Trump campaign has been begging for money from foreign politicians, including British MPs - Polidicks

[IMG]http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/1344F/production/_90172987_mcgarrytweet.jpg[/IMG] [QUOTE]Republican Donald Trump needs help paying for his US presidential campaign - and he's been asking foreign politicians to ante up. His efforts appear to be generating more anger than interest, however - and even if he did find a receptive audience overseas, any financial assistance he receives would be a violation of US law. Even the act of asking could get the Trump camp a rebuke from the US government. Members of parliament in the UK, Iceland, Canada and Australia have reported that they are being inundated on their official government emails accounts with fund-raising pleas from the Trump campaign - some from the candidate himself and others from his sons. One pitch praised British voters for voting to leave the European Union, heralding that they had "taken their country back" - a line Mr Trump himself used while talking to the press at one of his golf courses in Scotland.[/QUOTE] [URL="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36599724"]BBC[/URL] The fact that he is even trying something so blatantly illegal shows both his desperation and ignorance of the law.

I saw a theory floated a few weeks ago that Trump would find some way to back out of the race without actually losing. I didn't fully buy their logic but it's not that unlikely, and this does seem compatible with that idea. "The system is rigged against me!" was practically his catchphrase during the primaries; getting disqualified by the electoral commission could let him leave the race while still maintaining the pretense that he could have won, "if the system had let him". If that's not true, though (as it likely is not), he's definitely either completely disorganized, or absolutely desperate. To be either at this point in the race is a disaster for Trump.

If trump drops out post nomination, can the republicans replace him?

Props to that MP for roasting Trump's son.

[QUOTE=ROFLBURGER;50624189]If trump drops out post nomination, can the republicans replace him?[/QUOTE] I know one man who might be available... [IMG]http://az616578.vo.msecnd.net/files/2016/02/05/635902968895153912-27979236_jeb_630_0.jpg[/IMG]

trump has a son?

[QUOTE=gman003-main;50624064]I saw a theory floated a few weeks ago that Trump would find some way to back out of the race without actually losing. I didn't fully buy their logic but it's not that unlikely, and this does seem compatible with that idea. "The system is rigged against me!" was practically his catchphrase during the primaries; getting disqualified by the electoral commission could let him leave the race while still maintaining the pretense that he could have won, "if the system had let him". If that's not true, though (as it likely is not), he's definitely either completely disorganized, or absolutely desperate. To be either at this point in the race is a disaster for Trump.[/QUOTE] Well it's clear he never really wanted to be president. I think you have to sell off all your shit to become president too. It was always about generating publicity for his businesses just like how Ben Carson was only running to sell his book.

That looks like a typical e-mail that's sent en masse. Someone probably registered their e-mail address to some newsletter. Or this is just Trump successfully hijacking the news cycle again.

[QUOTE=Amfleet;50624019]The fact that he is even trying something so blatantly illegal shows both his desperation and ignorance of the law.[/QUOTE] 1) I would wait to see if these emails were actually generated by Trump or his campaign before making any judgement. 2) Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. But if it was his campaign that did this, then it should face the appropriate repercussions for their actions.

[QUOTE=Silence I Kill You;50624346]1) I would wait to see if these emails were actually generated by Trump or his campaign before making any judgement. 2) Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. But if it was his campaign that did this, then it should face the appropriate repercussions for their actions.[/QUOTE] Lawsuit filed, will not be finished until after election. [editline]30th June 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=orgornot;50624342]That looks like a typical e-mail that's sent en masse. Someone probably registered their e-mail address to some newsletter. Or this is just Trump successfully hijacking the news cycle again.[/QUOTE] How did the campaign get the emails addresses then.

[QUOTE=Silence I Kill You;50624346]1) I would wait to see if these emails were actually generated by Trump or his campaign before making any judgement. 2) Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. But if it was his campaign that did this, then it should face the appropriate repercussions for their actions.[/QUOTE] While that's possible the fact that it specifically mentioned the Brexit kind of led me to believe otherwise. It most likely is a case of Hanlon's Razor, but that's the kind of ignorance I meant in that quote. Both he and his campaign seem ignorant of reality in both their policies and their procedures.

[QUOTE=orgornot;50624342]That looks like a typical e-mail that's sent en masse. Someone probably registered their e-mail address to some newsletter. Or this is just Trump successfully hijacking the news cycle again.[/QUOTE] Must be an expensive hijack. Soliciting donations from foreign nationals is against FEC rules. Trump campaign likely will be facing significant fines down the line. It is illegal to do so.

[QUOTE=Wiggles;50624205]I know one man who might be available... [IMG]http://az616578.vo.msecnd.net/files/2016/02/05/635902968895153912-27979236_jeb_630_0.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE] Donald Trump is a mess! *pause for laughter* *silence* *shrinks back into turtle shell*

This is the same email he gives people in the US. Literally a garbage article about people's spam inboxes.

