Trump Administration/Executive Ethics

President Trump announced via Tweet that he will pardon Dinesh D’Souza signaling again his contempt for the rule of law. D’Souza pleaded guilty several years ago to violating our nation’s campaign finance laws with a “straw donor” scheme that violated federal candidate contribution limits and the public’s right to know who is spending money to influence our elections. The President has taken to boasting about pardons of convicted criminals. His previous pardon of Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of criminal contempt for defying a judge’s order to stop his department’s racial profiling and harassment of Latinos during patrols. Trump’s action sends yet another dangerous signal that he will abuse his power to protect those who would subvert the rule of law, including the laws that protect the integrity of our democracy from corruption.

Tomorrow’s White House briefing by law enforcement and intelligence officials to discuss a confidential informant’s interactions with Trump campaign officials in 2016 cannot be a closed partisan meeting and must include members of both political parties through the “Gang of Eight.” Despite President Trump’s assertions on Twitter, the entire U.S. intelligence community has concluded beyond a doubt that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election. And it has been widely documented that numerous members of the Trump campaign, including the President’s own son, took meetings throughout the campaign with Russians and other foreign nationals offering assistance to the campaign.

By excluding Democrats from a classified briefing on the FBI's use of a confidential informant in the Russia investigation, the president demonstrates he's more interested in confusing the public than pursuing the truth.

In March, the advocacy group Common Cause alleged that Cambridge Analytica -- the firm that, through a U.K. affiliate, obtained personal data on up to 87 million Facebook users as part of its work for the Trump campaign -- violated election law by letting foreign nationals participate in the U.S. political decision-making process. Common Cause made its complaint to the Federal Election Commission and the Justice Department.

"Bold solutions like the ones included in this package are desperately needed to fix our government and bring balance back to our democracy" - Common Cause President Karen Hobert Flynn.

Along downtown Washington’s famous K Street — where you can’t travel a block without bumping into a half-dozen lobbyists — some people are struggling to understand why the unfolding saga of President Donald Trump “fixer” (and personal lawyer) Michael Cohen is such a big deal.