WASHINGTON – Walter Shaub, senior director, ethics at the Campaign Legal Center (CLC) warned the administration, its surrogates, and its allies to back off their attempt to undermine the investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. President Trump’s lawyer, Jay Sekulow, has publicly called for a second special counsel in a transparent effort to muddy the waters and impede Mueller’s investigation. In response, Shaub gave the following statement:

“The coordinated effort by President Trump and his surrogates to discredit the Mueller investigation raises serious alarms. Rather than making themselves complicit in this assault on the rule of law, Members of Congress should send a clear message to the President that firing Mueller is a red line he must not cross.”

Reports have indicated that the final tax bill will not include a repeal of the Johnson Amendment, a change that would have allowed charitable organizations organized as  501(c)3 nonprofits to engage in political campaigns on behalf of (or in opposition to) candidates for public office.

Brendan Fischer, director, federal and FEC reform at Campaign Legal Center (CLC) released the following statement:

“There is no reason that secretive billionaires should get a tax deduction for their dark money political contributions, and we are glad that this provision was stripped from the final bill. The outpouring of opposition to the rollback from voters, faith leaders, the nonprofit community, and transparency advocates stopped this ill-advised provision for now. But big money political donors still want a tax break for their secret contributions and we must remain vigilant so that similar language is not included in future legislation.”

Voters have a right to know information about who is trying to influence their vote

WASHINGTON – Today, for the first time, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) agreed that Facebook political ads must include disclaimers stating who paid for them, in response to an advisory opinion request that the Campaign Legal Center filed on behalf of Take Back Action Fund.

“Today’s FEC vote to require disclaimers on Facebook ads is a victory for the voters’ right to know who is paying for political attack ads,” said John Pudner, president of Take Back Action Fund. “The FEC has deadlocked on many issues in recent years, so it is a breakthrough to have a unanimous vote in favor of disclosure.”

“This is a positive first step, but the FEC itself created this confusion in 2010, and it’s embarrassing that it took the FEC seven years to start fixing the problem,” said Adav Noti, senior director, trial litigation at CLC, who previously served as the FEC’s associate general counsel for policy. “Plenty of work remains to be done to give voters, journalists, watchdog groups, and law enforcement the tools they need to detect and root out illegal foreign election activity on social media.”

“Today’s vote by the FEC helped close some of the transparency loopholes exploited by foreign actors to secretly buy ads in the 2016 elections, said Brendan Fischer, director, federal and FEC reform at CLC. “But the FEC commissioners’ disagreement about how far this advisory opinion should reach speaks to the need for a broad rulemaking to bring similar clarity for online political ads on any platform.”

CLC’s Director of Federal and FEC Reform, Brendan Fischer, testified before the FEC today. CLC represented the conservative advocacy nonprofit Take Back Action Fund in calling for the advisory opinion request on October 31 that resulted in today’s decision by the FEC. CLC also filed comments on November 8 in response to the FEC’s most recent Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on internet disclaimers, supporting new rules to provide clarity and close loopholes.

Digital political ads have grown rapidly. According to a report by Borrell Associates, $159.8 million was spent on digital election ads in 2012. This number rose to $1.4 billion in 2016.

Here is the FEC's opinion.

Trevor Potter, president of CLC, and a former Republican chairman of the Federal Election Commission, released the following statement about Cockrum v. Trump:

“The hack and release of sensitive personal information of donors and campaign staff is potentially damaging to all those who seek to be involved in the political process, regardless of political affiliation. Our political system must safeguard against intimidation and the breach of privacy, so the stakes of this case for the future of our democracy are very high.”

Learn more about the case Cockrum v. Trump.

CLC filed a friend-of-the-court brief on December 8, 2017 in support of the plaintiffs.

WASHINGTON – Today, the Campaign Legal Center (CLC) is urging that Kellyanne Conway be removed from office or given a lengthy suspension without pay for willfully and repeatedly disregarding ethics requirements.

Yesterday, Kellyanne Conway appeared on CNN’s New Day and, after being introduced with her official title and while standing in front of the White House, spent fifteen minutes defending U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore and advocating against the election of his opponent, Doug Jones. As CLC outlines in its complaint to the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), her actions violate the Hatch Act, which bars executive branch officials from using their positions to influence elections. Moreover, Conway appeared to acknowledge Hatch Act concerns during the interview, but she then dismissed and even went so far as to mock efforts to hold her accountable for violations of basic ethical requirements.

Conway similarly violated the Hatch Act less than a month ago during an appearance on Fox & Friends. CLC filed a complaint with OSC based on that violation.

“The willfulness of Conway’s violation and her openly expressed disdain for efforts to hold her accountable for complying with ethics requirements make clear that anything less than removal from the federal service or a lengthy unpaid suspension will not deter future misconduct on her part,” said Walter Shaub, senior director, ethics at CLC, and the former director of the Office of Government Ethics (OGE). “Lower-level federal employees have incurred severe penalties for less serious Hatch Act violations, and OSC should not have one standard for the federal workforce generally and a lower standard for those who are close to this President.”

CLC’s complaint notes multiple examples of executive branch employees suffering serious repercussions for Hatch Act violations.

• Earlier this year, OSC sought removal of a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) employee for repeated Hatch Act violations.
• In 2015, OSC secured a 112-day suspension for a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) employee who engaged in partisan political activity in the workplace and solicited political contributions.
• In 2014, OSC secured the resignation of a Federal Election Commission (FEC) attorney who had posted partisan political tweets and participated in an online media interview from an FEC facility where she criticized the Republican Party and its presidential candidate.
• Also in 2014, OSC levied a 100-day unpaid suspension against an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employee who urged callers to to reelect President Obama over an IRS help line.
• OSC also secured a 14-day suspension of an IRS employee who criticized Republicans in her conversations with a taxpayer.

Read Walter Shaub’s November 27 op ed in the Washington Post discussing Ms. Conway’s violation of the Hatch Act and OSC’s responsibility to hold her accountable.