Something funny happened when the Washington Free Beacon contacted the campaign of Trump whistleblower turned congressional candidate Eugene Vindman last week. Vindman, a 24-year Army veteran, says he "served our nation in combat." A 2019 Daily Mail piece said he "has not seen combat." The Free Beacon asked the campaign to explain the discrepancy.
Vindman's campaign manager, Jeremy Levinson, responded by introducing a third party, the employee of a political action committee. "All future questions," he said, could be directed to him.
"Him" is Travis Tazelaar, the political director of VoteVets PAC, a left-wing group that has endorsed Vindman, contributed $10,000 to his campaign, and spent more than $400,000 on outside ads supporting his candidacy, according to Federal Election Commission filings, and lawyers and ethics experts say the campaign's decision to defer communications inquiries to him is a violation of the law.
"I am looping in VoteVets who is going to be providing comment on our behalf to your initial inquiry," Levinson wrote in an email. "All future questions on this matter or any matters can be directed to him."
Shortly thereafter, Tazelaar, identifying himself as "Political Director, VoteVets," responded with a statement lauding Vindman's 2011 deployment to Iraq as an operational law attorney. The statement was unremarkable, but the campaign's decision to use Tazelaar to handle its communications is a big deal. It baffled ethics experts, who say it is almost certainly a violation of campaign finance laws.
As a "hybrid PAC," VoteVets is permitted to make $10,000 in direct contributions to Vindman, a threshold the group hit in May. Its subsequent communications work for the campaign, Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust executive director Kendra Arnold explained, is considered an "in-kind contribution" that places VoteVets above the legal contribution limit.
Federal election law also bars campaigns and PACs from working together. While a Federal Election Commission advisory issued in March partially lifted that ban, allowing campaigns to coordinate with PACs on door-to-door canvassing, the ruling does not apply to "public communications."
As a result, Arnold said, VoteVets' role as the Vindman campaign's communication arm violates federal election law.
"Super PACs and campaigns are not permitted to work together on communications, which prohibits campaigns altogether from using super PACs as vendors for communications," Arnold told the Free Beacon. "In my opinion, this would most certainly extend to hybrid PACs."
Campaign finance and election law attorney Jason Torchinsky echoed Arnold's assessment. Vindman's campaign, he told the Free Beacon, "would be vulnerable to an FEC complaint and possible FBI complaint as well."
Such complaints could lead to embarrassing and costly fines for Vindman as he looks to defeat his Republican opponent, Derrick Anderson, a former Army Green Beret, in one the country's tightest House races. Vindman and Anderson are running for the open seat vacated by Democrat Abigail Spanberger, who stepped down in favor of a run for governor.
Vindman, whose campaign did not respond to a request for comment, entered the race following a high-profile fight with former president Donald Trump. He blew the whistle on the former president's phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, a move that prompted the first Trump impeachment. Vindman used the media attention to raise millions of dollars for his congressional campaign.
While that money helped Vindman cruise to victory in a crowded June primary, his background as a national media figure angered many local Democrats, who argued that Vindman "kind of drop[ped] out of the sky" and did not understand the district well enough to represent it. Born in Ukraine and raised in Brooklyn, Vindman moved to Virginia's seventh district in 2016.
Vindman's reliance on VoteVets to steer his campaign's communications is unlikely to alleviate concerns over the Democrat's lack of local ties.
Founded in 2006 and based in Portland, VoteVets has for years spent millions of dollars to send Democrats to Congress. It has done so, in large part, thanks to the generosity of Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), whose Senate Majority PAC has funneled more than $3 million to the group since 2014, records show. Other top contributors include Democratic megadonors Karla Jurvetson, Liz Simons, and Ron Conway.
Beyond his role in Trump's impeachment, Vindman has centered his campaign on his military service in a district that houses a large number of defense contractors and military veterans.
Upon graduating college, Vindman received an ROTC commission as an Army second lieutenant. After stints at Fort Bragg and Fort McPherson, he earned a law degree from the University of Georgia in 2009 and completed JAG training.
Two years later, in 2011, he "was deployed to Iraq at Victory Base for six months, serving in Operation New Dawn as an operational law attorney." He routinely says he "fought for our nation in combat" and "used assault-style weapons on the battlefield," remarks that Tazelaar defended.
"There was no front line in Iraq—and the Vindman family was grateful that Eugene was able to return home unscathed while so many other of our brothers and sisters in arms did not," the VoteVets political director said on behalf of Vindman's campaign.
Still, Vindman has faced some criticism for inflating his military service. On the eve of his June primary, the Independent reported that Vindman often refers to himself as a "retired colonel," but he in fact retired as a lieutenant colonel, as he "had not served the required three years in rank necessary under Army protocols to retain that rank upon retirement."
Primary opponent Carl Bedell criticized Vindman over the discrepancy, saying his "characterization of how his career ended is deceptive at best."
"His decision to continue to wear a Colonel’s insignia and refer to himself as a retired Colonel is disrespectful to all those that honorably served—especially those whose service entitled them to that rank in retirement, and wrong according to Army regulations," Bedell told the Independent.
At the time, an attorney for Vindman threatened to sue the outlet for publishing Bedell's statement, calling it "defamatory." The campaign did not answer questions on the status of that threat.