A new lawsuit calls for a much more thorough investigation into Russian “coordination” with the 2016 Trump campaign

• Two groups accused the FEC of failing to respond to a complaint against Russia and the Trump campaign.

• The nonprofit organizations are calling for more comprehensive disclosure of Russia’s spending and activities to influence the 2016 elections.

• The FEC is often in ideological conflict with itself and has often been sued for inaction.

Two nonprofit advocacy groups filed suit against the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday, alleging that the federal agency has failed for the past five years to respond to a complaint against the Russian government and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign for alleged violations of campaign finance law.

The two groups, Campaign for Accountability and Free Speech for People, argue in their lawsuit in federal court that the FEC’s delay may have withheld from the American public information that did not come to light during special counsel Robert Mueller’s two-year investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

In the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, DC, the groups pointed to Mueller’s work and to separate congressional investigations, but said those investigations “took different approaches for different purposes and with different mandates and did not focus on bringing transparency to campaign finance – the FEC’s mandate.”

“Even today, despite multiple investigations, key information about the funds spent during the 2016 campaign remains unknown,” the groups said in their complaint. “How much did the Russian Federation spend? When and for what efforts did it make the payments? How much (and which) of these expenditures were ‘coordinated’ with the Trump campaign?”

While Mueller’s office found no evidence of collaboration between the Kremlin and Trump’s campaign team, it did document ten cases of potential obstruction of justice by the former president.

In their 2016 complaint with the FEC, Campaign for Accountability and Free Speech for People alleged that the Russian government failed to disclose its spending on that year’s presidential election, arguing that at least some of that spending was “coordinated” with the Trump campaign. Under federal election law, the term “coordination” has a looser meaning that does not require a formal agreement or cooperation, but can occur “in cooperation, consultation, or concertation with, or at the request or suggestion” of a candidate or affiliated political entity.

Campaign teams are required to disclose the dates, amounts and purposes of such “coordinated” spending, said Ron Fein, legal director of Free Speech for the People.

“Even five years after the 2016 election, we still lack basic information about what happened with the coordination between the Russian government and the Trump campaign,” Fein told Insider.

“The FEC has not exactly covered itself in glory with its investigations in recent years, but it is the agency that Congress has tasked with investigating violations of federal campaign finance law.”

A history of inaction and complaints

The FEC, which is responsible for enforcing campaign finance laws, has the power to impose civil penalties with a five-year statute of limitations. However, as a nonpartisan agency, the FEC is often ideologically divided and frequently reaches stalemate on high-profile matters.

A Commission spokesman declined to comment on the lawsuit, which is just the latest in a long line of legal disputes over alleged inaction.

Just last month, Washington-based Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, an organization that advocates for good governance, filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that the commission failed to enforce campaign finance law against a group accused of illegally concealing the origins of millions of dollars in super PAC spending.

Earlier this year, a former Republican congressional candidate sued the FEC for allegedly failing to respond to her complaint against Twitter because her account on the social media platform was not verified.

Fein expressed hope that the FEC would respond to the lawsuit with an investigation that could shed more light on Russian spending in the 2016 presidential election and the Trump campaign’s compliance with disclosure laws.

“Many people believe that these matters have been resolved by previous investigations, including the Mueller investigation,” he said. “But when you look closer, you see that through a combination of strategic decisions and perhaps the rush to complete the investigation, there was a failure to connect certain dots, to ask certain questions, and as a result there are still unanswered questions that make it difficult for us as a country to move forward without knowing what happened in 2016.”

Read the original article on Business Insider