USA Today Op-Ed: Why Rudy Giuliani’s comments matter

USA Today Op-Ed: Why Rudy Giuliani’s comments matter

Campaign finance scandals rarely involve details as tawdry as the Stormy Daniels fiasco and the $130,00 hush-money payment. That shouldn’t distract citizens from doing our part to hold power accountable. As the leader of the nonpartisan watchdog organization that filed the first campaign finance complaints related to President Trump and Daniels, my request is simple: Follow the money and hold any violators — including the president of the United States — accountable to laws that protect the integrity of our democracy.

Campaign finance scandals rarely involve details as tawdry as the Stormy Daniels fiasco and the $130,00 hush-money payment. That shouldn’t distract citizens from doing our part to hold power accountable. As the leader of the nonpartisan watchdog organization that filed the first campaign finance complaints related to President Trump and Daniels, my request is simple: Follow the money and hold any violators — including the president of the United States — accountable to laws that protect the integrity of our democracy.

Even with the Supreme Court’s decisions in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission and McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission dismantling so many of the commonsense campaign finance laws that helped maintain a modicum of balance in our politics, many remain that protect Americans’ right to know who’s spending money to influence our votes and to curb corruption and its appearance.

Rudy Giuliani’s latest admissions that Trump reimbursed his “fix-it guy,” Michael Cohen, only strengthens our case. And Giuliani indicated that there could be yet more potential campaign finance-related issues yet to come, explaining that the original payment from Cohen was sometime “right before the election … it was done for other purposes in addition to possible campaign purposes.”

Much remains publicly unknown about the ongoing investigations into Trump, his associates and his 2016 campaign. In the wake of all of this pressure, however, the president reportedly is lashing out at the Justice Department and gauging how to curtail the ongoing Mueller probe. Any retaliation-by-firing would require further investigations into a possible presidential cover up, with abuse of power and obstruction of justice.

As a candidate, Trump cynically railed against our broken campaign finance system but never proposed solutions other than electing him to the White House. There’s no question that too many Americans believe that elected officials are more responsive to the super rich than to constituents.

We must remain vigilant and hold steadfast to our values of accountability, transparency and the American ideal that no person is above the law. Working together, citizens must demand that Congress put our democracy and our country above party. No one wins if the people lose our ability to hold politicians accountable in our democracy.

Karen Hobert Flynn is president of Common Cause.