FEC commissioner ‘considering all of my options’ after ouster by Trump

The former Federal Election Commission (FEC) chair Ellen Weintraub said during an interview that she is weighing her choices after her ouster from the post by President Trump earlier this week. 

“Well, I'm still considering all of my options at the moment, but I will tell you that my email has been turned off. My computers have been taken. My pass, I believe, no longer gets me into the building,” Weintraub said during her Friday night appearance on MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show.” 

Weintraub, a Democrat, who was appointed to the bipartisan commission by former President George W. Bush in 2002, received a brief letter from the president on Thursday notifying her that she was fired. 

She shared a copy of the letter on the social platform X, writing that “there’s a legal way to replace FEC commissioners-this isn’t it. I’ve been lucky to serve the American people & stir up some good trouble along the way. That’s not changing anytime soon.”

“If you look at the Federal Election Campaign Act, there is nothing in there about removing FEC commissioners other than in the normal course, which is you can replace them when their terms have expired by appointing a new commissioner who gets confirmed by the Senate,” Weintraub said on Friday. “That's the way you replace FEC commissioners."

"There's nothing in there that says or if the President doesn't like that particular person, they can just be fired," she continued.

Neither Trump nor his administration have shared any efforts to nominate Weintraub’s replacement.

As of Saturday, Weintraub is no longer listed as the current commissioner on the FEC website. Weintraub’s term ended in 2007, but a successor was never appointed to take her spot and allowed her to serve as an “acting” commissioner for over 20 years. 

Typically, the FEC is led by six commissioners, three from each major political party. It is an independent agency that oversees federal elections and enforces campaign finance laws. 

“This has never happened in the history of the agency. The law sets out a path for replacing FEC commissioners, it requires the president to nominate a successor and for the Senate to confirm that person, and you know the President's track record on getting confirmations is pretty good, it wouldn't have been that hard for him to do it, the legal way,” she said during a Friday night appearance on CNN’s “The Source.”