Ron DeSantis accused of breaking campaign finance law in complaint filed by watchdog group

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis broke campaign finance law by advising a super PAC bankrolling his bid for president on what ads to run, a nonpartisan watchdog group alleged in a new complaint.

The Republican contender and his team are accused of illegally coordinating with the Never Back Down on the PAC’s messages supporting his run, according to the complaint filed by the Campaign Legal Center Monday.

DeSantis’ campaign also “knowingly accepted prohibited [in-kind] contributions in violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act” from the super PAC, the group said in the document.

Never Back Down, which is supposed to be an entity independent from the DeSantis campaign, has pumped out over $100 million to back the governor’s White House bid, making the group crucial to his campaign.

The Campaign Legal Center said the super PAC has crossed the line legally separating it from the Republican’s run for commander-in-chief.

“When a super PAC like Never Back Down illegally coordinates its election spending with a candidate’s campaign, the super PAC effectively becomes an arm of the campaign,” said Saurav Ghosh, director of federal campaign finance reform at Campaign Legal Center.

“That circumvents federal contribution limits and reporting requirements, and gives the super PAC’s special interest backers, including corporations and ultra-wealthy individuals, a concerning level of influence over elected officials and policymaking.”

The complaint cites reporting from several news outlets detailing alleged corroboration and blurred lines between the DeSantis campaign and the super PAC — including that the latter often took on duties that would traditionally be done directly by a candidate’s campaign.

Another alleged example of the illegal relationship mentioned in the complaint is DeSantis and his wife’s requests to bring back an ad Never Back Down had been running but took down against his opponent Nikki Haley.

DeSantis’ campaign spox Andrew Romeo denied the accusations in a statement to the Associated Press, calling the watchdog group’s complaint “baseless” and full of “unverified rumors and innuendo.”

Romeo did not immediately return The Post’s request for comment.

But the legal concerns are not the first scandal to consume the PAC supporting the Florida Republican.

A string of top officials at Never Back Down have either resigned or been fired over the past weeks due to alleged infighting among team members and mismanagement issues. Three were fired, while the chief executive and board chairman resigned in personnel changes that began in late November.

The most recent switch-up came just this weekend when the chief strategist of the PAC, Jeff Roe, announced he was stepping down because he was unhappy with statements the group’s chairman told the press about the recent firings.

With Post wires.