Trump Administration/Executive Ethics

New revelations in The Wall Street Journal continue to reveal evidence that supports allegations we made in January and March Department of Justice and Federal Election Commission complaints of violations of campaign finance laws and criminal code provisions related to hush money payments to Stormy Daniels. The Wall Street Journal reports today that in February of this year President Trump personally directed his lawyer, Michael Cohen, to initiate an arbitration proceeding and seek a restraining order against Stormy Daniels pursuant to a nondisclosure agreement negotiated with Daniels in October 2016. President Trump’s familiarity with the arbitration clause in the contract is strong evidence that Trump was familiar with the details of the October 2016 contract, notwithstanding his constantly-changing story and claims that he didn’t know about contract with Daniels before the 2016 election.

Today, Common Cause urged that the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to release a report that was requested by Congress regarding the Commission’s role in enforcing prohibitions on foreign campaign contributions and expenditures. The report was due to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees yesterday in accordance with explanatory statements accompanying the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018.

“The Trump administration’s complete disregard for ethical norms shows we need big, bold solutions to try to close many of these loopholes that the administration employs and former officials are exploiting," Aaron Scherb, director of legislative affairs at Common Cause, told Salon.

“Given how quickly Senator Collins and Senator Murkowski called on then-Senator Franken to resign after the story came out about his sexual harassment, sexual assault, I think they’ll be under that much more scrutiny,” said Aaron Scherb with Common Cause. “There are so many unanswered questions about Professor Ford and this sexual abuse from several decades ago. We believe that needs to come out,” Scherb said.

Today, Common Cause called on the House Ways and Means Committee to immediately investigate false statements made under oath to the committee by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross concerning the addition of a citizenship question to the U.S. census survey. The recent release of Ross’ correspondence with Commerce Department staffers reveal that Ross falsely claimed to the Committee in March that it was a Department of Justice (DOJ) request that had prompted his Department to add the citizenship question to the 2020 Census.

Today, Common Cause called on the Senate Judiciary Committee to delay its scheduled vote on the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court in light of new allegations of sexual assault by the nominee. In a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Common Cause urged the committee to require Kavanaugh to testify under oath about the accusations.