Biden fined 219K dollars for 2008 presidential campaign violations

WASHINGTON - The Federal Election Commission has penalized Vice President Joe Biden’s 2008 presidential campaign 219,000 dollars for accepting over-the-limit contributions and a discounted flight on a jet owned by a New York hedge fund.

His campaign was also charged with sloppy record keeping.

Biden’s campaign has indicated it will pay the penalty to the U.S. Treasury to resolve the campaign finance compliance issues, which were revealed in an audit report released Friday by the commission, Politico reports.

Elizabeth Alexander, a spokeswoman for Biden in the vice president’s office, called the FEC-ordered repayment “relatively small” and said “some repayment is commonplace after presidential campaign audits.”

Biden was subject to the audit as a condition of accepting taxpayer funds for his presidential campaign through the public financing system.

In all, Biden, who dropped out of the race after coming in fifth in the Iowa caucuses and was tapped eight months later to be Barack Obama’s running mate, received 857,000 dollars in taxpayer money for his campaign, which raised 8.2 million dollars from individual contributions, according to the report. (ANI)