with campaign workers and supporters on sofas or in spare bedrooms with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer attempting to play down the row saying they were in the United States on their own, spare time as part of a long tradition.

“The Labor Party has volunteers, [they] have gone over pretty much every election. They’re doing it in their spare time. They’re doing it as volunteers. They’re staying I think with other volunteers over there,” he told the BBC.

Starmer also rejected suggestions the spat threatened future potential relations with a second Trump administration in the White House, noting Trump hosted him at a dinner in Trump Tower in New York just last month.

“We established a good relationship. We’re grateful for him for making the time for that dinner. We had a good, constructive discussion and, of course as prime minister of the United Kingdom I will work with whoever the American people return as their President in their elections, which are very close now,” he added.

Starmer has not personally met Harris but has met with President Joe Biden on several occasions.

However, the FEC complaint appears to undercut its own argument by citing British media reports that Labor activists wanting to help with the Harris campaign had been told they would have to take annual [vacation] leave to do so and pay for their flights and car hire but that Democrat volunteers would provide accommodation.

Durham University U.S. Politics associate professor David Andersen told the BBC he did not believe there was any breach of U.S. election law, saying there was nothing out of the ordinary in people self-funding to go campaign in U.S. presidential elections as “ideologically aligned parties from different countries often communicate with each other and share campaign tactics and strategies.”

He said the attack was part of a cynical effort to divert attention from the Trump campaign’s own links with foreign governments and damage public faith in the legitimacy of the election.

Source link