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Dimitrios N. Kesari, aka Dimitri Kesari v. United States

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, No. 16-3864 · judgment May 11, 2018


Certiorari denied · March 18, 2019
Pre-decision estimate: 3% cert probability

Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.

Question presented

The Federal Election Campaign Act (“FECA”) requires that candidates for federal elected office report certain disbursements to the Federal Election Commission. Among other information, FECA requires the disclosure of the name of payees and the purpose of disbursements. If a candidate pays a vendor, who in turn pays a subvendor with campaign funds, FECA does not require that the candidate disclose the subvendor’s name. The FEC keeps only a non-exhaustive list of acceptable and unacceptable purpose statements, but it does not always provide candidates or campaign professionals with clear guidance as to whether or not a specific purpose will be deemed acceptable by the Commission in advance of the report’s filing. The question presented is whether and under what circumstances a report to the Federal Election Commission that does not specify the ultimate recipient of a campaign disbursement or a report that inaccurately describes the purpose of a disbursement can constitute a false report for purposes of federal criminal law.

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Philip J. Harvey
Harvey & Binnall, PLLC

For respondent
Noel John Francisco
Jones Day

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Related
Vide, 18-442, 18-601

Linked docket
18A321

Proceedings

  1. Mar 18 2019
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Feb 20 2019
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 3/15/2019.
  3. Feb 06 2019
    Brief of respondent United States in opposition filed. VIDED.
  4. Jan 07 2019
    Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is further extended to and including February 8, 2019.
  5. Jan 04 2019
    Motion to extend the time to file a response from January 9, 2019 to February 8, 2019, submitted to The Clerk.
  6. Dec 06 2018
    Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including January 9, 2019.
  7. Dec 04 2018
    Motion to extend the time to file a response from December 10, 2018 to January 9, 2019, submitted to The Clerk.
  8. Nov 05 2018
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due December 10, 2018)
  9. Sep 26 2018
    Application (18A321) granted by Justice Gorsuch extending the time to file until November 3, 2018.
  10. Sep 24 2018
    Application (18A321) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from October 4, 2018 to November 5, 2018, submitted to Justice Gorsuch.