The Republican National Lawyers Association (RNLA) filed a complaint today with the Federal Election Commission alleging Michael Bloomberg is in violation of federal campaign finance law, through his use of his personally owned media empire, Bloomberg News.

The complaint alleges that Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg is using Bloomberg News to influence a federal election in support of his own candidacy and in opposition to the Trump campaign. Bloomberg News appears to be in violation of both source and soft money prohibitions of federal campaign finance law by facilitating in-kind corporate contributions to Michael Bloomberg’s presidential campaign.

RNLA Chair Manuel Iglesias issued the following statement on Bloomberg’s campaign finance law violations: “Bloomberg News abandoned its ‘Guiding Principles’ when it announced that its news team would not investigate its owner and now presidential candidate, Michael Bloomberg, as well as the rest of the field of 2020 Democrat candidates but would continue to investigate President Trump. The announcement not only ignores basic and fair journalistic practices, it violates federal campaign finance law. The RNLA urges the Federal Election Commission to investigate the matter to determine the scope of Bloomberg’s violations.”

The RNLA’s complaint states that Bloomberg News is not entitled to the media exemption it has invoked for itself for any opinion and editorial content it publishes in connection with the 2020 presidential election. In accordance with federal law, Bloomberg may only invoke this exemption for its news reporting if a story is a “bona fide news account,” and is “part of a general pattern of campaign-related news accounts that give reasonably equal coverage to all opposing candidates.” For these reasons, the RNLA has ample evidence to believe that Bloomberg News has violated federal campaign finance laws.

View and download the full complaint here.

View and download this press release here.