Trump Administration/Executive Ethics

“There’s no question there is grounds for an investigation at the federal level and at the state level,” said Stephen Spaulding, special counsel for public policy at the nonpartisan nonprofit Common Cause. “The question is we’ve got this one tape, but how many other people received this call?” Spaulding said. “How many state legislatures received this call? What other secretaries of states, election officials received this call? Who else in the White House was involved?”

Paul S. Ryan, the vice president of policy and litigation at Common Cause, came to the same conclusion, telling me, "Federal campaign finance law has only minimal 'truth in advertising' requirements." But Ryan added that the Justice Department "has in recent years begun prosecuting so-called 'scam PACs' for violations of criminal wire- and mail-fraud statutes based on representations made in political fundraising solicitations.... It's certainly possible that the DOJ could investigate President Trump for fraudulent political fundraising in the new year."

The American people expect and deserve a President who puts the well-being of the nation before his personal interests. With tonight’s pardons, Donald Trump has hit a new low. It’s clear he’ll do anything to advance a cover up.   

Americans expect and deserve a President who respects the rule of law, not one who abuses his power to undermine lawful convictions and attempts to whitewash his own corrupt presidency. With tonight’s pardons and commutations, President Trump has once again gravely abused the power of the presidency. Instead of granting pardons as an act of clemency for those who regret their crimes, he is engaged in an effort to hide his own malfeasance by undermining the Russia probe and other political corruption issues. This is a reprehensible abuse of the pardon power, and Congress should immediately investigate. It is also clear that Congress must address abuses of the pardon power and hold President Trump and any future Presidents who abuse the power of the pardon accountable. We urge swift passage of the Protecting Our Democracy Act and other reforms to reinforce that the President is not above the law.

“What we’re seeing in a number of states are clear attempts to either roll back expansions of access to the ballot or add more suppressive measures,” said Sylvia Albert, who runs the voting and elections program at Common Cause.  “What’s happening here is legislatures using propaganda to make changes to election law. Changes to election law should be made very deliberately in concert with election officials in the states, with election experts, with nonpartisan advocacy groups, with security experts,” Albert said. “They are using the president’s rhetoric and all of the undermining of the election as an excuse, and I say excuse because there are no facts to back up what they are saying.”

In an interview with S. V. Date, of HuffPost, Paul S. Ryan, a campaign-finance lawyer at the watchdog group Common Cause, used more colloquial language. “It’ll be a slush fund,” he said. Whereas the rules governing campaign pacs are fairly strict, the rules for leadership pacs are scandalously lax. OpenSecrets notes that some politicians use such funds to make campaign donations to other candidates in their party. Trump could end up doing this, too, but he also has many other options, including directing some of the donations to himself and his children. “Trump could decide to pay himself $1 million a year out of this fund,” Ryan noted. “That’s legal. He could pay Don Jr. and Ivanka, if he wanted to.”