United States v. F. Whittemore

In February 2007, F. Harvey Whitte-more agreed to raise $150,000 for Senator Harry Reid’s reelection campaign by March 31. A few days before the deadline, Whittemore distributed a total of $145,000, in increments of $5,000 per person, to some of his relatives and to employees of a company of which he was chairman, requesting that the recipients make contributions to Senator Reid’s campaign. Each recipient made a contribution of $4,600, the maximum allowed under federal law. A jury convicted Whittemore of making excessive campaign contributions in violation of 2 U.S.C. §§ 441a(a)(l) and 437g(d)(l)(A)(i), making contributions in the name of another in violation of 2 U.S.C. §§ 441f and 437g(d)(l)(A)(i), and making a false statement to a federal agency in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1001 (a)(2) and 2. (The relevant provisions of Title 2 of the U.S.Code have since been moved to Title 52 and renumbered.) Whittemore appeals, arguing that (1) the district court impermissibly failed to instruct the jury on the theory of his defense; (2) the individual contribution limits in the Federal Election Campaign Act (“FECA”) and the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act violate the First Amendment;…