EXCLUSIVE — Eugene Vindman, a Trump whistleblower-turned-Democratic congressional candidate in Virginia, is facing a Federal Election Commission complaint over his campaign’s allegedly illegal coordination with an outside group.
The complaint, filed with the FEC on Wednesday by the Functional Government Initiative, calls for the agency to investigate Vindman, the Democrat’s campaign, and a political action committee called VoteVets. That’s because, in the telling of the watchdog group, a recent interaction with the press appears to show that VoteVets, which supports progressive veterans for office such as Vindman, made an “excessive and impermissible” in-kind contribution to Vindman’s campaign.
“The public is all too familiar with politicians not acting honorably,” said Pete McGinnis, the spokesman for the Functional Government Initiative. “We hope the FEC takes these apparent violations by Mr. Vindman seriously.”
The complaint against Vindman comes as he prepares to face off in November against Republican former Army Green Beret Derrick Anderson to represent Virginia’s 7th Congressional District. The seat leans Democratic and is open due to Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) announcing a run for governor of Virginia. Vindman and his brother, Alexander Vindman, blew the whistle on a 2019 phone call between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and then-President Donald Trump — leading to Trump’s first impeachment.
In the Wednesday letter to the FEC’s acting general counsel, Lisa J. Stevenson, the Functional Government Initiative cited a report this week in the Washington Free Beacon. The outlet reached out to the Vindman campaign for comment over apparent discrepancies regarding Vindman’s military record. Vindman’s campaign manager, Jeremy Levinson, replied by saying that “all future questions” could be directed to Travis Tazelaar, the political director for VoteVets. Moreover, Tazelaar provided the outlet a statement on Vindman.
VoteVets is a so-called hybrid PAC, meaning it is supposed to maintain one bank account for direct contributions in elections and another “non-contribution account” for outside ad spending. VoteVets endorsed Vindman, spent over $400,000 on TV ads boosting Vindman, and donated $10,000 to Vindman’s campaign, federal records show.
Federal law holds that super PACs and campaigns may not coordinate, including on communications. That rule would likely extend to hybrid PACs, according to Kendra Arnold, who runs a group called the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, which is also planning to file an FEC complaint against Vindman.
“On its face, Mr. Tazelaar’s services to the campaign go beyond those of a typical volunteer,” the Functional Government Initiative wrote in its FEC complaint. “Indeed, the record shows that Mr. Tazelaar appears to be acting effectively as the press secretary for the Vindman Campaign. Answering all future questions on any subject is what a press secretary or communications director does. It is not a function typically performed by a volunteer.”
VoteVets likely made an “excessive contribution” to Vindman since the outside group already reached the contribution limit for the 2024 primary and general elections, the watchdog said in the complaint. It was signed by the watchdog’s director, Chris Stanley, ex-chief of the Census Bureau’s office of congressional affairs and a former longtime GOP Senate staffer.
Levinson, the staffer for Vindman, insisted in a statement to the Washington Examiner that the Vindman campaign is above board.
“The bottom line is that we worked with the coordinated side of the VoteVets organization on the response to the Free Beacon outreach,” Levinson said. “The FEC rules are clear that this interaction does not violate its rules and would not constitute an in-kind contribution.”
Campaign finance expert Dan Backer said the Vindman campaign’s logic is “flawed and laughable.”
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“If somebody is providing public relations services from the PAC or at the PAC’s direction, it is clearly a commercial service that is being provided,” Backer, an attorney at the firm Chalmers, Adams, Backer, and Kaufman, told the Washington Examiner. “While legal, that in-kind contribution is subject to contribution limits. This is going to have to be reported on both of VoteVets and the campaign’s reports.”
VoteVets did not reply to a request for comment.