Press Call (10/16): Yes, President Trump Broke the Law by Asking Foreign Governments for Favors

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ADVISORY – President Trump is facing an impeachment inquiry based on election law violations. Hear nonpartisan analysis from Campaign Legal Center (CLC)’s legal experts about the president’s abuse of power and campaign finance violations.

Join us for the call-in event, “Yes, President Trump Broke the Law by Asking Foreign Governments for Favors” on Wednesday October 16, 2019 from Noon - 1:00 pm ET

RSVP by October 15, 2019 to receive the call-in number in advance of the call.

Featured speakers for CLC:

  • Trevor Potter, President (a former Republican Chairman of the Federal Election Commission)
  • Adav Noti, Senior Director, Trial Litigation & Chief of Staff
  • Erin Chlopak, Director, Campaign Finance Strategy
  • Brendan Fischer, Director, Federal Reform
  • Delaney Marsco, Legal Counsel, Ethics

*A Q&A will follow speaker presentations, and a recording of the call will be emailed to you if you RSVP.

Issues
Campaign Finance
Ethics

Holding Trump Accountable for Legal Violations Involving Ukraine

At a Glance

On September 26, 2019, a whistleblower complaint was made public that alleges President Donald Trump used the power of his office to solicit interference from Ukraine in the 2020 U.S. election. Further reports have revealed other alleged illegal acts by employees or associates of the Executive Branch. Campaign Legal Center is calling out the Trump White House for multiple violations of campaign finance and ethics laws.

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Active
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Issues
Campaign Finance
Ethics
About This Case/Action

In the campaign finance world, a “contribution” is any “thing of value” given to affect an election, and federal law prohibits anybody from soliciting a contribution from a foreign national to an American political campaign. 

There is no doubt that a foreign government’s search for damaging information about a candidate’s political opponent would be valuable to that candidate. As Special Counsel Mueller noted, “[a] foreign entity that engaged in such research and provided resulting information to a campaign could exert a greater effect on an election, and a greater tendency to ingratiate the donor to the candidate, than a gift of money or tangible things of value.” 

The whistleblower’s account of the July 25, 2019 call between President Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has been corroborated by a summary of the call released by the White House. In particular, the call summary indicates that, with congressional aid for Ukraine on hold, Trump told Zelensky that U.S. support for his country has not always been “reciprocal,” and then asked Zelensky for a “favor”: to work with Trump’s personal attorney, Rudolph Giuliani, as well as the U.S. Attorney General, to investigate Trump’s potential 2020 rival, Joe Biden.   

These facts not only reflect a startling abuse of executive power; they also unambiguously demonstrate that Trump broke the law by soliciting valuable assistance to his reelection efforts from a foreign government. 

Campaign Legal Center has been on this case since July 2018, when we first uncovered how two Ukrainian-Americans had laundered a six-figure contribution to President Trump’s super PAC through a shell corporation. CLC's complaint helped trigger a series of events that revealed how the pair had leveraged the access their contribution afforded to deepen a relationship with the president’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, and to push the same theories about Ukraine and the Biden family that President Trump adopted in his call with Ukraine’s president.  

Giuliani’s involvement in official United States foreign affairs matters is additionally problematic. As Trump’s personal lawyer, he is not officially a federal employee. This means that, even as he insists to foreign actors that his work is not only officially sanctioned by the president but assisted by the State Department, he can sidestep legal ethics obligations that would require transparency of the foreign or domestic interests who are paying him.

Pressure Applied by Trump on Ukraine Is an Abuse of Power

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WASHINGTON – Today, the White House released a memorandum that describes portions of a July 25 telephone conversation between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The document includes a disclaimer that cautions readers: it is not a verbatim transcript, and a number of factors can affect its accuracy.

CLC President Trevor Potter, a former Republican Commissioner of the Federal Election Commission, released the following statement:

“On his phone call with the President of Ukraine, President Trump repeatedly pressured a newly-elected head of a foreign country to investigate a former U.S. Vice President and current candidate for President of the United States for his own political gain. This is a betrayal of his oath of office. Given the context of the call, President Trump created an implicit understanding that U.S. support for Ukraine and taxpayer-funded security aid to Ukraine was hanging in the balance. In order for the President and executive branch to be held accountable, Congress must exercise its core constitutional authority to ensure that the whistleblower complaint be released in its entirety, and all the facts surrounding this incident are publicly known.”

Issues
Ethics

CLC Lanza Una Nueva Guía en Español Para Ayudar a Millones de Personas Entender Sus Derechos A Votar

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WASHINGTON — Para comemorar el Día Nacional de la Inscripción a Votar, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) lanzó hoy RecupereSuVoto.org, la versión español de RestoreYourVote.org, una guía electrónica para los 23 millones de ciudadanos estadounidenses con condenas por delitos graves para entender sus opciones para ejercer el derecho a votar. Reflejando el sitio de Restore Your Vote original, RecupereSuVoto.org incluye una mapa para el proceso de la recuperación del derecho a votar en cada de los 50 estados, el Distrito de Columbia, y Puerto Rico. Durante este último año, los estados de Nevada y Colorado han revisados sus leyes para re-conceder derechos de votar a las personas cuando salen de la cárcel. Esos estados son parte de una tendencia nacional. Tantos como 18 millones de personas con condenas previas pudieran votar hoy en día, si solamente entendieran sus derechos.

Porque las leyes de la privación del derecho de votar por razón de condena varían mucho de estado a estado, muchas personas siguen sin saber lo que son sus derechos. Los gobiernos estatales a menudo caen cortos y faltan de educar a los ciudadanos con condenas previas sobre sus derechos a votar después que ya han pagado sus deudas a la sociedad, y efectivamente extienden sus sentencias. 

Los impactos de las leyes de privación del derecho a votar por delitos graves son sentidos desproporcionadamente por las comunidades de grupos minorías, impidiendo que sus voces sean escuchadas. Aunque los hispanos son solamente 16% de la populación adulta de los Estados Unidos, comprenden 23% de la populación encarcelada.

“Los ciudadanos quienes han pagado sus deudas a la sociedad tienen el derecho de participar en nuestra democracia. Estamos lanzando esta guía por que la votación debe ser accesible a todos los ciudadanos, sin importar donde viven, el color de su piel, o la lengua que hablan,” dijo Jonathan Diaz, abogado de derechos de votar, CLC. “Las leyes y políticas federales y estatales deben proteger el derecho a votar uniformemente, y también deben promover la participación de los votantes sobre el país entero. Las acciones recientes de algunos estados de expandir los derechos a votar a las personas con previas condenas son desarrollos positivos. Pero a menudo, aunque las leyes se han mejorado, una falta de información puede evitar que los votantes sepan su estado y ejercen sus derechos a votar. Nosotros hemos creado esta guía para reparar esa falta de información para tantas personas como sea posible.”

Desde que lanzó la versión en inglés en agosto del 2018, casi 70,000 personas han visitado RestoreYourVote.org. A través del alcance comunitario del programa Restore Your Vote, organizadores de CLC identificaron los estados con las leyes de recuperación del derecho a votar más confusas, y directamente ayudaron a más de 5,000 personas con condenas por delitos graves recuperar sus derechos a votar. También apoderaron miles de líderes comunitarios a mejor ayudar sus vecinos tratando de entender las leyes de recuperación del derecho a votar en sus estados. 

Visite RecupereSuVoto.org para aprender más.

Issues
Voting and Elections
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