Donald Trump accused in complaint of 'illegally soliciting funds' from foreigners

Presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump might not like foreigners coming into the US, but he is accused of liking their money after two non-partisan good government groups filed a complaint accusing him of illegally soliciting campaign funds from foreign nationals.

US election law prohibits candidates from soliciting — or accepting — campaign donations from foreign nationals.

The Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21 have filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that the Trump campaign has done just that by soliciting contributions from foreign government leaders.

Those allegedly solicited did not apparently include any Muslim countries or Mexican political leaders, based on information in the complaint.

Ironically, Trump has lambasted rival Hillary Clinton for what he sees as the same behaviour. Trump, and others, have accused Clinton of seeking donations, including from foreign leaders, to the Clinton Foundation when she was dealing with some of the same leaders as secretary of state and could soon deal with them again as president.

"Donald J. Trump's presidential campaign committee is violating black-letter federal law by sending campaign fundraising emails to foreign nationals," Paul Ryan, deputy executive director of the Washington-based Campaign Legal Center, wrote in a statement announcing the complaint.

"It is a no-brainer that it violates the law to send fundraising emails to members of a foreign government on their official foreign government email accounts, and yet, that's exactly what Trump has done repeatedly."

The complaint is based on several reports from publications in Iceland, Scotland, Australia and England revealing that members of the nations' legislatures received emailed fundraising pitches from the Trump campaign.

"Help me make my first-ever fundraising email the most successful fundraising email ever sent in the history of modern politics," read one pitch quoted in the complaint sent to members of Iceland's parliament. Trump asked for donations up to $2,700 (£2,000), and offered to match them with up to $2m (£1.5m) of his own money.

It is not clear if anyone actually donated money to his campaign. There was no immediate response from the Trump campaign.