WASHINGTON — Today, American Principles Project (APP) called on President Trump and the U.S. Senate to immediately nominate and confirm new commissioners to the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Currently, the FEC has only three commissioners: James Trainor III (R), Steven Walther (I), and Ellen Weintraub (D). The other three seats remain vacant. Without at least four seated commissioners, the FEC does not have a quorum to conduct business.

In June, President Trump nominated Allen Dickerson to the FEC. Dickerson is the legal director at the Institute for Free Speech, and a former associate with Kirkland & Ellis, LLP.

Jon Schweppe, director of policy and government affairs at APP, released the following statement:

This week, Facebook and Twitter explicitly violated campaign finance law by providing in-kind contributions to Joe Biden and the Democratic Party in the form of selective censorship of a New York Post story that was likely to harm Democrats’ electoral prospects.

Given these blatantly illegal actions, and given previous concerns over Big Tech’s repeated violations of campaign finance law, it is clear that the President and Senate must nominate and confirm new commissioners to the FEC as soon as possible. We need the FEC to be able to enforce the rule of law. Under existing law, the FEC is provided with sole jurisdiction over the enforcement of campaign finance law. Without a functioning FEC, we are living in the wild, wild west — and the integrity of our free and fair elections is legitimately called into question.

In August, APP wrote a letter to the FEC expressing concern over a potential campaign finance violation by Big Tech companies in the congressional race for Florida’s 21st District.

In September, Facebook banned an ad from APP’s affiliated PAC after a Politifact “fact check” found that the ad was “missing context.” APP plans to file an FEC complaint after the election alleging a material in-kind contribution by Facebook to the campaigns of both Joe Biden and Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.).

To schedule an interview with an APP policy expert, contact Paul Dupont at (o) 202-503-2010 or pdupont@americanprinciplesproject.org.