There are allegations that Donald Trump broke the law when he took a $100 bill from his wallet to pay for a Pennsylvania woman’s groceries.
What was intended as a goodwill gesture during a political visit to the Sprankles neighborhood grocery store in Kittanning, Pennsylvania on Monday could now land the former president in hot water.
But a former head of the Federal Election Commission told DailyMail.com that no law was broken by the kind act, saying: ‘Trump clearly made what he considered a charitable donation and that in no way affects the federal laws governing elections.’
And another legal expert says that “from his perspective, the payment appears perfectly legal.”
A mother of three was grocery shopping with her three sons when Trump arrived at the store, between a roundtable of farmers and a rally — all in neighboring cities of Pittsburgh.
Donald Trump took $100 in cash from his wallet on Monday and handed it to a mother of three who was checking out at a local grocery store chain in western Pennsylvania.
As cashiers charged customers, Trump reached into his wallet, pulled out a new $100 bill and handed it to the tellers to contribute to the total.
“Here,” Trump said, referring to her grocery bill, “it’s going down a little bit. It just went down $100.”
“We’ll do that for you at the White House, okay?” he said, asking for her vote.
An X user commented: ‘It is illegal for a presidential candidate, or any candidate, to hand out cash to voters in the US’
“Offering money or any form of valuable consideration in exchange for a vote is considered a bribe and is a violation of federal election laws,” they continued. “The Federal Election Campaign Act and related laws prohibit this type of conduct to ensure that elections are free and fair.”
“Both the person offering the bribe and the person receiving it could face legal consequences,” it was claimed.
Asked about social media claims that Trump is violating election laws, former FEC Commissioner Hans von Spakovsky called it “preposterous on its face.”
Spakovsky said the “thoughtful” response to “her money problems” did not violate election or campaign finance laws.
“The ‘eddies’ on social media about this are ridiculous,” he concluded.
The FEC enforces federal campaign finance laws.
Spakovsky now leads the election reform initiative at the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Another user on X insisted the act was illegal because Trump had said, “We’ll do that for you from the White House.”
“Donald Trump literally paid someone for his vote,” they alleged. “This is a federal crime.”
Trump visited a local grocery store chain in western Pennsylvania on Monday, where he helped pay for a woman’s groceries out of his own pocket
There is debate, however, over whether Trump was asking for her vote with his comment, or whether he was even talking about her vote at all.
Some argue that the former president was actually reiterating his promise to lower food prices.
And Mike Dimino, an election law expert and law professor at Widener University’s Commonwealth Law School, appears to have learned the same lesson from the interaction.
“It is illegal to pay someone to vote at all, to not vote, or to vote for a specific candidate. However, it is not illegal to give money to other people per se,” he told DailyMail.com
“If that were the case,” he explained, “candidates would be prohibited from donating to charity or giving money to the homeless, or perhaps even tipping a waiter or a barber. The question is whether the payment was for a vote or purely gratuitous.”
“Everything I’ve seen about the incident indicates there was no reciprocity,” Dimino concluded.
“Trump undoubtedly wanted to boost public relations by helping a consumer control inflated grocery prices, and he indicated he could do more to lower prices if elected, but he asked the woman for nothing in return for the $100.”
