Trevor Potter, president of Campaign Legal Center (CLC), and a Republican former Commissioner of the Federal Election Commission, released the following statement:

“Any elected official who incites mob violence as part of a campaign to subvert our democracy is unfit to hold public office in the future.

This week’s impeachment trial is an opportunity for the public to hear the extent to which former President Trump used a campaign of disinformation to bully election officials and attempt to steal an election he had lost at the ballot box, leading up to the attempted insurrection by supporters carrying his flag on January 6. The outcome of this trial should be a lifetime ban on Trump holding federal office.

Trump’s disinformation campaign included lies to his supporters, but also blatant attempts to pressure state officials to break the law during the post-election period and an unprecedented demand of the vice president to circumvent the entire Electoral College once the vote had already been certified.

Lives were lost on January 6 and confidence in our system of government was shaken. Now, 71% of Americans say that democracy in the U.S. is under threat. We cannot begin to address this threat and rebuild trust unless we send a clear message that future presidents cannot incite an insurrection at the end of their term and get away with it. To prevent the most dangerous abuses of power in the future, we must first have accountability.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Campaign Legal Center (CLC) submitted a letter to the U.S. House Committee on Ethics calling for immediate action in response to congressional staff threats to withhold official actions and access for companies that suspended campaign contributions following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

Prior to the riot at the Capitol several lawmakers allegedly made comments to incite the attack and many objected to the official certification of the electoral votes. In response, over 70 companies announced that they would suspend all or some of their political action committee (PAC) contributions. Following the announcement, it was reported that congressional staffers for Republican and Democratic lawmakers threatened to prohibit lobbyists from companies that have pulled their political donations from coming into their offices and  allow legislation that would be harmful to those same companies to pass without objection.  

“Lawmakers revealing that they are considering punishing companies based on political contributions is akin to extortion,” said Kedric Payne senior director of ethics and former deputy chief counsel of the Office of Congressional Ethics, “The very public nature of the threats is yet another symptom of the collapse of core ethics rules in Congress.”

House rules are clear that “members and staff are not to take or withhold any official action on the basis of the campaign contributions or support of the involved individuals . . . members and staff are likewise prohibited from threatening punitive action on the basis of such consideration.”  The committee, “has long advised members and staff that they should always exercise caution to avoid even the appearance that solicitations of campaign contributions are connected in any way with an action taken or to be taken in their official capacity.” Moreover, these actions implicate bribery, illegal gratuities and other criminal laws.

“The Committee on Ethics is often criticized for not investigating or disciplining lawmakers for ethics violations, but it routinely issues public advisories to lawmakers to prevent foreseeable ethics violations,” Payne said, “If the committee fails to at the very least issue a statement prohibiting this conduct, it is setting a tone in the beginning of a new Congress that fundamental ethics principles are not enforced and thereby meaningless.” 

Campaign Legal Center (CLC) is urging the U.S. House Committee on Ethics to take action on the blatant ethics violations. If the committee fails to act on these very public threats, the integrity of the committee and the House of Representatives will be called into question at a time when many feel our democracy is under attack. 

ARIZONA – Today, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) and the ACLU of Arizona filed a lawsuit seeking transparency about the extent to which county officials in Apache County, Arizona denied pre-trial detainees and individuals serving misdemeanor sentences the right to vote in the 2020 elections.

Over the last nine months, Apache County has ignored six public records requests seeking information that, by law, should be made available to the public. Apache County, however, is far from alone in failing to live up to its legal obligations to be transparent and accountable to the public.

CLC, as part of the Arizona Coalition to End Jail Based Disenfranchisement, has sent a total of 90 records requests to understand how many people in Arizona jails were being denied their constitutional right to vote across Arizona. As of today, 49 requests remain unanswered. Apache County is the only county that didn’t respond at all, violating Arizona public record law. They must explain the procedures that its recorder and sheriff follow to ensure that they are protecting the right of all citizens to vote.

Each night, more than 14,000 people are detained in county jails across Arizona. An estimated 60%, or 8,400, of those people are eligible to vote. People convicted of felonies lose their right to vote, but those who are held in pre-trial detention or are serving misdemeanor sentences retain their voting eligibility.

“Arizona is shielding the public from the full scope of its practice of disenfranchising people in the criminal justice system, a practice that hurts low-income people and people of color the most,” said Dana Paikowsky, Equal Justice Works fellow at CLC. “Citizens who are eligible to vote should never be denied their most fundamental right. Transparency is urgently needed to conduct public oversight so that Arizona can begin fixing its broken system.”

“Voting is a constitutional right that is not taken away when someone is jailed,” said Jared Keenan, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Arizona. “Government agencies have a responsibility to ensure people’s right to vote is protected even when they’ve been accused of a crime. We are demanding these public records to hold all Arizona counties accountable to that responsibility.”

“All eligible Arizona voters, including those in jail, should be able to cast a ballot that counts.” said Alex Gulotta, Arizona state director at All Voting Is Local, a member of the Arizona Coalition to End Jail Based Disenfranchisement. “The public deserves to know if the right to vote is being upheld by Apache County. Any effort to obscure or deny transparency is a threat to democracy for all Arizonans.”

According to a report released by the coalition in July 2020, only seven incarcerated voters cast a ballot in Arizona’s March presidential primary out of an estimated 2,700 eligible incarcerated voters.