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Record amounts of overseas money are flowing into the presidential campaigns, and finance experts say there is no sure way to rule out that foreigners are making illegal donations.
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who spoke to an adoring crowd of 200,000 in Berlin last week, has already received twice as much money from abroad as President Bush and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) did together during the entire 2004 campaign.
While only American citizens by law may donate to the campaigns, finance experts say it would not be that difficult to circumvent the safeguards that have been put into place to prevent foreigners from giving to U.S. presidential campaigns — if they are willing to make false statements and risk legal trouble in the U.S.
“An individual can easily donate online and otherwise, and if they’re dishonest or overenthusiastic, they can lie about who they are and what their status is to make an unlawful contribution,” said Jan Baran, an elections and ethics lawyer with the firm Wiley Rein.
Federal laws mandate that contributors to federal, state and local elections must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents with green cards. But with so many Americans living abroad and donating to campaigns, it can be difficult to make sure donations are truly from American citizens, experts say.
If the contributor deceives the campaign in order to donate, the liability falls on the contributor, not the campaign.
“If a contributor lies to campaigns, that’s outside the control of the campaigns,” said Baran, the election lawyer. “That’s a lot of legal risk for a lousy $2,300.”
“There’s no doubt there’s been more fundraising overseas,” said former Federal Election Commission (FEC) Chairman Michael Toner, who is now a lawyer at Bryan Cave.
A review of federal election records by The Hill found that through June, Obama received $2.8 million in contributions from abroad, including people living in American territories and serving in the military overseas. That is seven times more than the $381,809 that presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) has received from Americans abroad so far.
In 2004, Bush took in $747,857 from abroad, while Kerry received $550,834.
These types of donations account for more contributions to the Obama campaign than the totals for several states. The Illinois senator’s campaign has a special webpage for Americans abroad who would like to donate. They are asked to include a valid U.S. passport number or alien resident number, in addition to the information regularly asked of contributors.
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