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The House took decisive action today to overturn President Trump’s abuse of the Emergency Powers Act and the Senate must follow suit. Americans expect and deserve a Congress that will not tolerate abuse of power by the president.

Today at 10:00 a.m. Common Cause President Karen Hobert Flynn will testify before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform at its hearing “H.R. 1, For the People Act: Strengthening Ethics Rules for the Executive Branch” in Room 2154 of the Rayburn House Office Building. Her full written testimony was submitted to the Committee in advance of the hearing.

Roger Stone’s indictment implicates the Trump campaign in campaign finance violations during the 2016 election related to WikiLeaks documents provided by Russian Intelligence officials. The indictment makes clear that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation has uncovered evidence that a “senior Trump campaign official was directed” by someone else within the campaign, perhaps Donald Trump himself, to contact Stone and request that Stone obtain “damaging information” on Clinton from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who was in possession DNC emails that had been hacked by Russian intelligence officers.

Americans expect and deserve a President who respects the law and the office he holds. Donald Trump’s outrageous threats to abuse his office and his emergency powers to bypass congress and build a wall on the Mexican border are a transparent effort to get himself out of the government shutdown impasse that he created himself. Moreover, Trump’s proposed wall would do nothing to address the actual humanitarian crisis on the border.

Americans expect and deserve a Department of Justice (DOJ) that is above reproach. But President Trump continues to select Attorneys General who agree with his skewed worldview that he is above the law. This hammers home the need for Congress to protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russia’s attacks on the 2016 election.

Today’s sentencing of former Trump attorney Michael Cohen speaks to the seriousness of the crimes committed which is why we filed complaints alleging these violations earlier this year. Our complaint also alleged that then-candidate Donald Trump violated campaign finance laws and DOJ filings at Cohen’s sentencing identify a co-conspirator, “Individual-1”, who is clearly none other than now Trump. Despite the Republican apologists in Congress making light of Trump’s involvement, these are serious crimes with significant penalties associated with them as Cohen’s sentence reflects. These laws are in place to protect the integrity of our elections and they must be enforced. No American is above the law, not even the President.