Media Center

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.

Tonight, in hundreds of cities and towns across the nation, hundreds of thousands of Americans took to the streets in protest to defend Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russia’s attacks on the 2016 presidential race. Protesters demanded that the investigation proceed without interference and stressed that acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker immediately recuse himself from overseeing the investigation in light of his own conflicts of interest.

Whoever becomes the next Attorney General of the United States -- whether acting or permanent -- must make a public commitment not to interfere in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

We call on all Americans to repudiate this political hate in each and every conversation with family, friend, and colleagues. We cannot ignore the racist and intolerant invective we see in politics, repeated by some news commentators, and flourishing online.  Our own president needs to repudiate this hate speech and own his own very significant contributions to setting the tone that makes people think it is okay to vilify and attack politicians, judges, reporters and others who they don’t agree with.

Initial reports about the brief FBI investigation of sexual assault allegations reek of a whitewash as the Senate scrambles to fill the Supreme Court seat before facing voters in November. Combined with the abbreviated and inadequate document release of Brett Kavanaugh’s professional career and his appearance at last week’s hearing, many questions have been raised about Judge Kavanaugh’s fitness to serve as a Justice and they must be answered.