[QUOTE=Chonch;50624621]This is the same email he gives people in the US. Literally a garbage article about people's spam inboxes.[/QUOTE] Yup. Trump will just gain publicity from this whether it was intentional or not. Hijack the news cycle, watch liberals slurp it up, then easily dismiss it.

[QUOTE=Chonch;50624621]This is the same email he gives people in the US. Literally a garbage article about people's spam inboxes.[/QUOTE] Fortunately, it's the campaign's responsibility to not solicit donations from foreign nationals. He's done so. That breaks FEC rules.

[QUOTE=Chonch;50624621]This is the same email he gives people in the US. Literally a garbage article about people's spam inboxes.[/QUOTE] US and not-US is an important distinction when it comes to campaign finance though. It's clearly a solicitation of funds from foreign nationals. Best case scenario, as you and orgornot say, is that it was just a stupid oversight and negligence from his campaign. Worse case scenario it's actively petitioning foreign investment into his campaign. Either way it's illegal, it only becomes a question of ignorance of campaign finance law or simply not caring.

[QUOTE=orgornot;50624639]Yup. Trump will just gain publicity from this whether it was intentional or not. Hijack the news cycle, watch liberals slurp it up, then easily dismiss it.[/QUOTE] It doesn't matter if it was a newsletter - he solicited donations from foreign nationals. That is not legal. He broke FEC rules. He'll be fined.

[QUOTE=orgornot;50624639]Yup. Trump will just gain publicity from this whether it was intentional or not. Hijack the news cycle, watch liberals slurp it up, then easily dismiss it.[/QUOTE] Or, far more likely, he will fail to dismiss it and blacklist any outlets that ask him about it because it's pretty easy to stump the Trump when he can't run out a debate clock :v:

i can't wait to see my hard left friends post this like it's the actual truth. this has about as much legitimacy to it as those nigerian princes leaving me a great sum of money do.

[QUOTE=Pops;50624698]i can't wait to see my hard left friends post this like it's the actual truth. this has about as much legitimacy to it as those nigerian princes leaving me a great sum of money do.[/QUOTE] What's incorrect about it? It doesn't matter if it was automated - his campaign solicited donations from foreign nationals. It's about as black and white as it seems. That breaks FEC rules and is illegal. Not a conspiracy theory in the slightest - you cannot solicit donations from foreigners. He did. What's there to criticize? His campaign broke the law.

[QUOTE=Pops;50624698]i can't wait to see my hard left friends post this like it's the actual truth. this has about as much legitimacy to it as those nigerian princes leaving me a great sum of money do.[/QUOTE] Reality has a well known liberal bias.

[QUOTE=.Isak.;50624715]What's incorrect about it? It doesn't matter if it was automated - his campaign solicited donations from foreign nationals. It's about as black and white as it seems. That breaks FEC rules and is illegal. Not a conspiracy theory in the slightest - you cannot solicit donations from foreigners. He did. What's there to criticize? His campaign broke the law.[/QUOTE] if i had microsoft word, i could easily replicate that excerpt posted on the bbc article. unless they post it from within the browser, i don't believe it. i don't support any candidate, but jumping on the trump hate bandwagon is easier than it was with bush.

[QUOTE=.Isak.;50624715]What's incorrect about it? It doesn't matter if it was automated - his campaign solicited donations from foreign nationals. It's about as black and white as it seems. That breaks FEC rules and is illegal. Not a conspiracy theory in the slightest - you cannot solicit donations from foreigners. He did. What's there to criticize? His campaign broke the law.[/QUOTE] would he really be liable for someone else signing up these email accounts to his newsletter? unless those email addresses were truly private, he didn't do anything wrong

[QUOTE=Numpers;50624773]would he really be liable for someone else signing up these email accounts to his newsletter? unless those email addresses were truly private, he didn't do anything wrong[/QUOTE] The campaign probably just has scrubbers or bots of some sort that scour the internet for email addresses, or worse just buy them from data collection firms. I ended up on the newsletter after going to a Bernie rally and giving them an email address. [QUOTE=Raidyr;50624750]Reality has a well known liberal bias.[/QUOTE] What the fuck does this even mean lmao [editline]dickbutt[/editline] i mean if thats true then how do you explain this?? [t]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fu6PF_dPc-4/UPt0Te9IcvI/AAAAAAAAMEk/jBpyWo8i_U4/s320/jesus-gun.PNG[/t]

[QUOTE=Chonch;50624814]What the fuck does this even mean lmao[/QUOTE] Reality has been scientifically proven by professors at Boston Dynamics to have a liberal bias.

