Disclosure & Transparency

"Common Cause joins the nation in wishing peace and comfort to the family, friends, and colleagues of Senator John McCain," said Common Cause President Karen Hobert Flynn. "As a U.S. Senator, McCain worked with Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Common Cause to pass significant campaign finance reform – the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (McCain-Feingold), which banned soft money and curbed corporate and labor union spending to influence elections. During that fight, McCain showed tenacity in bucking his party and its leadership to eventually pass the reform in 2002. Senator McCain’s courage, grit, and confidence inspired millions of Americans who will miss his voice in the U.S. Senate."

“You have to follow the money and figure out who was in on the decisions and who wasn’t in on the decisions," said Stephen Spaulding, chief of strategy for the watchdog group Common Cause. "We don’t have the answers to that. “It sounds like it wasn’t just Donald Trump and Michael Cohen sitting in a room together.”

The investigation must follow the evidence wherever it leads. The American people are entitled to answers and accountability. With the approaching elections, Americans are closely watching how Congress will respond to this latest effort to subvert the rule of law.

“Denials and tweets in all caps do not make campaign finance violations go away,” said Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause.

The new recording of Donald Trump and his attorney Michael Cohen reveals much more about who knew what when and adds evidence to back up earlier complaints filed by Common Cause urging the DOJ and the FEC to investigate the apparent campaign finance violations. In the tape, Trump and Cohen clearly discuss the payment in the context of the election and its potential impact. The recording reaffirms what we alleged in our complaints and confirms that Donald Trump knew about the Karen McDougal hush money payments before the election despite his repeated denials and those of his spokespeople and attorneys. Denials and tweets in all caps do not make campaign finance violations go away. We look forward to seeing what other tapes seized from Michael Cohen by the Justice Department reveal about a string of hush money payments leading up to the election and how they relate to campaign finance violations.

Put differently, as Common Cause’s Paul S. Ryan told me via email, “If the earlier reporting that AMI consulted with Cohen (an ‘agent’ of candidate Trump) before making the payment to McDougal is correct, then AMI’s payment to McDougal was a political expenditure ‘coordinated’ with Trump.” He continued, “Coordinated expenditures are treated as in-kind contributions under campaign finance law and corporations are prohibited from contributing to federal candidates, so AMI’s payment to McDougal [would be] an illegal corporate contribution to Trump.” Indeed, this was the basis for complaints that Common Cause filed earlier this year with the Justice Department and the Federal Election Commission.