The Federal Election Commission is continuing to issue rulings, functioning with just four remaining members, despite a dispute over President Donald Trump’s unprecedented firing of longtime Democratic member Ellen Weintraub that Democratic senators say is illegal.
The Federal Election Commission is proceeding as if President Donald Trump's firing of Chair Ellen ... More
Trump sent Weintraub a letter dated Jan. 31, removing her from the FEC “effective immediately.”
Weintraub publicly pushed back a week later, calling the move illegitimate: “There’s a legal way to replace FEC commissioners—this isn’t it,” she posted on social media.
Eleven Democratic Senators including Amy Klobuchar, Alex Padilla and Elizabeth Warren—along with former FEC chair Trevor Potter, a Republican—called the firing illegal, although it does not appear that any legal action has been taken yet.
Despite the dispute, the six-member commission—already down one member after a January resignation—issued rulings last week with just four votes, indicating it is operating without Weintraub.
Additionally, the FEC’s website no longer lists Weintraub among its active commissioners and her biography notes her tenure ended in February 2025.
In an amicus brief Weintraub filed Wednesday in a case challenging Trump’s executive order to take control of the FEC (but not related to her own status), which she flagged for Forbes, her attorneys reiterated that her firing was unlawful, citing a 1993 court ruling that the president can “likely” fire a commissioner only “for good cause.”
Post-Weintraub ouster, the FEC now requires unanimous agreement to take any significant action—a tall order for an agency often split along party lines. “The FEC has operated short-handed before, but only with great difficulty,” said Brett Kappel, a campaign finance attorney. “Unanimity has been difficult to achieve in recent years.” Additionally, Weintraub’s attorneys noted that Trump can now easily skew the FEC’s bipartisan structure by removing another Democratic commissioner and then filling the empty Republican seat, giving the GOP a 3-1 advantage.
It’s unclear whether Weintraub or her supporters plan to challenge her removal in court or attempt to reinstate her via other means. So far, no lawsuit appears to have been filed in federal court over her ouster.
“My top priority now (and filing this amicus brief is part of it) is to continue to raise my voice about threats to our democratic system and constitutional order,” Weintraub told Forbes. “Turns out one doesn’t need a dot.gov email address to do that.”
The FEC is the independent agency charged with enforcing campaign finance laws in presidential and congressional elections. Typically composed of three Democrats and three Republicans, commissioners are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate for six-year terms. But they may remain in office until a successor is seated. Weintraub’s term expired in 2007 yet no replacement has been nominated (two other commissioners, both Trump appointees, are currently serving after their terms expired). Weintraub’s peers had recently elected her to serve as the FEC chair for 2025.
Weintraub’s attorneys argue her firing undermines the FEC’s independence just as it’s reportedly set to consider new complaints against Trump’s 2024 campaign. In the amicus brief filed Wednesday, they warned that removing a commissioner for political reasons “serves notice” to the remaining commissioners who may feel pressured to rule in the president’s favor—adding that “this anticipatory skewing of agency action is exactly what the FEC’s independence is meant to prevent.”
Trump told his supporters “I am your retribution” during the 2024 campaign, promising to exact revenge on his political opponents and the perceived enemies of his backers. Weintraub’s removal may align with that pledge. In 2023, she criticized her Republican colleagues for never voting to approve recommendations from the FEC’s general counsel against Trump. And during the Jan. 6 riots, Weintraub publicly urged Trump to “concede the election you have lost” and denounce the violence he incited.
“With multiple FEC commissioners serving on expired terms and one vacant seat, Trump is free to nominate multiple new commissioners and to allow Congress to perform its constitutional role of advice and consent,” said Republican Trevor Potter, a former FEC chair who is now president of Campaign Legal Center, in a statement. “It’s contrary to law that he has instead opted to claim to ‘fire’ a single Democratic commissioner who has been an outspoken critic of the president’s lawbreaking and of the FEC’s failure to hold him accountable.”
- That’s how many years Weintraub had served on the FEC, nearly half of the agency’s entire 50-year existence.
Weintraub, a Democrat, was appointed to the FEC in 2002 by President George W. Bush, a Republican.
Last week, the short-staffed FEC issued five rulings—all of which required unanimous approval from its four remaining members. One PAC was fined $85,000 for late filings, another was fined $16,000 for the same violation, and complaints against three political committees were dismissed.
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