Story highlights Authors: Trump's calls for a DOJ investigation into Hillary Clinton's joint fundraising agreement with the DNC has no basis

The law allows candidates to set up joint fundraising committees with their parties -- as Trump himself did with Trump Victory, they write

Former Ambassador Norman L. Eisen, a CNN contributor, is a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution and served as President Obama's "Ethics Czar" from 2009-11. Fred Wertheimer is the founder and president of Democracy 21, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that seeks to promote government accountability and integrity. The opinions expressed in this commentary are theirs.

(CNN) In recent weeks, President Trump and his allies have been desperately seeking to divert attention away from the Russia/Trump investigation by ginning up an alternative review of a Democratic scandal. The latest effort came in response to reports that Hillary Clinton had gained control over the Democratic National Committee during the primaries by entering into a joint fundraising agreement with it.

Like Trump's recent calls for an investigation of Uranium One, this demand is nonsense -- and his push for criminal investigations of his adversaries is a shocking violation of our democratic norms.

Norman Eisen

Fred Wertheimer

Let's begin with the "Tweeter-in-Chief's" response on Thursday to the claim that Clinton used a joint fundraising committee to control the DNC during the presidential primaries: "This is real collusion and dishonesty. Major violation of Campaign Finance Laws and Money Laundering - where is our Justice Department?"

The reality is that there was no violation of campaign finance or money-laundering laws here and there is no basis for a Justice Department investigation. The law allows presidential candidates to set up joint fundraising committees with their parties. Examples include Trump Victory, a joint fundraising committee set up by Trump with the RNC that raised and spent over $100 million for his presidential race. If President Trump thinks this is a crime, then perhaps he forgot that he did it, too.

That is not to say that the DNC should not review the allegations. As a political matter, parties are supposed to remain even-handed during primaries. But even assuming the claims are accurate (and we note they are contested) that is an issue for political party governance, not for the Justice Department.