MUR759900019 1 FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION 2 3 FIRST GENERAL COUNSEL’S REPORT 4 5 MUR 7304 6 DATE COMPLAINT FILED: December 15, 2017 7 DATE OF NOTIFICATIONS: December 21, 2017 8 DATE LAST RESPONSE RECEIVED September 4, 2018 9 DATE ACTIVATED: May 3, 2018 10 11 EARLIEST SOL: September 10, 2020 12 LATEST SOL: December 31, 2021 13 ELECTION CYCLE: 2016 14 15 COMPLAINANT: Committee to Defend the President 16 17 RESPONDENTS: Hillary Victory Fund and Elizabeth Jones in her official capacity as 18 treasurer 19 Hillary Rodham Clinton 20 Hillary for America and Elizabeth Jones in her official capacity as 21 treasurer 22 DNC Services Corporation/Democratic National Committee and 23 William Q. Derrough in his official capacity as treasurer 24 Alaska Democratic Party and Carolyn Covington in her official 25 capacity as treasurer 26 Democratic Party of Arkansas and Dawne Vandiver in her official 27 capacity as treasurer 28 Colorado Democratic Party and Rita Simas in her official capacity 29 as treasurer 30 Democratic State Committee (Delaware) and Helene Keeley in her 31 official capacity as treasurer 32 Democratic Executive Committee of Florida and Francesca Menes 33 in her official capacity as treasurer 34 Georgia Federal Elections Committee and Kip Carr in his official 35 capacity as treasurer 36 Idaho State Democratic Party and Leroy Hayes in his official 37 capacity as treasurer 38 Indiana Democratic Congressional Victory Committee and Henry 39 Fernandez in his official capacity as treasurer 40 Iowa Democratic Party and Ken Sagar in his official capacity as 41 treasurer 42 Kansas Democratic Party and Bill Hutton in his official capacity as 43 treasurer 44 Kentucky State Democratic Central Executive Committee and M. 45 Melinda Karns in her official capacity as treasurer 46 Democratic State Central Committee of LA and Sean Bruno in his 47 official capacity as treasurer MUR759900020 1 Maine Democratic Party and Betty Johnson in her official capacity 2 as treasurer 3 Massachusetts Democratic State Committee and Paul G. Yorkis in 4 his official capacity as treasurer 5 Michigan Democratic State Central Committee 6 and Sandy O’Brien in her official capacity as treasurer 7 Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and Tyler Moroles in 8 his official capacity as treasurer 9 Mississippi Democratic Party and Ryan Brown in his official 10 capacity as treasurer 11 Missouri Democratic State Committee and Emily Waggoner in her 12 official capacity as acting treasurer 13 Montana Democratic Party and Sandi Luckey in her official 14 capacity as treasurer 15 Nevada State Democratic Party and Jan Churchill in her official 16 capacity as treasurer 17 New Hampshire Democratic Party and Brian Rapp in his official 18 capacity as treasurer 19 New Jersey Democratic State Committee and Kelly Stewart Maer 20 in her official capacity as treasurer 21 Democratic Party of New Mexico and Robert Lara in his official 22 capacity as treasurer 23 North Carolina Democratic Party – Federal and Anna Tilghamn in 24 her official capacity as treasurer 25 Ohio Democratic Party and Fran Alberty in her official capacity as 26 treasurer 27 Oklahoma Democratic Party and Rachael Hunsucker in her official 28 capacity as treasurer 29 Democratic Party of Oregon and Eddy Morales in his official 30 capacity as treasurer 31 Pennsylvania Democratic Party and Alexander Reber in his official 32 capacity as treasurer 33 Rhode Island Democratic State Committee and Jeffrey Padwa in 34 his official capacity as treasurer 35 Democratic Party of South Carolina and Kathryn Hensley in her 36 official capacity as treasurer 37 South Dakota Democratic Party and Bill Nibbelink in his official 38 capacity as treasurer 39 Tennessee Democratic Party and Geeta McMillan in her official 40 capacity as treasurer 41 Texas Democratic Party and Gilberto Hinojosa in his official 42 capacity as treasurer 43 Utah State Democratic Committee and Peter Corroon in his official 44 capacity as treasurer 45 Democratic Party of Virginia and Barbara Klear in her official 46 capacity as treasurer MUR759900021 1 WV State Democratic Executive Committee and Jerry Brookover 2 in his official capacity as treasurer 3 Democratic Party of Wisconsin and Randy A. Udell in his official 4 capacity as treasurer 5 WY Democratic State Central Committee and Chris Russell in his 6 official capacity as treasurer 7 8 MUR 7331 9 DATE COMPLAINT FILED: February 26, 2018 10 DATE OF NOTIFICATIONS: March 5, 2018 11 DATE RESPONSE RECEIVED: June 1, 2018 12 DATE ACTIVATED: June 1, 2018 13 14 EARLIEST SOL: September 10, 2020 15 LATEST SOL: December 31, 2021 16 ELECTION CYCLE: 2016 17 18 COMPLAINANT: Americans for the Trump Agenda 19 20 RESPONDENTS: Hillary