Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Excuuuse my French, but it's about effin' time! Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS is in the court's crosshairs. The New York Times reports Obama's Lawyer Demands Information on Group's Donors - NYTimes.com:
The lawyer for President Obama demanded on Tuesday that Crossroads GPS disclose its donors, saying in a complaint to the Federal Election Commission that the group is plainly a “political committee” subject to federal reporting requirements.
In the complaint, obtained by The New York Times, Robert F. Bauer, the campaign’s chief counsel, writes that the group — founded by Karl Rove, among others — can no longer shield the identity of its donors by defining itself as a “social welfare” organization.
“Crossroads seems to believe that it can run out the clock and spend massive sums of money in this election without accounting for a trace of its funding,” Mr. Bauer wrote in the complaint, filed Tuesday. “Now, a federal appellate court has issued a ruling that makes clear that Crossroads is out of time.”
The case Mr. Bauer cites is “Real Truth About Obama v. FEC,” in which the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that the government must determine the “major purpose” of groups like Crossroads.
In a letter to Mr. Rove and Steven Law, the president of Crossroads, Mr. Bauer urges them to immediately disclose their donors.
“Will Crossroads fight this out, knowing that disclosure is inevitable but looking to delay until after the election?” Mr. Bauer wrote.
Official “super PACs” that openly back candidates are required to disclose their donors. But there is no disclosure requirement for groups that are formed as educational groups under a special part of the tax code.
Those organizations can raise unlimited sums from wealthy individuals without ever disclosing where the money came from. It is information from those groups that Mr. Obama’s campaign is hoping to pry open with the complaint.
But even if the election commission were to agree with the Democratic position, the argument would likely end up in court, where it could take months before a decision would be rendered — possibly after the 2012 campaign were over. [Guaranteed]
That would provide little comfort to Mr. Obama or his Democratic allies who may have found themselves buried by an avalanche of negative advertising financed by groups like Crossroads.
Rick Hasen, an election-law expert and professor at University of California, Irvine, said the court decision makes it clearer that groups like Crossroads are violating campaign finance laws by refusing to disclose their donors. But he added that, “I don’t expect the F.E.C. to move that quickly, because the F.E.C. never moves that quickly.”
Justice moves slowly but one fine day we may finally see the "perp walk" that we have all been waiting for.
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