Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Obama asks Justice probe of 'Issues' ads

|
|
 
  
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) introduces Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) as his Vice-Presidential running mate during a rally at the Old State Capitol in Springfield, IL., on August 23, 2008. (UPI Photo/Darrell Hoemann) 
License photo
Published: Aug. 25, 2008 at 9:10 PM

WASHINGTON, Aug. 25 (UPI) -- Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has asked the U.S. Justice Department to investigate an ad campaign against him, Politico reported.

The Obama campaign wants federal prosecutors to open a criminal investigation into the American Issues Project, which a Texas Republican is using to air TV ads intended to link the Illinois senator to terrorists, Politico said Monday.

The ads, financed by Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons, have been aired in the battleground states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Michigan. The Obama campaign, with help from tens of thousands of supporters, has lobbied TV networks and affiliates to refrain from airing the ads, and CNN and Fox News Channel have said they will not air them, the report said.

An attorney for the Obama camp, in a letter to the Justice Department obtained by Politico, called the ad campaign "a knowing and willful attempt to violate the strictures of federal election law" because it advocates the defeat of a particular candidate. The letter says the ad should be subject to contribution limits provided for under federal campaign law.

The American Issues Project said through a spokesman the complaint "is a sad ploy to circumvent the First Amendment by a campaign who has no arguments with the merits of our ad."

Recommended Stories
© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Notable deaths of 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee AmfAR Cinema Against AIDS gala
Indianapolis 500 Presidential Medal of Freedom Memorial Day around the nation
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 20
Singer Janelle Monae arrives at the 2012 MTV Movie Awards in Universal City, California
View Caption
Singer Janelle Monae arrives for the MTV Movie Awards at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California. UPI/Jim Ruymen
fark
Traveling to the U.S.? If invited to a dinner party, bring a gift of wine, but not cash or toiletries...
Man turns dead pet cat into remote-controlled helicopter, calls it art (w/WTF pics)
"Good News" clubs teach children in public schools the Biblical importance of killing all nonbelievers...
Five arrested in prostitution sting. Article lists their names, ages and distance from a church
Photoshop this power tower technician
Driving drunk and unlicensed, with a kid not even buckled let alone in a safety seat, en route to...