Rodham Clinton 21 Hillary Victory Fund and Elizabeth Jones in her official capacity as 22 treasurer 23 Hillary for America and Elizabeth Jones in her official capacity as 24 treasurer 25 DNC Services Corporation/DNC and William Q. Derrough in his 26 official capacity as treasurer 27 28 RAD REFERRAL 17L-36 29 DATE OF REFERRAL: September 19, 2017 30 DATE OF NOTIFICATION: September 21, 2017 31 DATE RESPONSE RECEIVED: October 20, 2017 32 DATE ACTIVATED: July 12, 2018 33 34 EXPIRATION OF SOL: September 20, 2021 35 ELECTION CYCLE: 2016 36 37 SOURCE: Internally Generated 38 39 RESPONDENT: Texas Democratic Party and Gilberto Hinojosa in his official 40 capacity as treasurer 41 42 RAD REFERRAL 17L-46 43 DATE OF REFERRAL: November 28, 2017 44 DATE OF NOTIFICATION: November 30, 2017 45 DATE RESPONSE RECEIVED: December 15, 2017 46 DATE ACTIVATED: July 12, 2018 47 48 EARLIEST SOL: August 20, 2021 49 LATEST SOL: August 20, 2021 MUR759900022 1 ELECTION CYCLE: 2016 2 3 SOURCE: Internally Generated 4 5 RESPONDENT: Democratic Party of South Carolina and Kathryn Hensley in her 6 official capacity as treasurer 7 8 RAD REFERRAL 17L-48R 9 DATE OF REFERRAL: May 9, 2018 10 DATE OF NOTIFICATION: June 8, 2018 11 DATE RESPONSE RECEIVED: July 31, 2018 12 DATE ACTIVATED: July 12, 2018 13 14 EXPIRATION OF SOL: August 1, 2021 15 ELECTION CYCLE: 2016 16 17 SOURCE: Internally Generated 18 19 RESPONDENT: Mississippi Democratic Party and Ryan Brown in his official 20 capacity as treasurer 21 22 RAD REFERRAL 18L-19 23 DATE OF REFERRAL: May 16, 2018 24 DATE OF NOTIFICATION: May 17, 2018 25 DATE RESPONSE RECEIVED: June 27, 2018 26 DATE ACTIVATED: July 12, 2018 27 28 EXPIRATION OF SOL: September 20, 2021 29 ELECTION CYCLE: 2016 30 31 SOURCE: Internally Generated 32 33 RESPONDENT: Massachusetts Democratic State Committee and Paul G. Yorkis in 34 his official capacity as treasurer 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 MUR759900023 1 RAD REFERRAL 18L-25 2 DATE OF REFERRAL: July 2, 2018 3 DATE OF NOTIFICATION: July 3, 2018 4 DATE RESPONSE RECEIVED: August 23, 2018 5 DATE OF ACTIVATION: July 12, 2018 6 7 EXPIRATION OF SOL: October 16, 2021 8 ELECTION CYCLE: 2016 9 10 SOURCE: Internally Generated 11 12 RESPONDENT: Nevada State Democratic Party and Jan Churchill in her official 13 capacity as treasurer 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 AUDIT REFERRAL 18-01R 29 DATE OF REFERRAL: January 23, 2018 30 DATE OF NOTIFICATION: January 29, 2018 31 DATE RESPONSE RECEIVED: March 19, 2018 32 DATE ACTIVATED: May 24, 2018 33 34 EXPIRATION OF SOL: October 20, 2021 35 ELECTION CYCLES: 2016 36 37 SOURCE: Internally Generated 38 39 RESPONDENT: Utah State Democratic Committee and Peter Corroon in his official 40 capacity as treasurer 41 42 RELEVANT STATUTES: 52 U.S.C. § 30104 43 52 U.S.C. § 30116 44 52 U.S.C. § 30122 45 11 C.F.R. § 102.17 46 47 11 C.F.R. § 104.3(a), (b) 48 11 C.F.R. § 109.20 49 11 C.F.R. § 110.4 MUR759900024 1 11 C.F.R. § 110.6 2 11 C.F.R. § 109.32 3 4 INTERNAL REPORTS Disclosure Reports 5 CHECKED: Reports Analysis Division Referral Materials 6 7 FEDERAL AGENCIES 8 CHECKED: None MUR759900025 MUR 7304, et al. (Hillary Victory Fund, et al.) First General Counsel’s Report Page 7 of 37 1 I. INTRODUCTION 2 These matters relate to joint fundraising conducted through the Hillary Victory Fund 3 (“HVF”), which was comprised of Hillary Clinton’s principal campaign committee, Hillary for 4 America (“HFA”), the DNC Services Corporation/Democratic National Committee (“DNC”), 5 and thirty-eight state party committees (“the SPCs”).1 The main allegation of the Complaints is 6 that HVF was a “sham” through which millions of dollars in excessive contributions were 7 funneled through the SPCs to the DNC in violation of earmarking and contributions in the name 8 of another provisions, and the DNC then contributed those funds to HFA in excess of federal 9 limits.2 Respondents argue that every individual transaction arising out of their joint fundraising 10 activity was legal, thus, there can be no violation.3 11 We conclude that the available information, including the pattern of transfers of funds 12 raised by HVF, provides reason to believe that the DNC accepted excessive contributions. 13 Further, there is reason to believe that HVF, the DNC and the SPCs inaccurately disclosed 14 receipts and disbursements and that the DNC made excessive contributions to HFA in the form 15 of coordinated expenditures. Accordingly, we recommend that the Commission find reason to 16 believe that: 1 Compl. at 7-10, MUR 7304 (amended July 31, 2018); Compl. at 1-2, MUR 7331 (Feb. 26, 2018); RR 18L- 25 (Nev. State Democratic Party) (July 2, 2018); RR 18L-19 (Mass. Democratic State Comm.) (May 16, 2018); RR 17L-48R (Miss.