Democrat election lawyer Marc Elias, DCCC hit with FEC complaint alleging $5M in bogus billing

The Committee to Defeat the President, an anti-Biden super PAC, has filed a Federal Election Commission complaint against Elias Law Group and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for allegedly misreporting $5.2 million in payments regarding election recounts.

According to FEC filings, the DCCC paid Elias Law Group, a Democrat election law firm led by Marc Elias, a total of $5.2 million in "Recount Legal [Services]" in 2021 and 2022. 

The political action committee alleged in its complaint the payments were made despite no pending federal election recounts at the time.

The super PAC has also forwarded its complaint to the Justice Department, claiming that the payments were incorrectly reported and possibly violate campaign finance laws.

The FEC notified the committee on Monday that it received the complaint, would notify the respondents and inform the complainant on its final actions.

Notification of receipt of a complaint is the first step in the FEC's process of handling a complaint, and subsequent stages, such as an investigation into the complaint, must be approved by four of the six FEC commissioners.

The Elias Law Group and the DCCC didn't immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.

The Democratic National Committee recently parted ways with Elias over numerous strategic disagreements, according to a Punchbowl report. However, Elias' law firm continues to work with the DCCC and other major Democratic entities.

Dan Backer, counsel for the Committee to Defeat the President, said in a statement, "For years, the infamous Marc Elias and the corrupt Democrats in his orbit have violated federal campaign finance laws, and it’s high time to hold them accountable.

"Americans deserve to know the truth about the Democratic Party’s shady money laundering schemes, especially when campaign funds are supposed to be spent in one way and they get spent in another."