A complaint has been filed with the Federal Elections Commission against freshman Rep. Eugene Vindman, D-Va., accusing him of using campaign money to promote a book authored by his twin Alexander, the whistleblower behind President Donald Trump’s first impeachment.
Eugene Vindman’s campaign team promoted his brother’s book “The Folly of Realism: How the West Deceived Itself About Russia and Betrayed Ukraine” in fundraising emails sent Feb. 27 and March 7, the New York Post reported Monday. The Post previously reported that FEC filings showed that Eugene Vindman’s campaign paid more than $38,000 to a South Florida bookstore where his brother was signing copies of the book as a “fundraising expense.”
Federal election law prohibits money given to campaign committees from being used personally by the candidate or any other person, said Americans for Public Trust, which filed the complaint Monday. The FEC also has recognized that political committees’ mailings lists are assets that have value, and the use of campaign assets to promote a book is usually a “prohibited personal use.”
“It is clearly illegal to use campaign resources for personal use, and that is just what Rep. Vindman has done,” Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of Americans for Public Trust, said in a statement. “Rep. Vindman misused campaign resources to help promote his brother’s book all the way to the New York Times bestseller list. The tens of thousands of campaign dollars spent to subsidize his brother’s spurious book should be immediately investigated by the FEC.”
The complaint accuses Eugene Vindman of using his campaign to send a Feb. 27 fundraising email promoting his brother’s book. It also stated his campaign sent another email promoting the book on March 7, claiming the bulk of that email’s copy was written by Alexander Vindman touting the books.
The complaint stated that Eugene Vindman’s April quarterly report disclosed the campaign spent $30,972.97 and $7,809.55 for “Fundraising Expense[s]” at Books & Books in Coral Gables, Florida. The dates of those expenses align with X posts about Alexander Vindman’s book signing events at Books & Books.
An FEC spokesperson told Newsmax because of confidentiality requirements, the agency does not provide information on complaints that might have been filed, and declined to comment on any potential complaint.
Newsmax reached out to Eugene Vindman for comment.
Eugene Vindman narrowly defeated Republican Derrick Anderson to represent Virginia’s seventh congressional district, boasting about his efforts to assist his brother in testifying against Trump, according to the Post. Alexander Vindman, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, was fired by Trump as the National Security Council’s director of European affairs in February 2020, shortly after the Senate voted to acquit Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress related to a phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Vindman overheard.
Alexander Vindman reportedly is contemplating challenging Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., who was picked by GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis to fill Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s seat, in the 2026 election.
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