Jill Stein’s court review denied and 2016 campaign must repay $175,000 used after nomination
Eden Villalovas
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Jill Stein, a former Green Party candidate, was ordered on Friday by a judge to pay funds she received during the 2016 presidential primaries as demanded by the Federal Election Commission.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit declared Stein must follow the FEC order to repay $175,272 that was used to finance her campaign past the time those funds were eligible to be used.
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The FEC ordered Stein to pay over $175,000 in public financing funds to the Treasury in October 2021, requiring her to pay within 30 days.
The FEC found that Stein continued to use taxpayer dollars to fund her campaign past the usage deadline. Stein received a total of $590,936 in matching funds during the 2016 primary and received a payment of $134,900 in January 2017 that she was not supposed to accept, according to an audit of her accounts.
The $134,900, plus the extra money Stein’s campaign had on hand after the presidential campaign, which was $40,372, make up the $175,272 the FEC demands from her.
Stein received the nomination for the Green Party on Aug. 6, 2016, and the FEC asserted that money she raised after gaining the nomination was improperly used.
Under the Presidential Primary Matching Payment Account Act, “all contributions received by an individual from the date he or she becomes a candidate and all federal matching payments received by the candidate shall be used only to defray qualified campaign expenses or to repay loans or otherwise restore funds.”
Stein failed to submit a contest on time against the FEC’s audit, which would have shown she used funds for campaign winding down costs, which could offset a repayment obligation under the Presidential Primary Matching Payment Account Act.
Stein and her campaign committee, Jill Stein for President, filed a petition to review the order at the end of October 2021, claiming the cutoff point should have been the deadline for the Peace and Freedom Party nomination who submitted their nominations in mid-August 2016, which she was also seeking. Her lawyers argued she was permitted to use the taxpayer money because it went toward gaining ballot access in various states during the fall of 2016.
“In such circumstances, the Commission has previously given the candidate the benefit of the later independent party nomination dates rather than the earlier date of the national nominating convention, provided that such dates were not later than the date of the last day of the last major party nominating convention,” the motion for review states.
However, the FEC said this argument is invalid since the Peace and Freedom Party nominating process deadline was in July 2016.
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“In those states, Stein sought to access the ballot through petition initiatives and by seeking the nomination of individual state parties,” Judge Gregory G. Katsas wrote in an opinion filed Friday. “Stein pursued these efforts until September 9, 2016, the latest state deadline for her to so qualify.”
“The matching payment period definition was constitutional as applied to Stein, and the FEC’s forfeiture holding was not arbitrary,” the opinion states. “We therefore deny the petition for review.”