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Campaign Legal Center requests that the Interior Inspector General review emails between Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and members of the agency ethics staff. The emails raise questions about whether Mr. Bernhardt used his authority and influence to interfere with ethics advice.
The office of Inspector General (IG) wrote a letter back to CLC to announce that it is opening an investigation into potential ethics violations committed by multiple Department of the Interior senior executives, after CLC flagged this for the IG in a complaint filed on February 20.
CLC filed an ethics complaint with Mary Kendall, the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of the Interior, to call to her attention the troubling conduct of Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt. CLC is urging Kendall to conduct a full investigation to determine whether Bernhardt violated his ethics pledge, and whether he violated his ethical obligation to avoid the appearance of favoritism in government decision-making.
See also CLC’s March 28, 2019 supplement to the complaint.
The Office of Inspector General at the Department of the Interior responded to CLC's request for an investigation into potential ethics violations committed by several senior members of Interior including Acting Secretary Bernhardt.
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the Department of the Interior (DOI) responded to the complaints submitted by CLC and other groups about various conflicts of interest by David Bernhardt and announced on April 15, 2019 that it is opening an investigation.
CLC sent a letter to Interior’s Inspector General in response to the February 19, 2019 memo from Interior ethics officials seeking to retroactively clear Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt’s participation in California water matters. CLC filed a complaint in February alleging that Bernhardt violated his ethics pledge by participating in these matters.
See also CLC’s original February 28, 2019 complaint.
The conduct of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has shown a concerning pattern with respect to his compliance with the legal requirements of public service and his stewardship of public funds. CLC is urging the Inspector General to open a full investigation into these matters and take appropriate action.
The Campaign Legal Center (CLC) requests that the State Department’s Inspector General investigate whether president’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, should have complied with ethics laws due to his diplomatic responsibilities on Ukraine matters.
On October 10, 2019, CLC President Trevor Potter joined a group of conservative and libertarian lawyers in an open letter to stand firm against foreign interference in American elections.
CLC filed comments in response to the House Committee on Ethics’ request for input on types of service and positions with outside entities that may lead to conflicts of interest.
CLC submitted these written comments for the U.S. Office of Government Ethics’ legal expense fund regulation rulemaking.
On May 30, 2019, a unanimous 6th Circuit panel upheld all challenged provisions of Kentucky’s ethics and campaign finance laws. The appellate court found that the provisions barring state legislators from receiving gifts and campaign contributions from state lobbyists were constitutional, and that plaintiffs—one sitting state senator and one legislative candidate—lacked standing to challenge the corresponding restrictions on lobbyists themselves.
On May 23, CLC submitted a complaint to the Office of Government Ethics alleging an ethics pledge violation by the former Acting U.S. Trade Representative Stephen P. Vaughn.
CLC filed a complaint with the Office of Special Counsel on May 8, 2019 requesting an investigation into Special Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway for an apparent violation of the Hatch Act.
The Office of Special Counsel determined that there was no Hatch Act violation because Benton relayed to the event coordinators that he was speaking in his personal capacity and stated so in the beginning of his speech. The letter was signed by Ana Galindo-Marrone, Chief of the Hatch Act Unit.
Today the 5th Circuit affirmed the multi-million dollar verdict in the corruption case in Houston that CLC tried with Texas attorney Chad Dunn in 2016.
CLC submitted written comments to the San Francisco Ethics Commission regarding the Commission's substantive review of the city's public financing program. CLC's comments include recommendations to improve public participation in San Francisco campaigns by amending the program's qualification requirements and by increasing the matching funds rate for city residents' contributions to candidates participating in the program.
On March 4, 2019, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) submitted comments to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) urging the FEC to make its process of issuing advisory opinions more transparent and to allow public comment before issuing final advisory opinions.
On March 1, 2019, CLC's Adav Noti, senior director of trial litigation and chief of staff, submitted responses to questions for the record in the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary's HR 1 hearing.
On February 28, 2019, the United States General Services Administration (GSA) settled with the Campaign Legal Center (CLC). CLC sued the GSA over its refusal to release travel information in response to CLC's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. GSA agreed to pay CLC $33,000 in attorney fees.