These emails go to listservs so I don't think the Trump campaign is directly asking for overseas funds. I imagine that some /pol/tards thought it would be funny to sign up liberal euro politicians to MAGA emails and that's how they got on the listserv. Public figure contact information is usually openly available.

[QUOTE=RIPBILLYMAYS;50625597]These emails go to listservs so I don't think the Trump campaign is directly asking for overseas funds. I imagine that some /pol/tards thought it would be funny to sign up liberal euro politicians to MAGA emails and that's how they got on the listserv. Public figure contact information is usually openly available.[/QUOTE] [URL="http://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title52-section30121&num=0&edition=prelim"]It doesn't matter.[/URL] [I]Any[/I] solicitation of foreign funding for any US political campaign is [I]illegal[/I]. In addition to these UK MPs, his campaign has now sent solicitation emails to the [URL="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/29/trump-campaign-donations-foreign-politicians"]entire parliaments of Iceland and Australia[/URL], plus a former Canadian PM. He's broken federal campaign law simply by soliciting for donations - it doesn't matter that it was automated. Complaints have already been filed with the FEC - at the minimum, he'll be fined. His campaign can't really afford that right now. The head of the CLC, the group that lodged a complaint with the FEC, commented that [URL="http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-06-29/complaint-claims-trump-illegally-solicited-donations-from-foreign-mps"]"it is a no-brainer that it violates the law."[/URL]

[QUOTE=.Isak.;50625837][URL="http://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title52-section30121&num=0&edition=prelim"]It doesn't matter.[/URL] [I]Any[/I] solicitation of foreign funding for any US political campaign is [I]illegal[/I]. In addition to these UK MPs, his campaign has now sent solicitation emails to the Icelandic legislation, and multiple Australian MPs. He's broken federal campaign law simply by soliciting for donations - it doesn't matter that it was automated. Complaints have already been filed with the FEC - at the minimum, he'll be fined. His campaign can't really afford that right now. The head of the CLC, the group that lodged a complaint with the FEC, commented that [URL="http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-06-29/complaint-claims-trump-illegally-solicited-donations-from-foreign-mps"]"it is a no-brainer that it violates the law."[/URL][/QUOTE] It may not legally matter (I am not a lawyer and have done no research on these laws other than reading that one you linked), but I think ethically there's a difference between "actively seeking out campaign funding from foreign sources" and "negligently sending newsletters to foreign sources who may not even have deliberately signed up for them". I mean, both are clearly wrong but the former is way, WAY more wrong than the latter. If that's the common consensus that could minimize the PR impact of this - which is potentially bigger than the legal impact. Also, there might be some leeway in that law in practice. If a foreign national signed up for that newsletter, lied on several questions asking whether they were a US citizen, used a non-country-specific email server and for good measure did all of this over a proxy inside the US, what could Trump's campaign, or anyone's, have done to prevent that? That law enforced strictly as-written with no reasonable exceptions would be abusable as fuck - just get a buddy in Canada to sign up for the newsletter, file a complaint with the FEC, then repeat until they're bankrupt or they stop soliciting for money over email newsletters.

[QUOTE=gman003-main;50625865]It may not legally matter (I am not a lawyer and have done no research on these laws other than reading that one you linked), but I think ethically there's a difference between "actively seeking out campaign funding from foreign sources" and "negligently sending newsletters to foreign sources who may not even have deliberately signed up for them". I mean, both are clearly wrong but the former is way, WAY more wrong than the latter. If that's the common consensus that could minimize the PR impact of this - which is potentially bigger than the legal impact. Also, there might be some leeway in that law in practice. If a foreign national signed up for that newsletter, lied on several questions asking whether they were a US citizen, used a non-country-specific email server and for good measure did all of this over a proxy inside the US, what could Trump's campaign, or anyone's, have done to prevent that? That law enforced strictly as-written with no reasonable exceptions would be abusable as fuck - just get a buddy in Canada to sign up for the newsletter, file a complaint with the FEC, then repeat until they're bankrupt or they stop soliciting for money over email newsletters.[/QUOTE] It's almost certainly less strictly applied than it's written, but any disbursement of electioneering communication to foreign sources is illegal. It's obviously a pre-email law, since it'd be absurd negligence to send paper by-mail electioneering communication to a foreign country, but it's still illegal. If Trump makes a decisive attempt to stop sending electioneering communication to foreign nationals - something that'd be pretty easy by filtering out foreign destination addresses - they likely won't have any issue. It's idiotic not to filter out foreign emails in the first place, though. It is very possible the Trump campaign could get fined for this if they don't immediately nip it in the bud. Seeing that his campaigning office is a mess, though... Seems unlikely they'll fix it before the CLC complaint to the FEC goes through.