On September 30, the Federal Election Commission approved a recommendation from FEC staff that Jill Stein must repay $175,272 in 2016 primary season matching funds. The FEC staff recommendation had been made on August 13, 2021. See that recommendation here.
The FEC ruled that payments made to Stein for money she raised after she received the Green Party presidential nomination on August 6, 2016 were improper and should not have been sent to Stein. The total 2016 primary season matching funds she received in 2016 was $590,936.
Stein argued that she was also seeking the Peace & Freedom Party nomination, and it didn’t nominate until mid-August 2016, so the cutoff point should have been the PFP convention date. But the FEC said that because the two major parties had both finished nominating by July 28, the old procedure by which the latest minor party nomination procedure doesn’t matter. The law is quite complicated, but because the two major parties nominated much earlier in 2020 than then had in other recent presidential years, that affected the cut-off for the Green Party. If the Peace & Freedom Party had had a national convention instead of just a state convention, then the PFP convention date could have been used.
For the 2020 election, Howie Hawkins applied for primary season matching funds, and even though it is clear he qualified, the FEC still hasn’t sent the money. But it is expected soon.