PrairiePundit

 Blaze: Ellen Weintraub, a Democratic commissioner and chair on the Federal Election Commission, revealed Thursday night that President Donald Trump fired her last week. Weintraub, an outspoken Trump critic whose political bias and routine disparagement of Trump have long sparked controversy, suggested she won't leave her post. Weintraub, who has served on the nation's civil campaign finance regulator since 2002 and previously worked at the Democratic-aligned firm Perkins Coie, shared an image of a Jan. 31 letter she claimed was from Trump, which stated, "You are hereby removed as a Member of the Federal Election Commission, effective immediately. Thank you for your service on the Commission." Weintraub noted, "Received a letter from POTUS today purporting to remove me as Commissioner & Chair of FEC. There's a legal way to replace FEC commissioners — this isn't it." Weintraub's six-year term — a term limit established by the Federal Elect...

 Axios: The Federal Election Commission has ruled foreign donors can finance U.S. referendum campaigns, opening the door to foreign spending on fights over high-profile policy issues, Axios has learned. Why it matters:  Foreign nationals are barred from donating to U.S. political candidates or committees. But  the FEC's decision  — allowing them to support ballot committees — provides another avenue for foreigners to directly influence U.S. voters and domestic policy. A major question stemming from the decision is whether foreign nationals are now permitted to spend money to influence the actual mechanisms of the U.S. democratic process. That would include congressional redistricting, which is frequently subject to ballot referenda. The FEC's ruling did not address that question, meaning it will likely be litigated in future fights at the commission. The decision only concerns federal law; states remain free to outlaw  foreign funding for state-registered ballot...

Washington Examiner: A federal judge has blown the whistle on a secret Federal Election Commission scheme to punish some Republican groups and their donors, the latest sign of an anti-GOP bias at the elections watchdog. In a newly released decision, Trump-appointed District Court Judge Trevor N. McFadden shined a spotlight on the FEC’s general counsel who recommended action against four Republican groups but dismissal of similar charges against supporters of a Democratic group, “Black Men Vote.” In the case, the Washington-based Campaign Legal Center charged that the FEC wrongly voted to drop charges against three of the Republican super PACS accused of taking “straw donations” through corporations. In a February 2016 3-3 vote, the FEC's Republicans voted to dismiss action in all five cases, noting that the conduct of the donors was the same in each, including the Black Men Vote complaint. FEC Democrats sought to investigate the four Republican and one Democratic groups. ...

Federalist: Bombshell: FEC Records Indicate Hillary Campaign Illegally Laundered $84 Million The mainstream media took no notice of a federal court filing that exposes a $84 million money-laundering conspiracy Democrats executed during the 2016 presidential election. It is a long piece but it also involves a lot of money.  The FEC failed to act on the complaint because the Democrats have refused to name new members to the FEC.

Washington Times: Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee violated campaign finance law by failing to disclose payments for a dossier on Donald Trump, according to a complaint filed Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission . The complaint from the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center said the Democrats effectively hid the payments from public scrutiny, contrary to the requirements of federal law. By law, campaign and party committees must disclose the reason money is spent and its recipient. “By filing misleading reports, the DNC and Clinton campaign undermined the vital public information role of campaign disclosures,” said Adav Noti, senior director of trial litigation and strategy at CLC and a former FEC official. “Voters need campaign disclosure laws to be enforced so they can hold candidates accountable for how they raise and spend money. The FEC must investigate this apparent violation and take appropriate action.” Media reports on Tuesday alleged th...

Washington Times: FEC lawyer used government job to campaign for Obama, investigation shows An employee at the Federal Election Commission, the nonpartisan agency that oversees campaigns, has resigned after admitting to campaigning for President Obama in 2012, in violation of federal laws. This is another demonstration of how Chicago Way politics has corrupted the government and made elections less fair.

Joel Pollack: Two new developments have severe implications for the IRS scandal.   The watchdog group Judicial Watch announced Thursday that it had obtained emails showing that former IRS official Lois Lerner gave protected information to the Federal Elections Commission. Meanwhile, the House Ways and Means Committee said it had identified the IRS agent who leaked National Organization for Marriage donors to gay rights activists. Judicial Watch obtained the emails in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on Aug. 9. They purport to show Lerner, who led the IRS Exempt Organizations division, promising full cooperation with an FEC attorney who was seeking information about the tax-exempt applications of two conservative groups, the American Future Fund (AFF) and the American Issues Project (AIP), as well as AIP's predecessor groups. Lerner then sent "detailed, confidential information about the organizations" to the FEC, according to Judicial Watch, inc...