Issue One and Campaign Legal Center released a report documenting the ongoing abuses of leadership PACs. In the absence of action by Congress and the FEC, politicians continue to use their leadership PAC funds for travel, resort stays, meals, and more—while many devote only a minority of funds to contributions to other candidates and political groups. CLC, Issue One, and five former members of Congress also attached this report to a letter to the FEC urging it to proceed with a rulemaking on this issue.

Read our original July 2018 report here, our July 2018 rulemaking petition here, and our November 2018 comments to the FEC here. 

CLC filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on May 21, 2019 citing evidence that Barry Zekelman, Wheatland Tube, LLC and Zekelman Industries violated the prohibition on foreign nationals making contributions in connection with a federal election.

On May 21, 2019, the en banc D.C. Circuit rejected all three of the Libertarian Party’s constitutional challenges to the federal contribution limits, finding that the First Amendment does not require “as applied” exceptions from facially valid contribution limits for supposedly non-corruptive bequests, and upholding the higher special-purpose “cromnibus” limits as a valid “tweak in Congress’s decades-long project to fine-tune” our campaign finance laws. The decision reaffirms that contribution limits are permissible preventative anti-corruption measures and that courts should defer to Congress’s empirical judgments about where precisely to set the dollar amounts of such limits.

This issue brief explains the benefits of the Honest Ads Act, a bipartisan bill re-introduced in May 2019 that would increase transparency requirements for digital ads, in an effort to prevent foreign interference in U.S. elections.

CLC submitted a letter to the FEC urging the agency to proceed with a rulemaking to define the permissible and impermissible uses of the national parties’ so-called “Cromnibus” accounts.

CLC and End Citizens United filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission on May 9, 2019 alleging that the Trump campaign illegally solicited contributions to the super PAC America First Action.

This issue brief analyzes how Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election exposed gaps in both the scope and enforcement of existing campaign finance law. Specifically, it describes how Congress and the FEC should close the digital disclosure gap for online political ads and how the FEC needs to enforce the law for civil violations, such as soliciting contributions from foreign nationals.

CLC's Brendan Fischer and Maggie Christ published a report in collaboration with Axios on a group called The Presidential Coalition, a 527 that is raising money by capitalizing on former Trump deputy campaign manager David Bossie's connection to the President. The fundraising appeals have paid off, as the group has achieved a fundraising explosion after Trump was elected. But this analysis shows that the group devoted only a trivial proportion of its post-2016 spending to the cause it says it is supporting.

Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause, and Democracy 21 filed a supplement to a complaint filed in July 2017 against President Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign committee for soliciting contributions from foreign nationals in the form of opposition research offered by Russians. 

CLC Action filed suit on behalf of Giffords against the FEC after it failed to announce any action on four complaints alleging illegal coordination between the NRA and seven federal campaigns via common vendors. CLC Action is suing the FEC to force it to hold the NRA accountable for violating the laws designed to limit money’s influence on politics.

CLC filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission today against the NRA based on information and the belief that they may have violated campaign finance laws. During the 2014 election cycle the NRA began contracting with the political consulting firm, Starboard Strategic, for independent expenditures supporting senatorial candidates in several critical and competitive elections. Starboard is functionally indistinguishable from another political consulting firm, OnMessage, which these senatorial candidates were utilizing. There is reason to believe that OnMessage and Starboard used strategic information to coordinate between the NRA and these campaigns, which would be a violation of campaign finance law and would have given these campaigns an unfair advantage.  

Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) against the National Rifle Association (NRA) and Matt Rosendale for Montana. The complaint was co-signed by Giffords, the organization led by former U.S. House Representative Gabby Giffords. Rosendale is a U.S. Senate candidate in Montana who appears to have violated the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) by illegal coordination with the NRA.

Update: On February 8, 2019, CLC submitted additional facts to the FEC to supplement this complaint.

Complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Exhibits for the complaint can be found by clicking here.

On February 7, 2019, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) submitted a letter to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) with additional facts detailing alleged illegal campaign coordination between the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) and Montana U.S. Senate candidate Matt Rosendale. These additional facts provide reason to believe that the NRA-ILA illegally coordinated communications with the Rosendale campaign.

This letter supplements CLC's initial complaint to the FEC on September 14, 2018.

On April 19, 2019, CLC filed a brief in the 4th Circuit Court in support of MD’s digital disclosure law. 

CLC submitted comments to the Maryland State Board of Elections regarding the Board's proposed regulations to implement Maryland's digital disclosure law, the Online Electioneering Transparency and Accountability Act, which the state legislature passed last year to improve transparency and prevent foreign interference in Maryland elections. CLC's comments focus on ensuring that the State Board's final regulations are consistent with the full scope of the law's disclosure and recordkeeping requirements for online political advertisements. 

CLC filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging reporting violations by Lori Trahan for Congress Committee.  

CLC filed comments with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) regarding one draft of an advisory opinion requested by Bill Nelson for Senate. CLC urged the FEC not to allow the campaign to transfer excess recount funds to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee's recount/legal proceedings account, because both parties have used these so-called "cromnibus" accounts for a variety of purposes that have few if any connections to recount activities.   

On August 10, 2016, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) against Chinese-owned corporation American Pacific International Capital, Inc. (APIC) alleging that APIC had violated the prohibition on foreign nationals making contributions in connection with a federal election. APIC gave $1.3 million to a pro-Jeb Bush super PAC, Right to Rise.

Update: On March 11, 2019, CLC released a letter from the FEC announcing $940,000 in fines imposed as a result of CLC’s complaint.

Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21 filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) urging the FEC to investigate apparent violations of campaign finance laws by Senator Ted Cruz and the 2012 Cruz for Senate Campaign relating to loans he obtained from Goldman Sachs and Citibank for use in his 2012 Senate campaign. According to the complaint, Senator Cruz failed to report the loans to the FEC, as required by law, and may have used a portion of his wife’s assets to secure the loan resulting in the campaign accepting excessive contributions.

Update: On March 15, 2019, CLC released a letter from the FEC announcing a $35,000 fine on Cruz as a result of CLC's complaint.