Campaign Finance

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.

“The simple fact that a sitting president is implicated is pretty astounding and something we haven’t seen in decades, if ever,” said Paul Seamus Ryan, a vice president at Common Cause, a Washington-based group that had filed a complaint with the Justice Department about the payments.

“We’re talking potential years of jail time if he’s not the sitting president but was instead a civilian candidate,” said Paul S. Ryan, the vice president of policy and litigation at Common Cause, which filed campaign finance complaints based on the payments made to the women connected to Mr. Trump.

Paul S. Ryan, Common Cause's Vice President of Policy and Litigation, drafted a short memo explaining the legal jeopardy President Trump's recent tweet about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting puts himself and his campaign in.

“Democracy is not supposed to be the sport of kings and billionaires,” said Stephen Spaulding, chief of strategy and external affairs for Common Cause. “Notwithstanding the Koch-Trump feud, the Koch network continues to exert enormous influence over public policy and the Republican Party at the federal and state levels.”