The Trump campaign filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission over reports that the Washington Post is paying to boost stories it has written that are unfavorable to former President Donald Trump.
The Post this week "aggressively ramped up" its paid advertising on social media platforms to boost stories criticizing Trump after the backlash over owner Jeff Bezos' decision to kill an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris.
The newspaper began its ad blitz at the beginning of the week on sites such as Facebook, with promoted stories centering around Trump's misstatements, campaign rhetoric, controversial comments about Haitian migrants in Ohio, and about supporters leaving his campaign rallies early, Semafor reported.
In a letter to the FEC, Gary Lawkowski, deputy council for the Trump campaign, said this amounts to an illegal corporation campaign contribution.
"We call upon the Commission to immediately investigate expenditures by The Washington Post," Lawkowski said.
Under the Federal Elections Campaign Act, it is generally unlawful for corporations "to make a contribution or expenditure in connection with any election to any political office ... or for any candidate, political committee, or other person knowingly to accept or receive any contribution," Lawkowski said.
The content promoted by The Washington Post mirrors themes and issues highlighted by the Harris campaign, Lawkowski wrote. Lawkowski pointed out the Post promoted an article about people leaving Trump's rallies early, which had been pushed on social media by Harris' digital team.
The Post's articles support a reasonable inference that the Harris team provided information about the content of communications, Lawkowski said. There is reason to believe The Washington Post has made coordinated communications, which constitute illegal corporate in-kind contributions to Harris for President, and that Harris for President has accepted such contributions, Lawkowski said.
Before Monday, however, the Washington Post had run only about a dozen ads on Facebook for the full month, which promoted the newspaper and didn't mention Trump, reported The New York Post.
At least 250,000 readers, about 10% of the newspaper's circulation, canceled their subscriptions to protest Bezos' decision that the newspaper would not endorse a presidential candidate, breaking the publications' practice of several years.
Bezos, the founder of Amazon, said in a guest essay Monday that the decision was made as a matter of "principle" and that endorsements "create a perception of bias" for newspapers.
Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
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