The presidential campaign for independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. released a statement Thursday asserting that every CNN staffer involved in next week's debate is violating campaign finance laws and subject to "serious jail time."
The statement was a warning after CNN confirmed early Thursday morning that Kennedy did not qualify for the debate by the network's deadline.
Kennedy is already taking his plight to the Federal Election Commission, asking it to intervene and not allow the debate. And now, he's taking direct aim at CNN.
"CNN has persisted in this approach even after FEC made clear the phrase 'presumptive nominee' is 'not in the FEC's debate regulation,' and therefore it cannot exempt CNN from the prohibition on excessive campaign contributions. As the Commission on Presidential Debates explains, 'Until the conventions take place, we don't know who the official nominees will be,'" read the statement.
"This means CNN, and every member of CNN who is participating in planning, executing, and holding this debate, is at risk of prosecution, as happened to Michael Cohen, for violating campaign finance laws. This risk is now acute given that any further violation would be knowing and willful, and thus could carry with it serious jail time," it went on.
"CNN and its staff are on clear notice, especially given the damning evidence that the Biden campaign has openly demanded Kennedy be excluded from the debates and Trump received assurances from CNN that Kennedy would be excluded."
According to CNN's rules to be included for the first debate next Thursday in Atlanta, Kennedy needed 15% support in four approved national polls; he met that criteria in three polls. Second, he needed to be on the ballot in enough states to win 270 votes in the Electoral College; he would currently reach less than 100.
It adds up to President Joe Biden versus Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump in next Thursday's first presidential debate of the season. The 90-minute affair will be held without a studio audience, hosted by CNN anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.
"My exclusion by Presidents Biden and Trump from the debate is undemocratic, un-American, and cowardly," Kennedy said in the statement.