News Clips

According to a court filing earlier this week, former 2016 Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort shared presidential campaign polling data with Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian citizen with ties to Russian intelligence. If the data Manafort shared with Kilimnik was used to materially guide spending by Russian nationals to influence the 2016 presidential election, then the Trump campaign seemingly received an “in-kind contribution” from the Russian nationals in the form of “coordinated expenditures” in violation of multiple federal campaign finance laws. A key link in the “coordination” here is the revelation of Manafort’s actions.

Mueller's investigation of those attacks must be allowed to continue, following the evidence wherever it leads. The American people are entitled to answers and accountability. A bipartisan group of senators is reintroducing legislation to protect the Mueller investigation — legislation that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked last year. Americans are closely watching how Congress will respond to the pending threats to the Mueller investigation with Barr's nomination and Rosenstein's departure. With the 2020 presidential election on the horizon, we must put country before party to hold accountable those who undermined the 2016 election and to protect the integrity of our future elections. No less than our democracy is at stake.

“If the president follows through on the threat to declare a state of emergency simply to circumvent the legislative branch and build a wall on the Mexican border,” says Common Cause president Karen Hobert Flynn, “then Congress must act swiftly and decisively to check the abuse utilizing the National Emergencies Act, which was enacted in 1976 as a post-Watergate reform to reassert Congress’s constitutional role in checking and safeguarding against authoritarian abuses of power.”

In Common Cause’s five-decade history, we have held both Democrats and Republicans accountable. We do this because of moments like this, when one party has moved so far in the wrong direction that it seems like democracy reform is a partisan issue. It is not, and we shouldn’t let Republican leaders in Congress make it one.

“The FEC has found violations significantly larger in amount than the two Trump hush payments, and has a few more complaints still pending that allege much larger amounts in violation,” said Paul Ryan, an election law expert at Common Cause.

OVERBY: But at the watchdog group Common Cause, attorney Paul Seamus Ryan disagrees. He said Edwards seemed to be trying to hide the affair from his wife. By contrast, Ryan said, Cohen, Daniels, McDougal and the publisher all seemed to agree on one thing. PAUL SEAMUS RYAN: Everyone involved in this matter, except for Donald Trump, who's on the record so far has said the purpose was to influence the election. There was no ambiguity. There is no doubt. OVERBY: Ryan had a fact to add. RYAN: Hey, this wasn't Cohen and Trump's first rodeo. They've had a brush with this area of campaign finance law in the past.