Per the FEC’s letter, the campaign has until Feb. 14 to respond to the commission’s inquiries. Failure to comply could result in an audit or some other “enforcement action.”

What will be interesting is whether the campaign will even bother to respond to these sorts of inquiries now that the election is over and Trump is on his way to the White House. Trump is making no secret of the fact that he’s feeling untouchable these days when it comes to matters of ethics and disclosure. He and his lawyers just announced their (absurdly inadequate) plan to “separate” the president-elect from his business interests, and in the course of that announcement Trump kept marveling at the fact that laws governing conflicts don’t apply to the president.

It will also be worth noting what, if anything, the FEC does once it receives (or doesn’t receive) a response from the campaign regarding these illegal or questionable donations. Everyone in the federal government has to have taken note of the ongoing war between the president-elect and the intelligence agencies. The message of that conflict is clear: Any agency or individual who takes action that runs contrary to Trump’s interests will be subjected to sustained public attack. That might well have an effect on what course the FEC decides to pursue.

Either way, this seemingly minor issue is something to keep an eye on. It’s a small early test of whether Trump will pay even token respect to the regular order of governance.