Group says Chris McDaniel campaign, super PAC broke federal law

The Campaign Legal Center has filed a Federal Elections Commission complaint that Chris McDaniel's U.S. Senate campaign and a super PAC that supports him have illegally coordinated events and spending.

McDaniel called the complaint "completely bogus" and "another establishment dirty trick" and appeared to blame the nonpartisan nonprofit's complaint on a potential opponent for the Senate.

"When your candidate is in third place and President Trump opposes your candidate, you file an FEC complaint," McDaniel said, apparently referring to Cindy Hyde-Smith. Gov. Phil Bryant announced he would appoint Hyde-Smith to the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Thad Cochran on April 1. There have been media reports that an internal National Republican Senate Committee poll showed Hyde-Smith in third place behind McDaniel and any generic Democrat.

The Campaign Legal Center's complaint uses McDaniel's and his campaign's own words to media and posts to social media to support many of its claims.

The complaint alleges the super PAC was created by and is run by McDaniel and therefore has accepted more than $1 million in illegal contributions. It alleges Remember Mississippi super PAC violated federal law by organizing and funding three free fish fry dinners attended by hundreds this month that were actually campaign events and that the McDaniel campaign violated the law by accepting and failing to report contributions from the PAC. Finally, it claims McDaniel failed to timely register his federal candidacy.

Remember Mississippi Treasurer Tommy Barnett called the complaint "nonsense." He said the super PAC has followed all laws and regulations.

"Why is this group not more interested in Cindy Hyde-Smith's use of her own state campaign funds which she used to buy an automobile, make personal charitable donations, and purchase special event tickets?" Barnett said in a statement, referring to a Clarion Ledger investigative report that helped lead to state campaign finance reform.

Hyde-Smith in a statement replied: "If Chris McDaniel thinks he's going to blame me for his campaign being accused of breaking the law, he's going to be in for a long campaign. This is an absolutely false, irresponsible accusation."

The FEC complaint lists as exhibits articles from the Clarion Ledger, Y'all Politics, Mississippi Today and the Washington Post in which McDaniel talks about support from big national donors to the super PAC. The complaint notes the first treasurer listed for the Remember Mississippi super PAC was McDaniel's assistant at his law firm. McDaniel also talked of multiple meetings with former White House strategist Steve Bannon, who was said to be recruiting McDaniel and others to run against establishment GOP candidates and helping line up financiers.

Y'all Politics in September predicted McDaniel might face trouble with FEC regulations down the road over the super PAC and said, "the optics of how this super PAC was set up was just horribly sloppy."

The complaint lists timelines it says show coordination between McDaniel's campaign announcements and thousands of dollars in advertising and other spending. It includes McDaniel's and his campaign's social media posts before and after the fish fry dinners and other events — which McDaniel attended — and says they show they were coordinated campaign events, not independent party expenditures.

McDaniel live-streamed one super PAC event at which he spoke in Gulfport on his campaign's Facebook page, the complaint said, and at least one of the events solicited contributions for his campaign.

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Super PACs were created after a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling found that such groups could accept and spend unlimited contributions from corporations and individuals provided they don't coordinate directly with a candidate or campaign.

Federal law limits contributions a candidate or his or her campaign can receive to $5,000 a year for individuals, and it prohibits corporations and labor unions from contributing to federal candidates.

Recently, "single candidate" super PACs have become common in federal races, and some have appeared to push the envelope in helping candidates' campaigns.

FEC complaints about super PAC and other "independent expenditures" in elections have become common, and the agency typically moves slowly in investigating them or taking action.

In his failed 2014 run against Cochran, McDaniel supporters filed a complaint against the Mississippi Conservatives super PAC run by Henry Barbour, nephew of former Gov. Haley Barbour, that supported Cochran. The PAC, which raised and spent nearly $3 million to help defeat McDaniel, reported a bank loan of $250,000, but failed to disclose that Haley Barbour provided security for the loan.

The FEC eventually fined Mississippi Conservatives $19,000 for violating campaign disclosure rules, but not until late 2016. Many complaints before the FEC are not resolved for years.

McDaniel's campaign said in a statement that McDaniel attended the events in question "with legal guidance and was allowable by federal election law." He called the complaint "frivolous."