Trump Administration/Executive Ethics

Rudy Giuliani tonight put President Trump in legal peril for “knowing and willful” violations of campaign finance law related to hush money payments to adult film actress Stephanie Clifford (a.k.a., Stormy Daniels). Giuliani, as a member of President Trump’s legal team, told Fox News tonight that President Trump repaid his lawyer Michael Cohen the $130,000 that Cohen had paid Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet just prior to the 2016 presidential general election.

“As someone who has worked on these issues for decades, I have never seen such a public interest,” Karen Hobert Flynn, president of nonpartisan government watchdog Common Cause, told Newsweek. She credits ethics experts like Painter for contributing to that interest. “Having attorneys who specialize in this, that can explain what the law says and what the administration was doing, and could do it in ways that were accessible and understandable, I think people become hungry for it,” Hobert Flynn said. She added that her group has added 40,000 small donors since Trump took office and that fundraising is up 175 percent year over year.

As the president's allies rattle their sabers, Common Cause and allied groups are pushing senators to pass legislation protecting the investigation into Russian interference in our elections.

Today, Common Cause filed complaints with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging reason to believe that President Trump, his 2016 presidential campaign and American Media, Inc. (AMI) violated campaign contribution limits and reporting requirements through a December 2015 payment of $30,000 to a former doorman at a Trump property to squelch rumors of then-candidate Trump having fathered an illegitimate child with an employee at Trump World Tower in New York. The DOJ this week raided the office and residences of Trump attorney Michael Cohen in its investigation of similar violations alleged by Common Cause in earlier complaints to the agency.

No American is above the law, not even the President. But President Trump is making no bones about the fact that he believes he is above the law and members of his administration continue to float disturbing trial balloons to gauge what the public reaction would be if Trump fired Special Counsel Robert Mueller. In light of these deeply troubling actions, the Senate must move quickly to pass its bipartisan legislation to protect the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election by the Special Counsel.

There are encouraging signs that congressional leaders finally are getting serious about protecting the special counsel and his work.