Feds Fine Biden Campaign $219K for Violations

Election watchdogs have fined Joe Biden's 2008 presidential campaign more than $219,000 for sloppy bookkeeping and accepting excessive contributions, including a discounted flight on a private jet. The FCC audit says the Biden campaign accepted an illegal corporate contribution in the form of a round-trip flight between New Hampshire and Iowa in June 2007 for three people.

The Biden campaign paid $7,911 for the first-class airfare, but the FEC says the campaign should have paid the charter rate of $34,800. Biden was in the 2008 race for about a year. He dropped out in early 2008 after a poor showing in the Iowa caucuses. (More Joe Biden stories.)