The Department of Justice is sending a strong message that it will enforce the nation’s campaign finance laws. The blatant violations of the law that Common Cause outlined in our complaints to the Department of Justice concerning hush money payments to Stormy Daniels are among those that Cohen pleaded guilty to today. Cohen’s guilty plea directly implicates President Trump in related campaign finance violations detailed in Common Cause complaints.

Today a federal judge struck down a 2015 bill passed by the Michigan legislature and signed by Governor Snyder to ban straight-ticket voting. Common Cause joined the A. Philip Randolph Institute, the Democratic Party of Michigan, and Michigan voters challenging the law in court.

The Michigan Supreme Court voted 4-3 to reject a lawsuit by well-funded special interests to keep the Voters Not Politicians ballot initiative off the November ballot. The initiative would end political gerrymandering in Michigan by stripping the power to draw districts from state legislators and creating an independent citizen redistricting commission to draw U.S. House and state legislative districts after each decennial census.

Today, the Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit issued an opinion on the legal challenge to the FCC’s decision to reinstate the UHF Discount. Common Cause was one of the petitioners to file the legal challenge. The DC Circuit dismissed the case finding that the petitioners did not demonstrate sufficient standing.

The new recording of Donald Trump and his attorney Michael Cohen reveals much more about who knew what when and adds evidence to back up earlier complaints filed by Common Cause urging the DOJ and the FEC to investigate the apparent campaign finance violations. In the tape, Trump and Cohen clearly discuss the payment in the context of the election and its potential impact. The recording reaffirms what we alleged in our complaints and confirms that Donald Trump knew about the Karen McDougal hush money payments before the election despite his repeated denials and those of his spokespeople and attorneys. Denials and tweets in all caps do not make campaign finance violations go away. We look forward to seeing what other tapes seized from Michael Cohen by the Justice Department reveal about a string of hush money payments leading up to the election and how they relate to campaign finance violations.

Today, the Federal Communications Commission issued a Hearing Designation Order referring the Sinclair-Tribune merger before an Administrative Law Judge. The Order specifically questions whether Sinclair was the real party of interest in sales of stations to Chicago, Dallas, and Houston. These divestitures among others in Sinclair’s transaction contain sidecar agreements that would allow Sinclair to maintain some form of control over stations it was claiming to divest. The FCC questions whether Sinclair engaged in misrepresentation and a lack of candor in its applications with the Commission.