Allies of Joe Biden were skeptical that Kamala Harris was “ready” for the national spotlight during her 2016 US Senate campaign — but were apparently happy to hand over donor lists and even offer her a board seat with the Beau Biden Foundation after her camp dangled a $1,000 contribution, emails on first son Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop show.
If completed, the convoluted transaction flouted the Foundation’s tax-exempt status and may have violated federal election law, experts told The Post this week.
Allies of Harris, then California’s attorney general, contacted Josh Alcorn, Beau Biden’s top political and fundraising adviser, with an unusual request in late 2015 — months after the former Delaware attorney general died of brain cancer.
“Just an FYI – Kamala Harris’s campaign reached out. They’d like to pay us about $1,000 for access to the email list,” Alcorn wrote in a December 30 email to Hunter and Hallie Biden, Beau’s widow.
“The money would go to the [Beau Biden] campaign, then be transferred to the foundation,” explained Alcorn, who ran the Beau Biden Foundation for the Protection of Children from January 2016 to June 2021, according to his LinkedIn profile.
“Seems like a good thing to do, and we would work out a way to get some names and emails from her once her general election is over,” he added. “This isn’t a foundation issue – just a campaign wrap up issue. If either of you have objections, let me know.”
On Jan. 12, 2016, just under two weeks after that exchange, Alcorn floated Harris as a proposed addition to the foundation’s board.
The email exchange ended with Alcorn informing Hunter Biden that he will “try to schedule the call with AG Harris.”
Three former members of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) told The Post that donor list swaps are common and legal among campaigns, as long as each pays fair market rate.
But funneling the Harris payment to the foundation in exchange for the donor list — after the Biden family made clear months earlier that Beau’s campaign funds would be donated to the foundation — would have been a different matter.
“Charitable organizations are not supposed to be involved in transactions with partisan campaign committees,” said Michael Toner, who served as FEC chairman in 2006 and as a commissioner between 2002 and 2007.
“If … the foundation had used that donor list and they’d raised $100,000 and they’re giving that donor list to Kamala Harris’ campaign” for $1,000, explained former FEC commissioner Hans von Spakovsky, who served from 2006 to 2007, “they’ve gone way over the amount of money that can be contributed.”
“They’re not charging the fair market value and that’s the way the FEC looks at things like this,” he added, pointing out that there is currently a $2,000 cap on the amount that campaigns can contribute to other campaigns.
“The fair market value of Campaign A’s list, which it gives to Campaign B, is worth $1,000. That is OK because it is still within the $2,000 limit,” von Spakovsky went on. “But assume that the value of Campaign B’s donor list is $4,000. They have just swapped lists. This was an uneven exchange, resulting in Campaign B making a $3,000 contribution to Campaign A, which is illegal because it violates the $2,000 contribution limit.”
If the donor list came from the foundation itself, he said, that would also amount to “an illegal corporate contribution.”
The Beau Biden Foundation, a registered 501(c)(3) corporation, took in a little more than $535,000 in contributions, gifts and grants during its first year of operation in 2016, according to its Form 990 tax filings with the IRS.
The filings also show the foundation checked “No” when asked: “Did the organization engage in direct or indirect political campaign activities on behalf of or in opposition to candidates for public office?”
Making such contributions in exchange for appointments — such as a board seat — could also “raise more direct bribery questions,” according to Bradley Smith, a 2004 FEC chairman who also served as a commissioner from 2000 to 2005.
Harris never accepted the position on the foundation’s board, a role which does not involve compensation, tax filings show.
It’s also unclear whether the Harris campaign funneled any contribution to Beau Biden’s defunct campaign fundraising committee, his PAC or another entity like the Draft Biden super PAC, which Alcorn also headed up.
Joe Biden announced in October 2015 that he would not seek the Democratic nomination, clearing the party’s “establishment lane” for Hillary Clinton, who went on to lose to Donald Trump in the November 2016 general election.
The Draft Biden PAC shuttered in April 2016, per FEC filings. Beau’s committee, Biden for Delaware, and Beau PAC terminated at the end of 2015.
The Post reviewed FEC filings from both the 2016 Harris campaign and the Draft Biden super PAC, as well as the state campaign committees associated with Beau Biden, but could not find a direct transaction from the future California senator to a Biden fundraising campaign.
Harris’ PAC did, however, donate $1,000 to NGP Van Inc. for “database services” on Jan. 5, 2016, six days after Alcorn wrote the first email about the proposed exchange. NGP Van is a major platform for Democratic campaign fundraising and donor research.
Other emails on Hunter’s laptop reveal a long-term effort to bring Harris into the Bidens’ orbit — even as allies cautioned she would not be a “great choice” for a running should Joe take the plunge into the 2016 campaign.
“No great choices,” mused former Biden press secretary Alexander Mackler in an August 6, 2015, email to Hunter and Biden family business associate Eric Schwerin about potential running mates.
“Almost has to be a woman,” added Mackler, who served as Biden’s deputy counsel during his vice presidency and on Beau’s 2010 re-election campaign for state attorney general. “Can’t be Kamala (she has a campaign and she’s [sic] doesn’t pass the ‘ready’ test).”
“If Kamala says no, I suggest Patrick Lynch or Jack Conaway,” Mackler floated in a Jan. 22 email, apparently referring to the former Rhode Island attorney general and a Delaware administrator in Sussex County close to the Biden family.
Other notable names suggested for foundation board seats included former Education Secretary Arne Duncan, retired Delaware Adjutant and Army National Guard Gen. Francis Vavala, former Arkansas Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln, Jackie Dodd, the wife of former Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd, and NBC News “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie.
CNN anchor Jake Tapper was also put forward as “another media person, potentially.”
The Harris campaign, Beau Biden Foundation and Alcorn did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
