Press Release

The Department of Justice is sending a strong message that it will enforce the nation’s campaign finance laws. The blatant violations of the law that Common Cause outlined in our complaints to the Department of Justice concerning hush money payments to Stormy Daniels are among those that Cohen pleaded guilty to today. Cohen’s guilty plea directly implicates President Trump in related campaign finance violations detailed in Common Cause complaints.

Today, Common Cause launched a nationwide effort to get candidates running for Congress and state office to go on the record and tell voters where they stand on issues affecting our democracy. The “Our Democracy 2018” campaign and questionnaire includes 18 important questions on campaign finance, ethics, voting rights, redistricting, the 2020 Census, and Net Neutrality.

Today, Tribune Media Company announced it terminated its merger with Sinclair Broadcast Group. The termination comes after the Federal Communications Commission designated the transaction for an administrative hearing. The $3.9 billion merger would have allowed Sinclair to reach 72 percent of households nationwide.

Common Cause joined more than 250,000 individuals and organizations to urge the Commerce Department to remove the citizenship question from the 2020 Census, citing the threat to census accuracy in all communities that will undermine the fair allocation of political representation, public resources, and private investment for the next decade.

Paul S. Ryan, Common Cause's Vice President of Policy and Litigation, drafted a short memo explaining the legal jeopardy President Trump's recent tweet about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting puts himself and his campaign in.

Just days before the American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC) annual meeting in New Orleans, Common Cause released a new report uncovering the recent influence of the secretive special interest lobbying group in the Louisiana legislature.