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Such contributions can help companies buy access to government officials, said Paul S. Ryan, a vice president at the government watchdog group Common Cause. "Anytime a special interest doing business with the government can make big contributions to public officials handing out contracts or making other government decisions, it's a cause for concern," he said. "Average, everyday Americans can't buy the same influence."

Cigna seems to be caught in a moral miscue, Cheri Quickmire, executive director of the elections watchdog Common Cause in Connecticut, said. “They weren’t being truthful when they made that pledge,” Quickmire said Thursday. “They had no interest. They wanted to get some press and attention by making the declaration. But clearly if it resumes so quickly it wasn’t sincere.”

Our country has survived the Civil War, two world wars, the Great Depression, the Great Recession, and many other hardships along the way. Although many have been left behind or left out during those struggles, we must expand our efforts for an inclusive democracy so that it lives up to its promise. We survived the insurrection and a coup attempt last year. Can our democracy withstand another attempt in the next presidential election? We cannot afford to find out. The Senate must immediately pass pending legislation that has already passed the House before it’s too late and work closely on reforms to the Electoral Count Act. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has indicated the Senate will again take up voting rights when it reconvenes. No Senate rule, including the filibuster, should stand in the way.

Paul S. Ryan, vice president of government watchdog Common Cause, called the revelations “a big deal.” “The importance of disclosure in this matter can’t be overstated,” Ryan told The Daily Beast. “It’s no secret that Kanye West’s candidacy would have a spoiler effect, siphoning votes from Democrat Joe Biden. Voters had a right to know that a high-powered Republican lawyer was providing legal services to Kanye—and federal law requires disclosure of such legal work.”

Paul Seamus Ryan, a campaign-law expert at Common Cause, which advocates for accountable government, said that when Trump was a candidate, it would have been illegal for him to spend his own campaign funds on legal fees. That’s because federal law prohibits candidates from spending campaign funds on personal expenses, unrelated to politics. But Ryan said no such ban applies to political parties. So the RNC can pay Trump’s legal bills, even for an investigation unconnected to his time as president. “This is an abuse of donor trust,” Ryan said. ‘I’ve been following money in politics closely for more than two decades, and I’m unaware of any similar past abuse of donor trust and donor money to pay personal legal bills of private citizens.”

“I think there is a tremendous amount of pressure on them to deliver on voting rights," said Stephen Spaulding, senior counsel for public policy and government affairs at Common Cause.