FEC Rarely Votes to Refer Criminal Cases to Justice

The Federal Election Commission has referred no campaign finance enforcement cases to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution since 2008 and rarely made referrals to the DOJ even before then, according to FEC figures recently provided to Bloomberg BNA.

Such FEC referrals to DOJ have been made only 22 times in the FEC’s 40-year history, with 14 referrals, nearly two-thirds of the total, coming in just the first four years of the FEC’s existence from 1975 through 1978.

The lack of FEC referrals apparently has not diminished the Justice Department’s capability to prosecute campaign finance cases on its own, however. ...