January, 12 2020, 11:00pm EDT
Coalition Urges White House, Senate to Restore FEC Quorum with Commissioners Committed to Enforcing Anti-Corruption Laws
Groups caution against nominating FEC Commissioners who would use position to prevent enforcement
WASHINGTON
Today, a coalition of good-government groups sent a letter calling on the President and U.S. Senate to restore the Federal Election Commission (FEC) voting quorum - but countering a call from private attorneys to confirm a "full slate" of six new FEC commissioners who would continue the FEC's longstanding dysfunction. The letter from Campaign Legal Center (CLC), Public Citizen, Common Cause, Democracy 21, CREW, and 16 other organizations and individuals describes how the FEC's problems preceded its recent absence of a quorum, resulting in an explosion of secret spending that has increasingly rigged our political system in favor of wealthy special interests. The letter urges the President and U.S. Senate "not to respond to the FEC's lack of a quorum by nominating or confirming any FEC commissioner who would use that position to prevent enforcement of the law," and notes that confirming commissioners opposed to election transparency "would hinder enforcement, not enable it."
"To stop the explosion of secret election spending by wealthy special interests, the practice of nominating FEC Commissioners who carry water for those interests must end," said Adav Noti, senior director and chief of staff at CLC, and former Associate General Counsel of the FEC. "The failure of the FEC is one of the best-kept secrets in Washington, and one of the most shameful. To ensure the 2020 elections are transparent and fair, the President and Senate must prioritize restoration of the FEC's quorum, but that is no excuse to re-stock the FEC with yet another crop of commissioners who oppose campaign finance reform."
"It is imperative to get the campaign finance cop back on the beat as this nation enters what promises to be the most expensive election in history, said Craig Holman, government affairs lobbyist for Public Citizen. "But it is just as important that we get a functional campaign finance cop on the beat. The FEC has long been rendered incapable of performing its mission by the appointment of commissioners opposed to the campaign finance laws. Immediately restore a quorum on the FEC, and then make the appointment of additional commissioners impartial and nonpartisan."
"It is beyond belief that in this presidential year of enormous consequence, the nation's campaign finance enforcement agency is defunct because it does not have enough commissioners for a quorum to take action to enforce the laws," said Fred Wertheimer, founder and president of Democracy 21. "Responsibility for this indefensible state of affairs rests with two people: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who never met a campaign finance law he likes and who is stonewalling the appointment of the commissioners needed for the quorum necessary to act, and President Trump, who is taking his cues from McConnell and not sending any nominations to the Senate. The American people are owed serious enforcement of the nation's campaign finance laws which have been enacted to prevent corruption. If McConnell and Trump continue to keep the FEC moribund, they will be the principal enablers of the criminal activity and corrupt practices that are likely to occur this year."
"As we race headlong into what will undoubtedly be the most expensive election in our nation's history, the American people deserve a functioning regulator willing to enforce and administer our federal campaign finance laws," said Beth Rotman, director, money in politics & ethics program at Common Cause. "It would be reckless and irresponsible to leave the FEC without a quorum to act when Russia and other hostile foreign powers are working to sway our elections and record amounts of money will be flowing not only into congressional and presidential campaign coffers but also to outside groups including super PACs and dark money organizations. We cannot afford to play Russian roulette with our democracy, a quorum willing to enforce the law must be appointed and confirmed at the FEC."
"Now is the time for Democratic and Republican lawmakers to put aside their political differences, and move forward with the FEC commissioner nominating process," said Noah Bookbinder, executive director CREW. "By shirking their responsibility to nominate and confirm FEC commissioners, the President and the Senate are allowing for campaign finance violations to continue unchecked, and for corrupt politicians and organizations to abuse the laws and system designed to ensure fair elections. Quick nomination and confirmation of commissioners committed to the campaign finance law enforcement mission of the FEC will help us start to get back on track."
