Trump is trying to stop Harris from using Biden's campaign funds. Here's why it's an uphill battle.

By Maya Levine

Many experts predicted a smooth transition of the funds if Harris took Biden's place atop the Democratic ticket, and the FEC isn't expected to move quickly

The campaign to elect former President Donald Trump on Tuesday filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission arguing that Vice President Kamala Harris taking over President Joe Biden's campaign funds for her presidential run is illegal.

But many experts expected that Harris would inherit Biden's $91.5 million campaign war chest and have said the move is well within the law. Harris has now captured enough delegates to become the likely Democratic presidential nominee.

Robin Kolodny, a Temple University professor of political science and a campaign-finance expert, predicted that if Harris became the nominee the transition of funds would be smooth.

"Nothing dramatic would happen," Kolodny told MarketWatch earlier this month. "The committee is called Biden-Harris, and she's already affiliated with it."

"All she would do is change the statement of candidacy. ... It would remain the same account with the same committee," said Kenneth Gross, senior political-law counsel at law firm Akin Gump and former associate general counsel for the Federal Election Commission.

In Tuesday's complaint, Trump's team accused Harris of "seeking to perpetrate a $91.5 million heist of Joe Biden's leftover campaign cash - a brazen money grab that would constitute the single largest excessive contribution and biggest violation in the history of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended," according to multiple published reports.

The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for further comment.

Charlie Spies, an election lawyer who has worked for numerous Republicans, said that because Biden was never the Democrats' official nominee, Harris has no legal claim to his war chest.

Before Biden left the race, Spies wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that "if Mr. Biden drops out before the Democratic Party formally makes him its nominee, then Federal Election Commission rules dictate that no more than $2,000 of any campaign funds that he raised may be transferred to any other candidate, including Ms. Harris."

Federal Election Commissioner Dana Lindenbaum, a Biden nominee and one of six votes on the evenly divided commission, said in a post Sunday on X that Harris's claim to the funds is legitimate.

The decision is up to the FEC, although the challenge will take time to address and may prove irrelevant to the Harris campaign's spending capabilities.

"If you ask the Federal Election Commission for an opinion, by the time you get that opinion it'll be too late," Gross told MarketWatch earlier this month.

An FEC spokesperson said that the agency does not comment on potential enforcement matters.

As both sides await word from the FEC, the Harris campaign is continuing with business as usual.

"Republicans may be jealous that Democrats are energized to defeat Donald Trump and his MAGA allies, but baseless legal claims - like the ones they've made for years to try to suppress votes and steal elections - will only distract them while we sign up volunteers, talk to voters and win this election," Harris campaign spokesperson Charles Kretchmer Lutvak said in a statement.

Biden's funds would add to the millions that Harris has raised since announcing her candidacy Sunday, including a record $81 million in the first 24 hours of her presidential campaign.

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07-24-24 1312ET

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