On Friday I noted that Labour was fucking up the special relationship by sending over volunteers to campaign for Harris. This might be all well and good is she wins, but not so good if Trump wins (as it looks like he will).
It seems that Trump is not best pleased at this and has filed a legal complaint to the Federal Electoral Commission (FEC) accusing the “far-left Labour Party” of breaking U.S. electoral law by sending volunteers out to campaign for Kamala Harris. The complaint, which also targets the Harris campaign, centres on a now-deleted LinkedIn post from Labour’s Head of Operations Sofia Patel.
Patel said in her LinkedIn post last week (now deleted) that she had nearly 100 “current (and former) party staff” ready to campaign for Harris in several swing states, and that there were 10 spots left for anyone who wanted to join them. It’s not unusual for Labour staffers to volunteer their time individually during a U.S. election — but Trump’s team argues Patel’s offer to “sort your housing” amounts to a broader, foreign national contribution for the Harris campaign — which is indeed prohibited. Labour is denying any wrongdoing, and party officials insist anyone going over is doing so in an individual capacity.
Labour scrambled into reverse ferret mode after Patel’s post caused such a stink over the weekend on both sides of the Atlantic, top brass shut down the central coordination of campaigners from within Labour HQ.
The Telegraph’s Tony Diver reckons Labour could be wrong and that the party probably did breach U.S. electoral laws. Lawrence Otter, a constitutional and electoral law expert, told the Telegraph that the Harris campaign “could be sanctioned, probably through a fine, which could be substantial.”
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