Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission accusing CNN of violating federal campaign finance law by “colluding” with the Trump and Biden campaigns on debate criteria that excluded him.

According to the complaint, CNN worked with the two major party candidates to carve out debate qualifications that pre-determined that Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump would be the sole participants.

“The available evidence leads to the clear conclusion that CNN is making prohibited corporate contributions to both campaigns and the Biden Committee and Trump Committee have accepted these prohibited corporate contributions, resulting in violations of federal campaign finance law,” Kennedy campaign attorney Lorenzo Holloway said in a letter to the FEC’s acting general counsel. 

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Mr. Holloway said news reports have detailed how CNN worked with the Trump and Biden campaigns on rules that would “exclude other candidates, specifically Candidate Kennedy, from the debate.”

Under the CNN rules, debate participants must have secured a place on the ballot in states totaling at least 270 votes in the Electoral College, the minimum needed to win the presidency, and have reached 15% in four reliable polls by June 20.

Mr. Kennedy is in the process of qualifying for ballot access in states across the nation.

A spokesperson for CNN denied the charge, saying the law “in virtually every state provides that the nominee of a state-recognized political party will be allowed ballot access without petitioning.”

“As the presumptive nominees of their parties both Biden and Trump will satisfy this requirement,” the spokesperson said. “As an independent candidate, under applicable laws RFK, Jr. does not.”

CNN also said Mr. Kennedy had not met their polling criteria, “which, like the other objective criteria, were set before issuing invitations to the debate.”

Allies of Biden and Trump are concerned that Mr. Kennedy’s independent bid could trip up their preferred candidate.

He is running on a message that mixes traditional liberal views with deep-seated skepticism of the federal government, COVID-19 vaccines and military adventurism that are popular with Trump loyalists.

The complaint included a May 15 letter the Biden campaign sent to the Commission on Presidential Debates outlining their belief that the debates should be “one-on-one” affairs against Mr. Trump.

The complaint says the setup breaks federal campaign finance laws because debate sponsors are barred from establishing rules “to promote or advance one candidate over the other” and using “pre-established objective criteria to determine which candidate participate in the debate.”

“This exception to treating a debate as a campaign contribution would obviously not apply if candidates set the criteria for participation in a debate,” the complaint said.