{"id":21360,"date":"2025-11-04T23:51:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T23:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/?p=21360"},"modified":"2025-11-04T23:51:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T23:51:20","slug":"mamdani-referred-to-doj-for-criminal-charges-over-alleged-foreign-donations-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/?p=21360","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani Referred to DOJ For Criminal Charges Over Alleged Foreign Donations"},"content":{"rendered":"
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New York City mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani faces two criminal referrals filed Tuesday by a campaign finance watchdog alleging he accepted illegal donations from foreign contributors.<\/p>\n

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The Coolidge Reagan Foundation\u00a0submitted the referrals<\/a>\u00a0to the Department of Justice\u2019s Criminal Division and the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, accusing Mamdani of potential violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act and the New York Election Code.<\/p>\n

The filings follow a report earlier this month by The New York Post that Mamdani\u2019s campaign had collected nearly $13,000 from at least 170 donors with addresses outside the United States, including one contribution from his mother-in-law in Dubai.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are not isolated incidents or clerical errors,\u201d Dan Backer, a national campaign finance expert and president of the Coolidge Reagan Foundation, told The Post in a statement.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis was a sustained pattern of foreign money flowing into a New York City mayoral race, which is a clear violation of both federal law and New York City campaign finance rules,\u201d Backer noted further, per the outlet.<\/p>\n

\u201cMamdani\u2019s campaign was on notice for months that it was accepting illegal foreign contributions, and yet it did nothing meaningful to stop it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Coolidge Reagan Foundation \u2014 which has previously filed complaints against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Hillary Clinton\u2019s presidential campaign, and the Democratic National Committee \u2014 called on Bragg and the Justice Department to investigate and potentially prosecute Mamdani over the alleged illegal campaign contributions.<\/p>\n

The group said the donations originated from countries including Australia, Turkey, France, Canada, and Germany, among others, The Post said.<\/p>\n

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The organization alleged that Mamdani\u2019s campaign showed a \u201csystematic failure to comply\u201d with campaign finance regulations.<\/p>\n

Under the Federal Election Campaign Act, it is illegal to \u201caccept or receive\u201d contributions from foreign nationals in any federal, state, or local election. Individuals who knowingly accept such donations may face substantial fines and potential imprisonment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe law is crystal clear that foreign nationals may not participate in American elections, and that includes making contributions,\u201d Backer\u2019s statement to The Post continued. \u201cYet Mamdani\u2019s campaign repeatedly accepted donations from individuals abroad, some even tied to regions and individuals openly sympathetic to hostile actors.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether through negligence or intent, this conduct undermines the integrity of the democratic process.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the Mamdani campaign appears to have refunded some foreign contributions, records indicate that at least 88 donations totaling $7,190 have not been returned. The campaign has raised approximately $4 million in private contributions and received an additional $12.7 million in public matching funds.<\/p>\n

With less than a month remaining before Election Day, Mamdani\u2019s campaign reports having about $6.1 million in cash on hand.<\/p>\n

Campaign spokesperson Dora Pekec said some of the disputed donations may have come from American citizens residing overseas, The Post reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll US citizens and permanent residents, including those who live outside the US, are legally permitted to donate to New York City mayoral campaigns under federal campaign finance law and New York State and City law,\u201d Pekec told\u00a0Fox News Digital<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Campaign has a rigorous compliance process in place to ensure compliance with these laws, including a protocol to confirm whether donors with foreign addresses are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents,\u201d Pekec added. \u201cThe Campaign will promptly issue refunds for any donations that are found to be impermissible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most polls show Mamdani, who is an avowed socialist who has\u00a0consorted with terrorist suspects<\/a>, comfortably ahead of former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and GOP candidate Curtis Sliwa.<\/p>\n

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) last week blasted current New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul for endorsing Mamdani while accusing the mayoral candidate \u201cof being a \u2018jihadist\u2019 for meeting with Siraj Wahhaj \u2014 an \u2018unindicted co-conspirator\u2019 in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing,\u201d The Post reported separately.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0Getty Images This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion. New York City mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani faces two criminal referrals filed Tuesday by a campaign finance watchdog … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21360"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21361,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21360\/revisions\/21361"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}