The Daily Fuckup

The Federal Election Commission’s Sept. 2-6 digest did not announce a new Trump campaign finance ruling. It noted that on Sept. 3, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a mandate in Campaign Legal Center v. FEC, a case that had already been decided on the merits earlier this year. ([fec.gov](https://www.fec.gov/updates/week-of-september-2-6-2024/))

The underlying dispute dates to July 2020, when Campaign Legal Center filed an administrative complaint alleging that Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. and the Trump Make America Great Again Committee failed to properly disclose hundreds of millions of dollars in payments routed through American Made Media Consultants, LLC, and Parscale Strategy, LLC. The FEC’s case page says commissioners split 3-3 in May 2022 on whether to find reason to believe a violation occurred, then voted 4-2 to close the file. ([fec.gov](https://www.fec.gov/legal-resources/court-cases/campaign-legal-center-v-fec-22-1976/))

The D.C. Circuit affirmed the district court’s dismissal on Jan. 5, 2024, holding that the challenged exercise of prosecutorial discretion was not reviewable. The Sept. 3 mandate in the FEC digest was a later procedural step that followed that January merits decision; it did not mark a fresh enforcement action or a new disclosure finding against Trump’s 2024 campaign operation. ([fec.gov](https://www.fec.gov/legal-resources/court-cases/campaign-legal-center-v-fec-22-1976/))

So the record here is narrower than the title might suggest: the FEC’s weekly digest logged the end-stage paperwork in an old disclosure case, not a new September campaign finance fight. ([fec.gov](https://www.fec.gov/updates/week-of-september-2-6-2024/))