After the Federal Election Commission declined to take action against Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign over the laptop-denying statements of 51 former intelligence officials, a conservative watchdog group is scrambling to act.
America First Legal sued the FEC in the US District Court for the District of Columbia to compel the agency that oversees campaign donations and spending to act.
“The FEC has decided that we’re not going to act on this. So, what the district court will do, our hope, is that it will order the FEC to investigate and take this seriously,” Daniel Epstein, vice president of America First Legal, said. told Fox News Digital.
In October, the group filed an FEC complaint against the 2020 Biden campaign, the Biden Victory Fund, the Biden Action Fund and the Democratic National Committee for failing to report indirect contributions from the debunked statement by 51 officials released on October 19, 2020, just weeks before the November 8 election, and just days before the presidential debate.
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The statement claimed there was no evidence that the Hunter Biden laptop was likely part of a “Russian disinformation” campaign.
Hunter Biden, son of US President Joe Biden, leaves a House Oversight Committee meeting on Capitol Hill on January 10, 2024, in Washington, DC (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
If the FEC does not act, it is “effectively encouraging disinformation to the public that could influence the election,” Epstein continued.
An FEC spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the agency does not comment on litigation. Neither the 2024 Biden presidential campaign nor the DNC responded to inquiries for this story.
The FEC has 60 days to respond to the lawsuit. Epstein expects the agency to file a motion to return the matter to the FEC for investigation.
In March 2023, Obama administration former CIA Deputy and Acting Director Michael Morrell testified before the House Judiciary and House Intelligence Committees that on October 17, 2020, he was contacted by former Biden campaign staffer Antony Blinken, who is now secretary of state, to discuss drafting a statement to attack the Hunter Biden laptop story first reported by the New York Post. Morrell circulated the statement to other anti-Trump former intelligence officials. The 51 former officials who signed include Leon Panetta, John Brennan and James Clapper from the Barack Obama administration, as well as Michael Hayden from the George W. Bush administration — all vocal critics of Trump.
Eventually, both the New York Times and the Washington Post verified the authenticity of the Hunter Biden laptop.
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“Because Morrell, Brennan, Clapper, and the other signatories are ‘nonpartisan’ national security and intelligence experts, their public statement is a campaign contribution of great value to respondents, who sought the ‘Letter of 51’ from them for the express purpose of influencing the 2020 presidential election,” the AFL’s lawsuit said. “However, the respondents failed to report the contribution and identify the individuals who made it.”
President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event at the Pearson Community Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Sunday, Feb. 4, 2024. (Ian Maule/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The lawsuit — like the FEC’s original complaint — quotes an email at the time to intelligence experts, saying, “[W]I think Trump will attack Biden on the issue in this week’s debate and we want to offer views on this from Russia watchers and other expert experts.” Another said they wanted to give Biden has “a talking point to use in response” if Trump releases the laptop.
During a presidential debate on October 22, 2020, Biden referred to the letter of 51 intelligence officials during the presidential debate. The lawsuit also notes that it was used for extensive media coverage.
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Biden campaign resources were used to solicit the letter, and coordinating to produce the letter became something of great value to the Biden campaign. Failure to report a matter of value violates the Federal Election Campaign Act that the FEC is required to enforce, the lawsuit says.
“Proper administration of the law includes ensuring that all disclosure reports are properly and timely filed with the commission,” the DC District Court complaint said.
Under the Federal Election Campaign Act, if the FEC fails to act on a complaint within 120 days, the complainant can take the case to court. The court may determine that the failure to act is contrary to law and direct the commission to comply with the law within 30 days.
The lawsuit refers to a survey that found roughly four out of five Americans that followed the Hunter Biden laptop scandal speculated that honest news coverage could change the outcome of the election. The Technometric Institute of Policy and Politics survey was released in August 2022.
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“If you really believe this [the laptop story] is disinformation, and you want to tell the truth to the public, and it’s not about trying to deceive the public to influence the election, why are you so secretive about it?” Epstein told Fox News Digital. “Why not say, ‘Maybe this a campaign coordination, and we should report it,’ and say with a straight face, ‘Out of an abundance of caution, we reported it to the FEC’?”
