CLC Letter Against Rep. Roger Williams (R-TX) Leads to Possible Investigation by the House Ethics Committee

WASHINGTON – Late yesterday, the House Ethics Committee revealed that the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) found “substantial reason to believe” Rep. Roger Williams (R-TX) may have violated House ethics rules. The OCE’s action came in response to a letter filed by the Campaign Legal Center last fall. The Committee indicated it is conducting a review of the potential violation after receiving the referral from OCE this past May.

Rep. Williams, who owns an automobile dealership in Weatherford, Texas, offered an amendment exempting such dealerships from a provision in the surface transportation bill requiring businesses renting automobiles to pull recalled vehicles from their fleets. In a November 2015 letter to the House Ethics Committee and the OCE, the Campaign Legal Center urged a review of Rep. Williams’ decision to offer an amendment that would benefit his own business. CLC’s letter also questioned whether Rep. Williams asked the House Ethics Committee for guidance on his actions as outlined in the House Ethics Manual. 

The OCE, by unanimous bipartisan vote, found that “there is substantial reason to believe that Rep. Williams’ personal financial interest in his auto dealership may be perceived as having influenced his performance of official duties – namely, his decision to offer an amendment to the surface transportation legislation." The OCE report also noted that Rep. Williams refused to cooperate with its investigation.

“As we stated in our letter last November, the House Ethics Manual differentiates between a Representative voting on a bill that affects him or her as a member of a class and a Representative acting as an advocate,” said Meredith McGehee, policy director of the Campaign Legal Center.  “The Manual explicitly states that prior to undertaking such advocacy implicating a Representative’s financial interest, the Representative should clear it with the Ethics Committee. It remains unclear whether Rep. Williams ever did that.”

The questions about Rep. Williams’ actions were first raised by the Center for Public Integrity which described the amendment being offered just before midnight on November 11. The amendment allowed automobile dealers “to rent or loan out vehicles even if they are subject to safety recalls.  Rental car companies, meanwhile, don’t get the same treatment under the proposed law.”

“Given Rep. Williams’ refusal to cooperate with the OCE inquiry, it is critical for the House Ethics Committee to conduct a full investigation into this matter. It is also important for the Committee to further clarify and strengthen House ethics rules that deal with legislative actions in which the member has a pecuniary interest,” said McGehee. “Current rules and guidance are insufficient to protect against conflicts of interest, and ill-serve members, leaving them vulnerable to questions about their motivations.”

The Committee did not set a timetable for further action.

Read our letter

CLC Files Complaint After Chinese Citizens Helped Make $1.3 Million in Illegal Contributions to Super PAC

Following reports that Chinese citizens helped pump $1.3 million into the super PAC supporting former presidential candidate Jeb Bush, the Campaign Legal Center today filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, calling for a full investigation and enforcement of the law that bans foreign nationals from spending on U.S. elections.

“These facts indicate that Citizens United made it easier for foreign money to flow into U.S. elections through corporations,” said Brendan Fischer, associate counsel for the Campaign Legal Center. “This example also makes clear that disclosure is more important than ever. Because these particular donations were disclosed, journalists were able to uncover the violations. But we can’t be sure how many other foreign nationals have pumped money into our elections through undisclosed donations. Americans not only have the right to know who is influencing elections, but the FEC needs this information in order to enforce the laws protecting the integrity of our democracy.”

Last week, The Intercept reported how a U.S. corporation, American Pacific International Capital, Inc. (APIC), controlled by Chinese citizens living in Singapore, gave $1.3 million to Right to Rise, a Jeb Bush super PAC. The FEC has only allowed foreign-owned U.S. companies to make contributions if the foreign owners or board members are not involved in the decision making process, yet reporting in The Intercept revealed that APIC’s Chinese owners approved the contribution to Right to Rise USA – a clear violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act.   

“Current FEC rules allowing foreign-owned U.S. subsidiaries to spend in our elections, as long as citizens control the contributions, are clearly inadequate to prevent foreign influence,” said Larry Noble, general counsel for the Campaign Legal Center. “Yet the evidence shows that even those lax rules were violated here. The FEC should not only enforce its existing regulations but also take action to address how those rules are insufficient after Citizens United to protect against foreign money coming into U.S. elections.” 

CLC Releases New Report Proposing a Key Solution for Partisan Gerrymandering and Achieving Fair Elections 

WASHINGTON – The Campaign Legal Center, which is litigating the landmark case Whitford v. Gill to end partisan gerrymandering, today released a report, Make Democracy Count: Ending Partisan Gerrymandering. 

The report highlights the impact partisan gerrymandering, or the drawing of electoral district lines to benefit one political party, has on our democracy and suggests a key solution that can be used to ensure fair elections nationwide.

“Partisan gerrymandering is increasingly becoming the political weapon of choice for legislators to maintain power,” said Gerry Hebert, executive director of the Campaign Legal Center. “Currently, politicians are allowed to choose their own voters and draw voting maps that are self-serving, at the expense of American voters and our democracy as a whole. The practice is to blame for Americans’ distrust in our government, and a significant reason for the hyper-partisanship and political gridlock we currently see in state and federal politics.”

Make Democracy Count details how partisan gerrymandering creates an unrepresentative and unfair democracy and encourages self-interested politics. The report also showcases the toll this undemocratic practice has on real voters. 

