In his prosecution of former President Donald Trump for falsifying business records, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg argued that Trump's payment of $130,000 to adult film star Stormy Daniels was a campaign expense.

While some legal experts rejected that claim, a federal court has found that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton committed a far bigger campaign finance violation.

 $6 million worth of illegal coordination 

As Western Journal contributor Randy DeSoto noted in an article published on Friday, that was the conclusion reached by a three judge-panel of the Washington D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals last week.

Specifically, the court ruled that Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign and a super political action committee (PAC) known as Correct the Record "set out to engage in a wide range of coordinated activities" contrary to federal law.

"In an administrative complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission, nonprofit watchdog Campaign Legal Center alleges that Correct the Record spent close to $6 million in coordination with the Clinton campaign during the lead-up to the 2016 election, including to conduct polls, hire teams of round-the-clock factcheckers, and connect Clinton media surrogates with radio and television news outlets," DeSoto quoted the judges as stating.

"But it characterized all of the committee’s myriad expenditures -- from staff salaries and travel expenses to the cost of commissioning polls and renting offices -- as 'inputs' to unpaid communications over the internet," the ruling continued.

"For that reason, neither Correct the Record nor the Clinton campaign designated any of Correct the Record’s expenditures as contributions to the campaign," it added.

FEC "acted contrary to law" in dismissing complaint

DeSoto explained that Correct the Record's conduct amounted to a "business record" violation as it did not "properly account for money spent to help the Clinton campaign."

While the FEC had cited an internet exemption in dismissing the Campaign Legal Center's  complaint, the three-judge panel ruled that move was "contrary to law."

"Because we conclude that the internet exemption cannot be read to exempt from disclosure those expenditures that are only tangentially related to an eventual internet message or post, the Commission’s reading of the internet exemption stretches it beyond lawful limits," the ruling read.

"As to those expenditures that it deemed not to be covered by the internet exemption, the Commission acted contrary to law in dismissing the complaint for want of reason to believe the relevant expenditures were coordinated with the campaign, despite plausible allegations that Correct the Record coordinated all its expenditures with Hillary for America -- and openly acknowledged doing so," it stressed.

Campaign paid $113,000 following an unrelated FEC investigation

The judges concluded by upholding a district court ruling and directing the FEC to bring its findings in compliance with it.

DeSoto noted that this was not the first time Clinton's campaign has run afoul of federal election law, as it previously did so in 2022. 

According to the Associated Press, it and the Democratic National Committee paid $113,000 to settle an FEC investigation into their role in funding the Steele dossier.