Campaign Finance

On September 23, 2019, Common Cause filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging that President Donald Trump, his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, and other political operatives illegally solicited a political contribution from a foreign national—by urging Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials to investigate Hunter Biden and 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden.

Late last week allegations surfaced in The Wall Street Journal that during a July 25th phone call President Donald Trump had repeatedly pressured Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Hunter Biden and 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden. If these allegations are true, some of which were admitted by the President himself on Sunday, it looks like Trump has violated federal campaign finance laws. Again. Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani seems to be on the hook for violations, too.

“People who want access and influence over a public official are going to open their wallets and write a check. And they don’t really care” into which account “the elected official is depositing that check,” said Paul S. Ryan, vice president of policy and litigation at the nonprofit Common Cause, a government watchdog group. “The law is not up to date in most places with this practice.”

“Andrew Yang’s use of campaign funds to give ‘freedom dividends’ to supporters would push the boundaries of, and perhaps break, campaign finance law,” said Paul Seamus Ryan, a vice president at Common Cause, a nonpartisan organization that promotes government accountability. “This unprecedented use of campaign funds would give rise to a bunch of novel legal questions.”

Paul Ryan, vice president of policy and litigation at Common Cause, said it's not unusual people like Yang get paid to speak in front of audiences, but they usually stop accepting payments once they decide to run for federal office. "Because receiving compensation for paid speaking raises questions under campaign finance laws regarding corporate contributions," Ryan said, "most candidates steer clear of these activities."

“The ‘PERMISSIBLE FUNDS’ memo entries indicates to the FEC that the committee understands the rules and that the contribution is permissible because the LLC contribution is attributed to an individual,” said Paul Seamus Ryan, a vice president of policy and litigation at Common Cause. “An LLC with a single natural person member that does not elect to be taxed as a corporation is treated as an individual under campaign finance law — i.e., that LLC is permitted to contribute to candidates, party committees and JFC’s like Trump Victory, subject to the individual contribution limits,” he added.