Disclosure & Transparency

On Tuesday, a letter was posted to the website Common Cause, the political watchdog group, addressed to host Jimmy Kimmel and the production team of the ABC series. The letter noted that Lindell has been "a leading voice in spreading lies and disinformation regarding the 2020 election results, including producing several videos claiming that the 2020 elections were hacked." Making a case that Lindell should not appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the letter stated: "We believe that having Mr. Lindell on your show will give him a bigger platform to spread his lies and disinformation, and knowingly mislead the public about the integrity of our election systems. To be clear, even joking about his conspiracy theories can lead to the spread of disinformation. In fact, disinformation actors such as Lindell often seek to get their lies and conspiracy theories debunked in national media in order to give their disinformation broader reach. Given the state of our nation and nature of Lindell’s lies, we are asking that you immediately cancel his scheduled appearance."

"Even though they're saying the case had nothing to do with elections and is not about public transparency, if there's a bad ruling here it could be leveraged to expand these exemptions from transparency in election spending," said Beth Rotman, national director of money in politics and ethics at Common Cause. "If you're going to expand those exemptions so broadly, then you're going to really take away a lot of the transparency that we have in political disclosure laws." 

“It’s critically important that the For the People Act remain big, bold and together,” said Aaron Scherb, the director of legislative affairs for Common Cause, one of several groups working with Democrats on the bill, adding, “People don’t want piecemeal solutions to comprehensive problems.”

In our democracy, we deserve to have political debates based in truth, but as we saw in the 2020 election, Americans are increasingly dealt a deluge of disinformation that comes at them in all forms: online, television ads, and from politicians and our elected officials themselves. If we are going to have a real democracy that is truly of, by, and for the people, then we need solutions and accountability to combat the growing cancer of disinformation. We can start with a bill moving through Congress right now: the For the People Act.

Paul S. Ryan, vice president of policy and litigation at left-leaning Common Cause, said it comes down to “basic human decency.” “While it should be easy for supporters of an organization to make recurring donations, people shouldn’t be tricked or bullied into making donations,” Ryan said. “NRCC and Trump solicitations seem to have crossed this line.”

Common Cause, Campaign Legal Center (CLC), Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), and League of Women Voters of California (LWV) submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) in Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Becerra.   The brief urges the Court to uphold California’s law that requires charitable groups active in the state to file nonpublic tax reports – Schedule Bs – with the state Attorney General (AG) listing their largest donors.