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The suit says Paul Ryan-aligned American Action Network violated campaign law by operating as a political committee while registering as a social welfare organization. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Watchdog sues Paul Ryan-aligned dark money group

The watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington sued the nonprofit American Action Network on Monday, the latest turn in a quest to reclassify the Paul Ryan-aligned nonprofit as a political committee and force it to reveal its secret donor list.

The lawsuit, which ramps up CREW’s complaint against AAN after the Federal Election Commission twice voted not to act, could offer an unusual window into the inner workings of one of the country’s largest political nonprofits.

CREW is alleging that AAN violated campaign law by operating as a political committee — using most of its resources to air campaign-related ads and otherwise support Republican candidates for Congress from 2009 to 2011 — while registering as a social welfare organization. Such groups, which are tax-exempt, can engage in political activity but can’t make it their primary focus.

Brett Kappel, a GOP campaign finance attorney at Akerman LLP, said this type of lawsuit is rare, but he said CREW appears to have a decent case.

“They have exhausted their administrative remedies at the FEC and their only recourse now is to turn to the courts,” he said.

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AAN spokeswoman Courtney Alexander called the lawsuit "frivolous."

“This relates to activity from 2010 and is the third in a series of frivolous lawsuits that have previously resulted in multiple dismissals from the FEC," Alexander said in a statement. "AAN will continue to assert its rights in whichever court or agency necessary."

The lawsuit demands that AAN give up its nonprofit status and disclose its donors. American Action Network is affiliated with Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC; the two groups combined spent $45 million on the 2016 election cycle.

CREW first filed its complaint with the FEC in 2012. The FEC has twice voted not to take action on CREW’s complaint about the American Action Network, and CREW has twice taken the issue to court to protest the FEC’s decision.

In late March, CREW had some success when a federal judge said the FEC’s dismissal of the complaint was “contrary to law” and required the commission to act within 30 days. But FEC Commissioner Ellen Weintraub — who is currently the only Democrat on the commission — released a public statement last week saying she believed her colleagues at the FEC would find more ways to stall progress on the CREW complaint.

She encouraged CREW to use a clause in federal law that she said has never been fully utilized in order to bypass the commission and directly sue AAN, and she even implied she would stall the FEC behind the scenes in order to clear a path for CREW to sue.

“[Other commissioners’] actions in this matter — and over the past decade — have convinced me that despite two clear defeats before the District Court, they will eventually find a way to block meaningful enforcement of the law in this and any other dark-money matter that comes before us,” Weintraub wrote. “I believe CREW can and should pursue its complaint directly against American Action Network.”

With the FEC’s 30-day window to act now expired without the commission acting, CREW sued AAN on Monday, setting up the unusual legal showdown.

“We’re committed to open and transparent elections where everyone is following the rules — even if too many FEC commissioners are not,” CREW executive director Noah Bookbinder said.

