Abuse of Power

Paul S. Ryan, Common Cause vice president of policy and litigation, discusses the $130,000 hush money payment to Stormy Daniels in the days leading up to the 2016 election.

Trump’s lawyer Giuliani admits that Trump reimbursed Michael Cohen for the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels. Paul S. Ryan, VP of Policy and Litigation for Common Cause, a watchdog investigating the payment as a potential campaign finance violation, tells The Beat Giuliani’s comments strongly suggest the payment was “all about the election”.

If Trump knew about Cohen's payment to Daniels but didn't disclose it on his campaign's filings with the Federal Election Commission, that could amount to a "knowing and willful" violation of election law and a criminal statute that prohibits making false statements to the government, said Paul Ryan, a top lawyer with Common Cause, which has sought federal investigations into the payoff. ... Ryan, the Common Cause lawyer, said the new development changes little about group's pending complaints with the Federal Election Commission and the Justice Department about the payoff to Daniels. "All of the facts support the conclusion that this was about the campaign," he said.

“That is an explicit acknowledgment that this payment was about the election and was about hiding information from voters immediately before the presidential election,” said Paul S. Ryan, vice president of policy and litigation at watchdog group Common Cause, which filed a legal claim over the payment. “That’s what makes all of this a campaign finance violation.”... Ryan, of Common Cause, said Giuliani’s comments suggested a willful violation of campaign finance law.

The EPA chief is trying Congress' patience, and the public's.

“As someone who has worked on these issues for decades, I have never seen such a public interest,” Karen Hobert Flynn, president of nonpartisan government watchdog Common Cause, told Newsweek. She credits ethics experts like Painter for contributing to that interest. “Having attorneys who specialize in this, that can explain what the law says and what the administration was doing, and could do it in ways that were accessible and understandable, I think people become hungry for it,” Hobert Flynn said. She added that her group has added 40,000 small donors since Trump took office and that fundraising is up 175 percent year over year.