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Joanh Goldberg:

From a reader:

Jonah,

Assuming that the Obama campaign makes a reasonable effort to verify
that your e-friend's contribution was legal at some point, and that
they don't hang onto it after finding out that it's fraudulent,
they've violated no federal law. That they returned millions of their
$150M September haul is evidence that there's at least some (probably
not foolproof) effort underway on their part.

There's no question that your e-friend did violate Federal elections
law by contributing to Obama's campaign under a name that's not his
own. You and/or Steyn should consider passing this advice on at the
Corner before more readers keep beating this dead horse and break the
law in the process. On top of that, it's not like an overworked FEC
needs more of a headache. I'm sure complaints will be filed about
Obama's fundraising activities after the election and a review will
see whether he knowingly accepted fraudulent contributions or didn't
meet reasonable standards in attempting to verify their provenance.

If your goal is to get these sorts of things investigated, you're
better off not encouraging intentionally phony donations that'll have
to be sorted from any real attempts at fraud and complicate an
investigation. Causing a logjam at the FEC won't expedite justice
here; encouraging a host of phony donations just belabors Steyn's
original, sensible observation of Obama's credit card verification
standards.

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