FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION 

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20463 

BEFORE THE FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION 

In the Matter of )

)

Democratic National Committee ) MUR 7271

 and Virginia McGregor in her official )

 capacity as treasurer )

Alexandra Chalupa )

Chalupa & Associates, LLC ) 

SUPPLEMENTAL STATEMENT OF REASONS OF VICE CHAIR ALLEN 

DICKERSON AND COMMISSIONERS SEAN J. COOKSEY AND 

JAMES E. “TREY” TRAINOR, III 

We write separately to draw attention to our colleagues’ outrageous attempt to cover

up this matter after the Commission voted to find no probable cause to believe a violation

occurred. 

As reflected in the April 8, 2021 Certification, the Commission voted 4-2, on a 

bipartisan basis, to find no probable cause that the Respondents illegally solicited a 

contribution from a foreign national.1 After this vote, however, two of our colleagues— 

including one who voted in favor of dismissing the matter—shockingly refused to allow the 

Commission to inform the parties of that result and to make the matter public. They voted

against a motion to close the file, and with one abstention, the Chair initially ruled that the

motion failed, despite three votes in favor and two opposed.2 In response, we took the 

extraordinary action of overriding the Chair’s ruling.3 It is only due to these unprecedented 

actions that the file closed and this case sees the light of day. 

It is a deep irony that two Commissioners of an agency tasked with upholding 

transparency and accountability in our election system are themselves deliberately 

1 Certification (April 8, 2021), MUR 7271 (DNC, et al.) (Motion 1: voting 4-2 to find no probable cause 

to believe Respondents violated 52 U.S.C. § 30121(a)(2) and 11 C.F.R. § 110.20(g)). 

2 Certification (April 8, 2021), MUR 7271 (DNC, et al.) (Motion 2: voting 3-2 to close the file and issue 

appropriate letters to the parties, which was ruled to have failed by an insufficient number of 

affirmative votes). 

3 Certification (April 8, 2021), MUR 7271 (DNC, et al.) (Motion 3: voting 2-3 to sustain the ruling of 

the Chair that Motion 2 failed, thereby overruling the Chair and successfully closing the file by a vote

of 3-2). Following this vote, our abstaining colleague requested the opportunity to reconsider closing 

the file, and joined us in doing so. 

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concealing our agency’s decisions from the public. This practice is, in this case, especially

cruel because the individual before us acted out of apparently sincere concern for her country

and had been cleared by a bipartisan majority vote of the Commission. She deserved notice 

of that outcome. 

In too many cases, our colleagues refuse to close case files for matters that we have 

adjudicated in order to leave defendants in jeopardy, ignore federal courts, and hide

information from the public.4 That tactic failed this time, and we will continue to push for all

of our other completed matters to be made public, as they should be. 

June 10, 2021

Date Allen Dickerson 

Vice Chair 

___________________________ 

June 10, 2021

Date 

June 10, 2021

Date 

Sean J. Cooksey

Commissioner 

James E. “Trey” Trainor III 

Commissioner 

4 See Statement of Chair James E. “Trey” Trainor III on the Dangers of Procedural Disfunction (Aug.

8, 2020), available at https://www.fec.gov/resources/cmscontent/documents/Trainor_Statement_on_FEC_Procedural

_Disfunction_REDACTED.pdf. 

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