Executive Ethics

On September 23, 2019, Common Cause filed a complaint with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging reason to believe that President Trump, Rudy Giuliani and other political operatives violated the federal law ban on soliciting, or substantially assisting the solicitation of, a “contribution” from a foreign national. The following is a summary of the law and facts detailed in the complaint, as well as some additional background information.

"Even where the actions by the AG do not violate the letter of the law, certain acts could violate the spirit of the law and undermine public confidence in government," said Beth Rotman, director of money and politics in ethics at the think tank Common Cause. "This is certainly the case if there is an appearance that a public official is acting in the interest of a private business where he or she should be acting in the public interest."

Mark Bowden, author of "Black Hawk Down" and Chad Hurd, the art director of "Archer" collaborated to bring out the drama of The Mueller Report -- one more way to get more Americans to engage with this important record of historic levels of unethical, illegal, and unconstitutional behavior by the Trump campaign and White House.

In this short video, Common Cause Graduate Communications Fellow Kenneth Campbell demonstrates why every American should be demanding an impeachment inquiry now. Thanks also to summer intern Isabel Giovannetti for her work on this and other video projects.

Originally published at USA Today, Common Cause President Karen Hobert Flynn lays out the case for an impeachment inquiry.

Today, Common Cause is launching a new effort to ensure voters’ right to know where presidential candidates stand on practical solutions to the challenges facing our democracy. The Our Democracy 2020 campaign will focus getting every presidential candidate in the Democratic and Republican primaries to respond to a 17-question survey and inject the high priority conversation on the need for democracy reform in the presidential campaign.