Members of the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) determined that Fox News Channel violated the law when they put together the Republican presidential debates earlier in the year.Due to the ridiculous number of candidates in the race   17 at one point   Fox decided to alter the debate that had been scheduled for August 6 of last year, breaking it up into two tiers with the higher polling candidates featured in prime time while the remaining seven relegated to the lesser-watched  kiddie table  debate.It was at that debate where Donald Trump began to decimate the Republican field and received hundreds of hours of free advertising from Fox during the debate and in the follow-up coverage.Pointing out the disparity, a complaint was filed with the FEC and several of the members of the board determined Fox had actually broken the law.A complaint subsequently was filed with the FEC claiming those changes were tantamount to an illegal corporate contribution to the candidates on stage.FoxNews.com is told that after consideration, three commissioners   Ellen Weintraub, Ann Ravel, and Steven Walther   determined the network had made such an illegal contribution to the seven candidates invited to the first debate.The case ended on a split 3-3 vote, resulting in no action. Three commissioners concluded Fox News violated election law; two of the Democratic commissioners went a step further and voted to penalize the network. But because any enforcement action requires four votes, the case was dismissed.Fox escaped penalty because of the partisan gridlock on the commission but their boost to Trump during the primaries (he was the most featured candidate on the network by a wide margin) shows what it takes to win the race on the right.While Fox has been able to capitalize on Trump thanks to the boost to the network s ratings (the same is true at CNN), the strategy may backfire for the Republican Party. Unlike other candidates who might be performing better in head-to-head matchups against Hillary Clinton at this point in the campaign, Trump is losing by double-digits in some polls, while poll aggregates also show him losing by a larger margin than Mitt Romney did in 2012.Featured image via Flickr