Trump Administration/Executive Ethics

The new recording of Donald Trump and his attorney Michael Cohen reveals much more about who knew what when and adds evidence to back up earlier complaints filed by Common Cause urging the DOJ and the FEC to investigate the apparent campaign finance violations. In the tape, Trump and Cohen clearly discuss the payment in the context of the election and its potential impact. The recording reaffirms what we alleged in our complaints and confirms that Donald Trump knew about the Karen McDougal hush money payments before the election despite his repeated denials and those of his spokespeople and attorneys. Denials and tweets in all caps do not make campaign finance violations go away. We look forward to seeing what other tapes seized from Michael Cohen by the Justice Department reveal about a string of hush money payments leading up to the election and how they relate to campaign finance violations.

Put differently, as Common Cause’s Paul S. Ryan told me via email, “If the earlier reporting that AMI consulted with Cohen (an ‘agent’ of candidate Trump) before making the payment to McDougal is correct, then AMI’s payment to McDougal was a political expenditure ‘coordinated’ with Trump.” He continued, “Coordinated expenditures are treated as in-kind contributions under campaign finance law and corporations are prohibited from contributing to federal candidates, so AMI’s payment to McDougal [would be] an illegal corporate contribution to Trump.” Indeed, this was the basis for complaints that Common Cause filed earlier this year with the Justice Department and the Federal Election Commission.

"What did Donald Trump know and when did he know it?” said Paul S. Ryan, a campaign finance expert at Common Cause, which has filed complaints with the Justice Department and Federal Election Commission. “Did Donald Trump knowingly violate campaign finance law, and did he commit a crime?"

In the wake of the irresponsible and dangerous conduct of President Donald Trump at the Helsinki Summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Common Cause today called on Congress to take concrete steps to check Russian aggression and safeguard our election systems.

“This is part of a pattern with this president of really doing everything he can to disgrace the office of the presidency by promoting his own private business interests,” said Stephen Spaulding, a lawyer with the public interest group Common Cause.

President Trump’s continued efforts to obfuscate and dodge forcefully addressing Russian interference in the 2016 election hammer home the need for Congress to act to safeguard our elections and our democracy. Americans expect their President and other elected officials to put their country before their party when facing an ongoing threat from a hostile foreign state.