WASHINGTON, D.C. – This week, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging that the presidential campaign of Dean Phillips and the super PAC “We Deserve Better” (Better PAC) engaged in an illegal coordination scheme that violated federal campaign finance laws.  

The complaint details how two former senior advisors of the Phillips presidential campaign used nonpublic information and strategic insights to inform Better PAC’s messaging. Indeed, even the super PAC’s name appears to have been message-tested by the campaign. The former campaign advisors, Matt and Scott Krisiloff, organized Better PAC just ten days after leaving the campaign, and the super PAC has reportedly raised over $4 million from wealthy special interests. Better PAC has reported spending over $3.3 million supporting Phillips to date.  

“As a condition of their ability to raise and spend unlimited sums of money on federal elections, including money from corporations and special interests, super PACs are required by law to remain independent from the candidates they support. That means they cannot coordinate their activities with candidates or their campaigns,” said Erin Chlopak, senior director of campaign finance at Campaign Legal Center. “‘We Deserve Better’ was organized by two people who had direct access to private campaign information that appears to have informed the super PAC’s messaging and even its name. This type of illegal coordination allows a super PAC to essentially act as an arm of the Phillips campaign itself, giving the super PAC’s wealthy special interest donors undue influence over the policymaking process and drowning out the voices of everyday Americans.”    

In light of the Krisiloffs’ role as both campaign advisors and super PAC organizers, the name of the super PAC itself, and a Better PAC ad using the campaign-tested slogan “Medicare for All,” available information suggests that confidential material from campaign polling memos, focus groups and direct communications with Mr. Phillips were illegally used to shape Better PAC’s messaging.  

Election spending by outside spending groups has skyrocketed in the 14 years since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, and illegal coordination between such groups and candidates’ campaigns has gone almost entirely unchecked by the FEC. As documented in a report recently published by CLC, the actions of ‘Better PAC’ illustrate this increasingly commonplace and deeply problematic trend that serves to undermine democracy.  

Voters have a right to fair and meaningful participation in our democratic process – not a system that privileges wealthy special interests above all others. The FEC should investigate the apparent coordination between “We Deserve Better” and the Phillips presidential campaign. 

Washington, D.C. – Today, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) sent a letter to the Judicial Conference, calling on this committee of federal judges to immediately release the Report of the Proceedings from their September 12, 2023 meeting – something they have thus far failed to do.  

This report should include the Financial Disclosure Committee’s response to multiple requests, from last April and August, for the Judicial Conference to refer to the U.S. Attorney General evidence that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas failed to disclose substantial gifts received over 20 years.  

The Judicial Conference has the authority to refer the Justice Thomas matter to the U.S. Attorney General, in what appears to be violations of the Ethics in Government Act by Justice Thomas that could potentially lead to civil and criminal penalties. 

Kedric Payne, Vice President, General Counsel and Senior Director for Ethics at Campaign Legal Center (CLC) and former Deputy Chief Counsel of the Office of Congressional Ethics, issued the following statement: 

“The public has a right to know that every Justice serving on the Supreme Court is doing so in the interests of all, and not on behalf of just wealthy special interests. The Judicial Conference must make recent proceedings from its Financial Disclosure Committee public so that we know how this enforcement body will respond to Justice Thomas’s failure to comply with federal disclosure laws for over two decades.”
 

The Financial Disclosure Committee was expected to address the issue of Justice Thomas’s undisclosed gifts at their bi-annual meeting in September 2023, in response to CLC’s April requests for the Judicial Conference to enforce the disclosure requirements. But the meeting minutes that are usually disclosed within two-months of a meeting have been inexplicably delayed– which is concerning given that ethical woes among Supreme Court justices have captured national attention.  

At a time when public faith in the nation’s highest court is at an all-time low, the Judicial Conference needs to act swiftly to release information on what their next steps regarding Justice Thomas’s ethics violations will be. Otherwise, wrongdoing by Supreme Court Justices risks being further normalized at the expense of transparency around who is shaping justices’ legal decision making – which would be to the detriment of our democracy.