Trump Administration/Executive Ethics

“While Manafort’s violations are brazen, I’m afraid that with a little digging, the Justice Department would find a fair number of violations,” said Karen Hobert Flynn, president of the watchdog group Common Cause.

Paul Manafort’s plea deal will surely tempt President Trump to consider pardoning his associates, or firing senior Justice Department officials or Special Counsel Robert Mueller, or take other steps to sabotage the investigation of the Russian attack on the 2016 presidential race. Congress must stand ready to take decisive action if President Trump abuses the power of his office by obstructing justice. Such blatant obstruction by the President must be a line in the sand that, if crossed, will trigger immediate Congressional action. The Republican majority in Congress must put their country before their party.

We call on the anonymous author and allies within the administration to stand up for our Constitution and step outside government, make a case to the American people — whom you work for — and let the people decide how best to put a check on this administration and demand action from Congress. Congress must do its constitutional duty to investigate the serious allegations made by anonymous by holding public hearings immediately.

Today, Common Cause called on Congress to uphold its oversight responsibilities and immediately investigate the alarming accounts of President Trump’s “reckless” and “erratic behavior” since taking office that were made by a “senior official in the Trump administration” in an op-ed published anonymously in The New York Times last week. In a letter to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Common Cause urged immediate hearings on the disturbing reports of a President run amok and a nation being run behind his back by unelected senior officials.

“All the information, as it’s trickled out, has only further confirmed our suspicion that the Trump Organization violated campaign finance laws, and maybe other laws too,” said Paul S. Ryan, vice president of policy and litigation at Common Cause.

Americans deserve the whole record of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, not the whitewashed version the Senate Judiciary Committee’s majority has released. As this week’s extraordinary events in the Committee have made clear, this is the least transparent Supreme Court nomination process in our lifetime. Millions of pages of Judge Kavanaugh’s records have been withheld from the Senate and from the public. Many that are in the Judiciary Committee’s possession are still marked “committee confidential,” even though making them public will provide important information to the American people, as questioning by Senators Feinstein, Leahy, Klobuchar, Hirono, Booker, and Harris have made clear. Though the nominee may not recall many of his actions, the records have shown a very different story in some instances. Moreover, in response to probing questions by Sen. Blumenthal, Judge Kavanaugh refused to commit to recusing from cases involving President Trump’s potential criminal and civil liability that may be headed to the Supreme Court.