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Agreement was reached in Nov. 2015 between Bernie campaign and Australian taxpayer funded group.
2/28/18, "Bernie Sanders Fined For Illegally Coordinating With Australian Labor Party," Daily Caller, Andrew Kerr
"The Federal Election Commission (FEC) fined Bernie Sanders’
presidential campaign $14,500 for accepting illegal in-kind foreign
contributions from the Australian Labor Party (ALP) during the 2016
elections.
The ruling stems from a February 2016, conservative activist group Project Veritas video showing Australian nationals working for the Sanders campaign on the dime of the Australian taxpayer funded ALP.
Republican and former New Hampshire House speaker William O’Brien
filed a complaint with the FEC shortly after Project Veritas made the
footage public, alleging the ALP had made “prohibited foreign
contributions” to the Sanders campaign, according to WMUR.
The FEC levied the fine against the Sanders campaign in a Feb. 2016-issued conciliation agreement.
The ALP contacted the Sanders campaign according to the FEC and asked
permission to allow Australian nationals to be inserted into the
campaign as volunteers. The Sanders campaign accepted the ALP’s request,
despite knowing the ALP would be paying Australians a daily stipend in
addition to covering the cost of their flights to the United States.
While volunteering with the Sanders campaign, the Australians engaged
in political activities “including encouraging voter attendance at
campaign events, recruiting volunteers, canvassing with volunteers, and
planning events,” according to the FEC.
The Sanders campaign “treated the ALP delegates no differently from
any other campaign out-of-town volunteers and was aware that they were
receiving a stipend from the ALP,” the FEC added.
The ALP spent $16,140 for the Australians’ flights to the United
States and $8,282 for their daily stipends [$24,422 total]. The FEC determined that
amounted to a $24,422 “prohibited in-kind foreign contribution” the
Sanders campaign accepted from the ALP.
A Sanders spokesperson said in a statement to WMUR that the campaign doesn’t think it broke any rules.
“During the course of the campaign, thousands and thousands of young
people from every state and many other countries volunteered. Among them
were seven Australian young people who were receiving a modest stipend
and airfare from the Australian Labor Party so they could learn about
American politics,” the spokesperson said. “The folks on the campaign
managing volunteers did not believe the stipend [and airfare] disqualified them from
being volunteers.”
“In order to avoid a long and expensive fight with the FEC over the
technical status of these young people, the campaign agreed to pay the
FEC a small settlement but did not agree that it broke any rules,” the
Sanders spokesperson added.
O’Brien told WMUR Tuesday he was “disappointed” the FEC did not make a connection between ALP and the Australian government.
“I’m disappointed that it’s not comprehensive,” O’Brien said of the
FEC’s ruling. “It doesn’t go into the Australian government funding. And
I’m disappointed that it doesn’t go with greater specificity into the
actual things that they were doing. I’m disappointed that they didn’t go
to what was the effect on the campaign.”
“It’s basically the Australian government using the conduit of a
socialist party to assist the socialist candidate in the United States,”
O’Brien said.
The FEC’s ruling against the Sanders campaign follows the Feb. 16
indictment of 13 Russian nationals who [allegedly] interfered in the 2016 election....Sanders denied his campaign received support from Russians during an interview last week with Vermont Public Radio.
“They were supporting my campaign, no. They were attacking Hillary
Clinton’s campaign and using my supporters against Hillary Clinton,”
Sanders said."
..............
Friday, March 2, 2018
Where are indictments for Australians who illegally worked on Bernie Sanders campaign? Sanders fined in Feb. 2016 for illegally colluding with Australian Labor Party during his presidential campaign. Foreign nationals flown to US were on the ground rallying voters to Sanders campaign events and passed off as 'volunteers'-Daily Caller...(Tragic for the planet--so much CO2 belched in round trip air travel from Australia to US. And Bernie said planet was in CO2 crisis)
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