In addition, CLC’s report explains the efficiency gap, a solution for measuring partisan effects put forward in the case, Whitford v. Gill, which went to trial in May before a three-judge Wisconsin district court. In Whitford, 12 Wisconsin voters, represented by CLC and local attorneys, challenged the state’s Assembly map, one of the most extreme partisan gerrymanders in modern American history. A decision in the case is expected soon.

“The Supreme Court has not yet adopted a standard for determining whether a redistricting plan is an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander, leaving voters with little or no recourse through our judicial system,” said Ruth Greenwood, senior redistricting counsel for the Campaign Legal Center. “If our case is appealed to the Supreme Court, and if the high court embraces the efficiency gap as a test for unlawful gerrymandering, it would go a long way to restoring fair elections and ensuring that every voter is entitled to equal protection under the law and to have their voice heard.” 

Learn more about Whitford v. Gill. 

The Campaign Legal Center and the Voting Rights Institute Submit Comments to the Bureau to Protect Voting Power of Minority Communities

WASHINGTON – The Campaign Legal Center filed comments urging the U.S. Census Bureau to change its proposed rule on how it plans to count incarcerated prisoners in the 2020 Census.

This proposed rule allows the bureau to continue counting incarcerated individuals at the particular facility they are located in on Census Day, instead of in the community where they are from. CLC urges the Census Bureau to heed the overwhelming consensus, demonstrated by prior comments to the bureau, to change course and count incarcerated individuals in their home communities for the 2020 Census. 

“Census data serves as the basis for the drawing of state and local legislative district lines,” said Gerry Hebert, executive director of the Campaign Legal Center. “If this rule is approved for the 2020 Census, it would diminish the Census as a useful demographic tool, disproportionately harm the voting power of minority communities and compromise the integrity of our democracy.”  

Our comments note that by counting prisoners as residents of their prison cells, the Census displaces a large prison population that is disproportionately male, urban and Black or Latino. This systematically overvalues the votes of those who live in districts that include prisons and diminishes the political power of everyone else. It particularly diminishes the political representation of urban minority communities, shifting that political power to rural white communities.

The Census rule places an undue burden on states seeking to count prisoners in the correct place. While some states and localities have taken steps to count prisoners in their home communities, many are required by state law to abide by the flawed Census data.

Comments on this proposed rule are due to the Census Bureau on September 1. CLC encourages concerned citizens and organizations to send their own comments noting their disapproval of a rule that continues to distort our democracy.

In a letter sent today to the Justice Department, Democracy 21 and the Campaign Legal Center called for an investigation into whether Donald Trump’s campaign committee has engaged in knowing and willful violations of federal campaign finance laws.

According to the letter, “Based on numerous published reports, it appears that the Trump committee has solicited contributions from foreign nationals, in violation of the ban on soliciting any contribution in connection with a federal, state, or local election from a foreign national.”

Published reports further indicate that the Trump campaign committee has knowingly continued to send fundraising solicitations to foreign nationals after it was made aware that the solicitations were prohibited by campaign finance laws. On June 29, 2016, the Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21 filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission regarding this matter.

“The Department of Justice has its own separate responsibility to enforce the campaign finance laws against “knowing and willful” criminal violations of the law,” says the letter. “The DOJ Handbook lists the foreign national contribution ban as one of the “heartland provisions” of the campaign finance laws that warrants criminal prosecution.”

“This is an open and shut case of the Trump campaign illegally soliciting foreign contributions,” said Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer. “It is striking and inexplicable that these solicitations brazenly continued after the Trump campaign was informed they were prohibited by law. As apparent knowing and willful violations of the law, the foreign money solicitations by the Trump campaign raise the issue of criminal conduct and require a Justice Department investigation.”

"It boggles the mind that the Trump campaign would continue violating the ban on fundraising from foreign politicians even after receiving a formal complaint alleging it was breaking the law," said Brendan Fischer, associate counsel at the Campaign Legal Center. "Tapping foreign politicians for cash and flouting U.S. law is no way to make America great."

Numerous media outlets asked the Trump campaign about the emails in response to the FEC complaint filed by the watchdog groups, but received no comment. Published reports on July 16, 2016 reveal that, “Donald Trump’s campaign is still soliciting illegal donations from foreign individuals—including members of foreign governments at their official email addresses—weeks after the campaign was put on notice by watchdog groups.”

The letter concluded that, “The Department should conduct an investigation and take appropriate action in light of these apparently knowing and willful violations of the law by the Trump Committee.”

Read the letter

CLC Statement on 5th Circuit’s Ruling in Texas Voter ID Case 

NEW ORLEANS, LA – A full panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals today ruled in a 9 - 6 decision that Texas’ discriminatory voter ID law violates the Voting Rights Act and cannot be enforced as is in the upcoming presidential election.

The Campaign Legal Center represents plaintiffs Congressman Marc Veasey, LULAC and a group of Texas voters challenging Texas voter ID in Veasey v. Abbott. 

CLC Executive Director Gerry Hebert released the following statement:

“We have repeatedly proven – using hard facts – that the Texas voter ID law discriminates against minority voters. The 5th Circuit’s full panel of judges now agrees, joining every other federal court that has reviewed this law. We are extremely pleased with this outcome. This law will no longer prevent eligible voters from casting a ballot this November.”

The case now returns to the district court to consider the proper remedy that will ensure that all eligible voters can cast a ballot regardless of voter ID requirements.