There is some excitement in British politics that throws up an unexpected link to the US Presidential election – and a possible embarrassment for at least one Democratic candidate.
In brief an UK political part may be channelling funding to an US election fundraiser, which is illegal under US law I believe.
Background. A By-election (special election) is in progress for the UK Parliament seat of Ealing Southall. This has a high proportion of voters from ethnic minorities.
The Conservative party selected as its candidate (a Mr Tony Lit) someone who only joined that party a day or so before becoming a candidate. He was a director of a Radio Station (Sunrise Radio) target marketing Asian-origin Britons. The conservative hope is that he will rally the younger Asian-origin voters.
It has now emerged that a few days before his selection, Mr Lit attended a Labour Party fundraiser where he was photographed with then-Prime Minister Blair and made a donation of nearly £5000 pounds to Labour funds from his company. That is the embarrassment playing out strongly in the UK press.
However another detail may interest US authorities. At the fundraiser there was an auction for a place at an US fundraising event on behalf of Hilary Clinton. Sunrise Radio won that auction with a bid of £4000 sterling which gives them a ticket for two people to attend that fundraiser.
The Daily Telegraph report says:
During an auction, the Sunrise table also successfully bid £4,000 for a weekend trip to Atlanta, the highlight of which was two places at a fundraising dinner for Hillary Clinton.
Labour insiders said Mr Lit’s company had not yet paid the £4,000. If they had, in addition to the £4,800 for the table, it would have put them over the £5,000 limit requiring Labour to declare them as a donor.
On the basis of this report, questions abound:
1 How did Labour get hold of this ticket? Is UK Labour committed to the Clinton campaign?
2 Has any financial benefit already passed to the US campaign fund? Is this legal under Federal Election Commission rules?
3 If a non-US citizen attends that fundraiser on this ticket and makes a contribution to Clinton funds at that event, is this legal as above?
Should US Democrats be worried by the legal implications of all this?
If anyone has any answers, we are interested on this side of the pond as well.