The FEC currently lacks the authority to pass rules, issue formal guidance to candidates, or punish lawbreakers. But the agency's problems preceded its recent absence of a quorum. Those problems stem largely from the historical practice of nominating and confirming commissioners who are ideologically opposed to the mission of the agency and who intentionally leverage its structural deficiencies to undermine the laws it is charged with enforcing. Increasingly over the last decade, the FEC's law-enforcement activity has been gutted frequently by deadlock on critical enforcement matters. The FEC's own enforcement statistics show that of the enforcement matters the commissioners consider in their official meetings, a majority (approximately 50.6% since 2012) have at least one deadlock and fail to reach the four affirmative votes necessary to pursue the matter.
Voters have an overwhelmingly negative view of the campaign finance system, as they believe it is corrupt, filled with loopholes and rigged in favor of the wealthy, corporations and special interests. Recent polling released by CLC indicates 71% of voters want the FEC to take a more active role in enforcing campaign finance laws.
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Supreme Court Urged to 'Rule Quickly' After Trump Immunity Arguments
"It'd be a travesty for justices to delay matters further," said one legal expert.
Apr 25, 2024
After about three hours of oral arguments Thursday on former President Donald Trump's immunity claims, legal experts and democracy defenders urged the U.S. Supreme Court to rule swiftly, with just over six months until the November election.
Trump—the presumptive Republican candidate to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden, despite his 88 felony charges in four ongoing criminal cases—is arguing that presidential immunity should protect him from federal charges for trying to overturn his 2020 loss to Biden, which culminated in the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Justices across the ideological spectrum didn't seem inclined to support Trump's broad immunity claims—which critics have said "reflect a misreading of constitutional text and history as well as this court's precedent." However, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) shared examples of what it would mean if they did.
"Trump could sell pardons, ambassadorships, and other official benefits to his wealthy donors, members of his clubs, or cronies who helped him commit other crimes," CREW warned. "Trump could sell nuclear codes and government secrets to help pay back crippling debts."
"But this isn't just about what Donald Trump could do. It's really about how total immunity for the president would threaten our democratic system of checks and balances," the group continued. "The president could order the military to assassinate activists, political opponents, members of Congress, or even Supreme Court justices, so long as he claimed it related to some official act."
After warning that a president could also order the occupation or closure of the Capitol or high court to prevent actions against him, CREW concluded that "the Supreme Court never should have taken this appeal up in the first place. They should rule quickly and shut these ludicrous claims down for good."
The organization was far from alone in demanding a quick decision from the nation's highest court.
"In the name of accountability, the court must not delay its decision," the Brennan Center for Justice said Thursday evening. "The Supreme Court's time is up. It needs to let the prosecution move forward. The court decided Bush v. Gore in three days—it should act with similar alacrity in deciding Trump v. U.S."
In Bush v. Gore, the case that decided the 2000 election, the high court issued a related stay on December 9, heard oral arguments on December 11, and issued a final decision on December 12.
On Thursday, the arguments "got away from the central question: Is a former president immune from criminal prosecution if he tried to overthrow a presidential election, using private means and the power of his office to do so?" the Brennan Center noted. "The answer is simple: No."
"It is not an 'official act' to try to overthrow the peaceful transfer of power or the Constitution, even if you conspire with other government officials to do it or use the Oval Office phone," the center said. "Trump's attorney was pushing the court to come up with a sea change in the law. That's unnecessary and a delay tactic that will hurt the pursuit of justice in this case."
In a departure from previous claims, Trump's attorney, D. John Sauer, "appeared to agree with Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the prosecution, that there are some allegations in the indictment that do not involve 'official acts' of the president," NBC Newsreported, noting questions from liberal Justice Elena Kagan and conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a Trump appointee.
Barrett summarized various allegations from the indictment and in three cases—involving dishonest election claims, false allegations of fraud, and fake electors—Sauer conceded that Trump's alleged conduct sounded private, suggesting that a more narrow case against the ex-president that excluded any potential official acts could proceed.
