BALTIMORE — A group whose leaders have been aligned with Republican causes has asked the Federal Election Commission to investigate whether Angela Alsobrooks improperly used funds from her state campaign account to assist in her bid for the U.S. Senate.

Virginia-based Americans for Public Trust, in a complaint filed Wednesday, asked the FEC to conduct “an immediate investigation” to determine whether Alsobrooks, the Democratic Prince George’s County executive, violated federal campaign finance laws by mingling state and federal campaign funds.

Alsobrooks’ campaign said Friday that only its federal account was used to fund her Senate campaign. Campaign spokesperson Gina Ford, in a prepared statement, called the group “Donald Trump-aligned.”

The nonprofit group’s executive director, Caitlin Sutherland, is a former National Republican Congressional Committee research director who previously worked for the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC whose goal, according to its website, is to “defend America from Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats’ destructive far-left agenda.”

Annie Donaldson Talley, a former deputy counsel to Trump — the former president and the GOP’s presumed nominee this year — has also been affiliated with Americans for Public Trust, according to online records from Virginia, where the nonprofit was incorporated in 2020.

Sutherland said in response to Baltimore Sun questions that her organization “is an independent, nonpartisan 501(c)(3) that has filed complaints against Republicans and Democrats.”

She said Alsobrooks “has decided to launch unsubstantiated allegations” and that the complaint represented “legitimate scrutiny of her campaign.”

The group’s complaint is based largely on the timing of Alsobrooks’ announcement that she would seek the seat of retiring Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin, and the funding of events her campaign subsequently held.

Alsobrooks, who is running against Republican former Gov. Larry Hogan, announced her candidacy in May 2023. The complaint says her state campaign account paid about $17,000 to Rice Consulting, a fundraising consultant, after her announcement. Because she would have been term-limited from running again for county executive, the group said it appears she used the money “illicitly to kick-start and then finance her federal campaign for U.S. Senate in its burgeoning stages.”

Alsobrooks’ campaign spokesman Connor Lounsbury did not dispute the $17,000 payment but said it wasn’t used on the Senate race. He said another $20,500 to Rice was used for the Senate campaign and was funded exclusively by the “Alsobrooks for Senate” account.

FEC records from that federal account show two payments to Rice for “fundraising consulting” — $16,000 on July 19 and $4,500 on June 30.

Federal campaign law allows contributions to be held for years and used for more than one office, such as the U.S. Senate and U.S. House. But state committee funds can’t be used to run for Congress.

Lounsbury said in a statement that the $17,000 state committee expenditure was “part of a regular cadence of payments to Rice, which has handled her county campaign fundraising, compliance, and consulting for years, for services rendered prior to her federal campaign launch.”

Myles Martin, an FEC spokesman, said he could not discuss any complaint because of confidentiality requirements.

“Once a matter is resolved and closed, a case file is published to the Commission’s Enforcement database,” he said.

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