Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been accused in a new complaint to the Federal Election Commission of unlawfully working with a super PAC in a $15 million campaign effort, the Washington Post reported on Friday.
“To qualify for the ballot under state law, American Values 2024 must coordinate its activity with Mr. Kennedy and his campaign in a way that violates federal campaign finance laws,” Democratic National Committee wrote in the complaint, according to the report.
The Democratic National Committee contends Kennedy and the PAC unlawfully coordinated efforts to collect signatures in 15 states that would allow him to appear on the ballot, according to the report.
DNC legal counsel Bob Lenhard told reporters Friday that "state law presumes and in some cases requests that the candidate committee or candidate' is involved in the petition process, making the super PAC spending an illegal in-kind donation," according to the Washington Post.
Super PACs, which can raise unlimited amounts of money as opposed to the per-donor limits imposed on campaigns, are only allowed to operate independently of candidates.
Kennedy, who initially ran as a Democrat in the 2024 primary, is now trying to qualify for state ballots as an independent.
This is not the first campaign finance controversy Kennedy has faced.
Earlier this year, he defended using campaign donations to pay salaries to members of his family.
He has also come under fire for a number of his controversial views, including spreading conspiracy theories about vaccination and an antisemitic theory that COVID-19 was "ethnically targeted" to avoid harming Jews.
Norm Eisen, the former "ethics czar" of the Obama administration, said he was shocked by the complaint.
"We have been distracted by Trump’s wrongdoing...In the meantime RFK Jr. is OPENLY breaking the law," Eisen wrote. "I have done campaign finance for 30 years & this is worst I’ve seen."
