Campaign Finance

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.

Paul S. Ryan, vice president of litigation at campaign reform advocacy group Common Cause, said that the decision is in line with years of FEC rulemaking, and “strikes the right balance.” “The FEC’s opinion in this matter seems consistent with its handling of similar matters over the past decade-plus,” Ryan told The Daily Beast. Ryan noted that the value of a campaign’s donor list, already sky-high, may certainly appear heightened in the Schiff scenario, when the candidate stands to benefit from his own custom data. But, he said, “at the end of the day the FEC needs to draw lines in order to facilitate consistent administration of the law. And I think they’ve done an acceptable job of doing so in the context of donor lists.”

“Americans deserve to know who is trying to influence our voices and our votes, and foreign entities should have zero role in determining American elections,” Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause, said in a statement.

There is no substitute for legislation, and the time to act is now. Recently, more than 150 democracy scholars wrote that “defenders of democracy in America still have a slim window of opportunity to act. But time is ticking away, and midnight is approaching.” If we are to lead by the “power of our example,” President Biden and senators must step up and do what it takes to pass these bills as quickly as possible. When our leaders embark on the year of action at the summit, this must be a top priority. Democracy is resilient, and they have the power to act. We cannot afford to wait.

The For the People Act “represents the boldest democracy reform since Watergate, and any funds currently available for the old system should be used for the new system of federal citizen-funded elections, which must pass so we can get big money out of politics,” Beth Rotman, the director of money in politics and ethics for Common Cause, said prior to the bill’s stall-out.