Media Center

Today’s vote is a defining moment for every member of the U.S. House of Representatives. History is watching as Republican Members will weigh the choice of casting a vote for their country or for their party. Amidst a growing list of witnesses testifying about shocking abuses of power by the Trump administration and the president’s inner circle and seismic shifts in public disapproval of the president’s conduct, this is the first time many Members will be asked to cast a formal vote that will put them on the right—or wrong—side of history.

With a floor vote expected later today, Common Cause and it’s 1.2 million members continue to strongly urge every member of the U.S. House of Representatives to vote “yes” on the SHIELD (Stopping Harmful Interference in Elections for a Lasting Democracy) Act (HR 4617). In a Monday letter to Representatives, Common Cause emphasized that the critical legislation will help safeguard our elections from the very real and ongoing dangers of foreign interference in our elections.

The arrest and indictment of Soviet-born agents of Rudy Giuliani for illegally funneling foreign money into Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential run is an encouraging sign that the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York will enforce the laws even if Main Justice is run by Trump-apologist William Barr. The charges of conspiracy to funnel foreign dollars into U.S. elections against Florida businessmen Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman paint a troubling picture of the free flow of foreign money into our elections due to insufficient safeguards and lax enforcement.

Today, Common Cause filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging that President Donald Trump and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani illegally solicited a political contribution from a foreign national—by repeatedly urging Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Hunter Biden and 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden. The allegations were first published in The Wall Street Journal, and subsequently President Trump admitted that during a July 25th phone call he pressured President Zelensky to pursue the investigation of his political rival and his son.

Today, Common Cause urged President Donald Trump and the Senate to quickly nominate and confirm new commissioners to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to avert a crisis that would leave the agency largely powerless to enforce campaign finance laws without a quorum. The resignation of Vice Chairman Matthew S. Petersen, effective at the end of the month, will leave the FEC with only three commissioners, one short of the minimum required for the FEC to act and well short of the six required by statute. With the 2020 election cycle well underway, the letter urges the president to treat the situation as an emergency and fill the vacancies expediently.  

As our nation grieves back-to-back mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, over the weekend, Common Cause calls attention to the increasing connections between recent mass killings in which the shooters claim, or are found to have been part of, fringe white supremacist groups.