Due to Trump attorney's concessions in Supreme Court oral argument, there's now a very clear path for DOJ's case to go forward.\n\nIt'd be a travesty for Justices to delay matters further.\n\nJustice Amy Coney Barrett got Trump attorney to concede core allegations are private acts.\u2b07\ufe0f— (@)
According to NBC:
Matthew Seligman, a lawyer and a fellow at the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School who filed a brief backing prosecutors, said Sauer's concessions highlight that Trump is "not immune for the vast majority of the conduct alleged in the indictment."
Ultimately, he said, the case will go to trial "absent some external intervention—like Trump ordering [the Justice Department] to drop the charges" after having won the election.
At the same time, Sauer's backtracking might have little consequence from an electoral perspective. Further delay in a trial, which Sauer is close to achieving, is a form of victory in itself.
Slate's Mark Joseph Stern pointed out that when Barrett similarly questioned Michael Dreeben, the U.S. Department of Justice lawyer arguing the case for Smith, it seemed like they "were trying to work out some compromise wherein the trial court could distinguish between official and unofficial acts, then instruct the jury not to impose criminal liability on the former."
"It was fascinating to watch Barrett nodding along as Dreeben pitched a compromise that would largely preserve Smith's January 6 prosecution but limit what the jury could hear, or at least consider," Stern added. "That, though, would take months to suss out in the trial court. More delays!"
Stern and other experts signaled that the decision likely comes down to Barrett and Chief Justice John Roberts, with the three liberals seemingly supporting the prosecution of Trump and the other four conservatives suggesting it is unconstitutional.
People for the American Way president Svante Myrick said in a statement that "today's argument brought both good and bad news. It was chilling to hear Donald Trump's lawyer say that staging a military coup could be considered part of a president's official duties."
"Thankfully, the majority of the court, including conservative justices, did not seem to buy that very broad Trump argument that a former president is absolutely immune from prosecution under any circumstances," Myrick added. "On the other hand, it's not clear that there is a majority on this court that will quickly reject the immunity arguments and let the case go forward in time for a trial before the election. That's a huge concern."
Trump was not at the Supreme Court on Thursday; he was at his trial in New York, where he faces 34 counts for allegedly falsifying business records related to hush money payments to cover up sex scandals during the 2016 election cycle. The are two other cases: a federal one for mishandling classified material and another in Georgia for interfering with the last presidential contest.
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Protest organizers—who include Climate Defenders, New York Communities for Change, Planet over Profit, and Stop the Money Pipeline—said 53 activists were arrested over two days of demonstrations, which included blocking the entrance to Citigroup's headquarters, to "demand that the bank stop funding fossil fuels."
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Jonathan Westin, executive director of Climate Defenders, asserted that "Citigroup's racist funding of oil, coal, and gas is creating climate chaos that's devastating communities of color across the country."
"We're taking action to tell Citi that we won't put up with their environmental racism for one more day," Westin continued. "Our communities have reached the boiling point. Our children have asthma, our city's sky was orange, and our air polluted because of the climate crisis caused by Citi and Wall Street."
"We're going to keep organizing and taking direct action until Citi listens to us," he vowed.
Stop the Money Pipeline co-director Alec Connon said: "To have any chance of reigning in the climate crisis, we must stop investing in fossil fuel expansion. Yet, Citibank is pumping billions of dollars into new coal, oil, and gas projects."
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During a Thursday U.S. State Department press conference in Washington, D.C., a reporter noted Gaza officials' claim that mass grave victims "including children were tortured before being killed" and that "some even showed signs of being buried alive, along with other crimes against humanity."
"What's wrong with an independent, scientific, forensic investigation?"
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Patel replied: "We continue to find these reports incredibly troubling. And that's why yesterday you saw the national security adviser for this to be thoroughly investigated."
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Thursday's exchange followed a similar back-and-forth on Tuesday between Patel and Said Arikat, a journalist for the Jerusalem-based
Palestinian news outlet al-Quds who asked about the mass graves.
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