The anti-Obama ad that Simmons funded notes that the Sept. 11 hijackers failed to crash one of the hijacked jets into the Capitol but that 30 years earlier the Weather Underground detonated a bomb in it. "Why would Barack Obama be friends with someone who bombed the Capitol and is proud of it?" the ad asks.
Ayers was never prosecuted for any of the Weather Underground bombings; charges were dropped because of prosecutorial misconduct.
Under federal law, it would be illegal for McCain to have had a hand in the ad, and McCain's campaign has denied involvement.
Obama attorney Robert F. Bauer charged in a letter to the Justice Department that the American Issues Project is engaging in a "willful attempt to evade the strictures of federal election law."
The group claims tax- exempt status.
Bauer noted that the law limits the ability of such committees to expressly advocate for the defeat or election of a candidate.
Instead, he charged, the group should be operating as a political organization.
Federal law, however, caps the size of donations to such groups, a restriction that would have precluded Simmons from donating $2.87 million.
"We urge and expect the Department of Justice to fulfill its commitment to take prompt, vigorous action to enforce against criminal violations of the campaign finance laws," Bauer wrote in his letter.
Separately, Obama's attorneys are demanding that television stations spike the spot. They say the ad is "demonstrably false" and labeled it a "crude, disreputable and malicious attempt to link Sen. Obama to domestic terrorist activities."
Pinkston, the American Issues consultant, scoffed at the charges, saying: "These people need to study election law. It is totally legal. You can be sure we vetted and vetted and vetted it again."
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dan.morain@latimes.com
Times researcher Maloy Moore contributed to this report.
