On the heels of charges by a Republican lawyer’s group that she is biased against Trump, the incoming Democratic chairwoman of the Federal Election Commission is claiming that Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign violated rules against soliciting foreign donations.

But in making her case Friday, Commissioner Ellen Weintraub was criticized by election law experts because she cleared the Obama campaign of taking possibly over $1 million in foreign contributions in a past case.

In fact, one election law expert said that she is “out to get” Trump.



NEWS: @FEC GOPers dismiss complaint alleging Trump campaign solicited contributions from members of foreign parliaments on at least 4 separate occasions. My GOP colleagues decided that pursuing this straightforward violation was not worth FEC’s resources. https://t.co/Z6nzPQWOz7 pic.twitter.com/8wSkbwqTXu — Ellen L Weintraub (@EllenLWeintraub) September 7, 2018



In a three-page “statement of reasons,” Weintraub accused Trump’s campaign with making at least four email solicitations of foreign officials in a mass fundraising note. Some of the emails made it to Scotland where Trump has a golf resort.

She noted that the media drew attention to the violation of election law, but subsequent fundraising emails still were sent overseas.

The FEC earlier declined to open a probe into the Trump solicitations and Weintraub’s unexpected note was both an attack on her fellow Republican commissioners and a cry for renewed action.

In fact, she went on an anti-GOP tweet storm charging that there were other cases of soliciting foreigners that the commission decided not to probe.

In her memo, she accused GOP commissioners with covering up Trump wrongdoing.

“This is not an isolated matter. The Republican commissioners do not appear inclined to pursue other apparent violations by the Trump committee,” she wrote without providing any details.

“The true priority of my Republican colleagues appears to be to dismiss any Trump-related matters,” she added in a comment sure to escalate the partisanship on the committee.

Weintraub tied the solicitations to the Russia investigation. “At a time when American elections are under a serious threat of foreign influence, these colleagues believed it was not worth pursuing allegations that the Trump Committee illegally solicited contributions from foreign nationals.”

But she cited no enemy nation solicited by Trump’s campaign. She said the emails went to members of parliament in England, Scotland, Iceland, and Australia.

A more sophisticated and profitable case of foreign fundraising by Obama was dismissed by Weintraub and all the Republican commissioners in 2015. In that case, potentially more than $1 million was involved.

In the Obama case, it was alleged that a website, Obama.com, targeted donors in foreign countries and the Obama campaign accepted contributions from foreign Internet addresses and email accounts. The Obama campaign admitted that it had received, but refunded, the donations.

Weintraub made no claim that any of the Trump solicitations resulted in any contributions.



NEWS: @FEC GOPers dismiss complaint against Paul Manafort that raised “serious concerns about an agent of a presidential campaign using his position to solicit unlimited funds for a Super PAC that supported the campaign.” https://t.co/RE4oGxFnQ4 pic.twitter.com/NYgu1PrPAd — Ellen L Weintraub (@EllenLWeintraub) September 7, 2018



That inconsistency in treatment sparked concerns that Weintraub is “out to get” Trump, according to one election law expert.

The Obama charges were brought by the Government Accountability Institute, a public interest group.