News Clips

“It’s extremely troubling,” said Beth Rotman of Common Cause, a group that filed complaints Federal Election Commission and Department of Justice complaints about the Parnas and Fruman donations. “The money should absolutely be returned. It shows a really problematic appearance of a conflict [of interest].”

Paul Seamus Ryan, vice president of policy and litigation at Common Cause, is among those questioning even the narrow campaign finance analysis. Common Cause has filed a complaint with the Justice Department and the Federal Election Commission accusing Trump of violating campaign law. It wouldn't have been difficult for the government to determine how much money Ukraine would have spent in an investigation of Joe Biden and his son, he said. "That would give them a dollar amount to show that Trump solicited 'something of value,'" Ryan said.

“With this decision, the Court demonstrates it just doesn’t ‘get it’ when it comes to an open internet,” says former FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, who now works with Common Cause on media issues. “Without net neutrality rules, Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T are in the saddle and consumers are being ridden to higher prices, internet throttling, blocking, and slow-lane traffic.” The court’s ruling, Copps points out, “reverses the FCC’s decision to preempt state net neutrality laws, making clear that states are free to pass such legislation in order to protect their residents. The states thus retain their ability to fill the void caused by the repeal of federal net neutrality rules. California has already passed the gold standard for state net neutrality legislation, and other states should follow that model.”

“Nobody understands what that legal gobbledygook means,’’ said Liza McClenaghan, state chair of Common Cause Florida, one of several groups that have asked state officials to update their forms to reflect the changes to state law. “It is confusing. If they had had even an emergency hearing, they would have 90 days to go through the regulatory process and they could have gotten comments on how to make this understandable.’’

“If you are just looking at Ukraine, there are significant crimes and wrongdoing that are left on the table,” said Aaron Scherb, director of legislative affairs at Common Cause, an advocacy group that works closely with staff of House committees.