Claims emerged that Donald Trump broke the law when he took a $100 bill from his wallet to help pay for a Pennsylvania woman’s groceries.
What was meant as a goodwill gesture during a living room politics stop at Sprankles neighborhood grocery store in Kittanning, Pennsylvania on Monday could now land the former president in trouble.
But a former head of the Federal Election Commission tells DailyMail.com that no law was violated with the act of kindness and said: ‘Trump was obviously making what he considered to be a charitable donation and that in no way implicates any federal laws governing elections.’
And another legal expert says ‘the payment appears to be perfectly legal’ in his perspective.
A mother-of-three was grocery shopping with her three sons when Trump arrived at the store between a round table with farmers and a rally – all in neighboring towns of Pittsburgh.
Donald Trump took $100 in cash from his wallet and handed it to a mother-of-three checking out at a local grocery chain in western Pennsylvania on Monday
While clerks were checking the shopper out, Trump took out his wallet, pulled out a crisp $100 bill and handed it to the cashiers to contribute towards the total bill.
‘Here,’ Trump said and said of her grocery bill: ‘It’s going to go down a little bit. It just went down $100.’
‘We’ll do that for you for the White House, alright?’ he said, asking for her vote.
One X user noted: ‘It is illegal for a presidential candidate, or any candidate, to hand out cash to voters in the U.S.’
‘Offering money or any form of valuable consideration in exchange for a vote is considered bribery and violates federal election laws,’ they went on. ‘The Federal Election Campaign Act and related laws prohibit this type of conduct to ensure elections are free and fair.’
‘Both the person offering the bribe and the person receiving it could face legal consequences,’ the claimed.
Asked about social media claims Trump was in violation of election laws, former FEC commissioner Hans von Spakovsky called it ‘absurd on its face.’
Spakovsky said the ‘considerate’ response to ‘her money problems’ did not break election or campaign finance laws.
‘The ‘swirls’ on social media about this are ridiculous,’ he concluded.
The FEC enforces federal campaign finance laws.
Spakovsky now manages the Election Law Reform Initiative at the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Another user on X insisted the act was illegal because Trump said: ‘We’ll do that for you from the White House.’
‘Donald Trump literally paid someone for their vote,’ the alleged. ‘This is a federal crime.’
Trump toured a local grocery chain in western Pennsylvania on Monday where he helped pay for a woman’s groceries out of his own pocket
But there is debate over whether the comment Trump made had to do with asking for her vote or whether he even discussed her vote.
Rather, some say that the former president was repeating his promise to bring down grocery prices.
And Election law expert Mike Dimino, a Professor of Law at Widener University Commonwealth Law School, appears to have the same takeaway from the interaction.
‘It is illegal to pay someone to vote at all, to refrain from voting, or to vote for a specific candidate. It is not, however, illegal to give money to other people per se,’ he told DailyMail.com
‘If it were,’ he explained, ‘candidates would be prohibited from donating to charities or giving money to homeless people, or maybe even tipping a waiter or hairdresser. The question is whether the payment was for a vote or was purely gratuitous.’
‘Everything I have seen about the incident seems to indicate that there was no quid pro quo,’ Dimino concluded.
‘Trump surely wanted the public-relations benefit of helping a shopper deal manage inflated grocery prices, and he suggested that he could do more to lower prices if he were elected, but he asked nothing of the woman in return for the $100.’