The Daily Fuckup

The April 16, 2021 event was a court filing, not an FEC vote. In Campaign Legal Center, et al. v. FEC, plaintiffs submitted a reply in further support of their motion for default judgment against the commission in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The filing is listed in the FEC’s weekly litigation digest for the week of April 19-23, 2021. ([fec.gov](https://www.fec.gov/updates/week-april-19-23-2021/))

That matters because the Trump-related enforcement matter is a separate record. In MUR 7609R, which involved Donald J. Trump, Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., and treasurer Bradley Crate, Commissioner Ellen L. Weintraub’s statement says the Commission considered the matter in April 2021 and that no Republican commissioners voted in favor of the enforcement recommendation. The statement is dated after the Commission’s April 20, 2021 certification. ([fec.gov](https://www.fec.gov/files/legal/murs/7609R/7609R_18.pdf))

So the clean read is simple: April 16 was a procedural step in a lawsuit challenging FEC inaction, while the Trump soft-money complaint was handled later and on a different docket. The two matters should not be collapsed into one. ([fec.gov](https://www.fec.gov/updates/week-april-19-23-2021/))