Category Archives: campaign finance

Is Mike Bloomberg Breaking the Law by Continuing to Control Bloomberg News While a Presidential Candidate?[UPDATE: Probably Not]

December 5, 2019, 8:55 pmcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

News item: Michael Bloomberg temporarily had a tiny but extremely questionable advantage in the 2020 presidential race: if you typed “Mike” into one of his company’s roughly 325,000 news terminals around the globe, you were redirected to his campaign site, … Continue reading

“Indictment Details How Emirates Sought Influence in 2016 Campaign”

December 5, 2019, 8:13 pmcampaign finance, campaigns, chicaneryRick Hasen

NYT: The indictment accused Mr. Nader of funneling more than $3.5 million in illicit campaign donations through Mr. Khawaja to buy access and influence in Washington — initially with Mrs. Clinton and her Democratic allies during the 2016 campaign, and… Continue reading

New DOJ Indictment Alleges Millions of Dollars in Foreign Money Illegally Funneled to Support Hillary Clinton in 2016

December 3, 2019, 4:39 pmcampaign finance, campaigns, chicaneryRick Hasen

The indictment includes George Nader, who appears to have been seeking influence in both the Trump and Clinton campaigns (and is now being held on child pornography charges): Earlier today, an indictment was unsealed against the CEO of an online… Continue reading

“Campaign finance system and election overhaul coming to New York”

December 2, 2019, 7:38 amcampaign financeRick Hasen

NYDN: The panel tasked with overhauling New York’s campaign finance laws and creating a public matching funds system from scratch released its final report Sunday evening — a day before it was due.The report from the nine-member Public Campaign Financing… Continue reading

“Supreme Court Acts in Campaign Finance and Libel Cases”

November 25, 2019, 8:30 pmcampaign finance, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

NYT reports. My earlier coverage is here.

“Putin’s Revenge: The Foreign Threat to American Campaign Finance Law”

November 25, 2019, 12:46 pmcampaign finance, chicaneryRick Hasen

Tony Gaughan has posted this draft on SSRN (Howard Law Journal). Here is the abstract: When Congress established federal contribution limits in 1974, it also instituted a complete ban on foreign campaign contributions. In adopting the post-Watergate reforms, Congress… Continue reading

Giuliani Being Investigated for Illegal Foreign Campaign Contributions and Illegal Conduit Contributions

November 25, 2019, 12:43 pmcampaign finance, chicaneryRick Hasen

Among other things, per WSJ: The subpoenas offer the clearest indication yet that federal prosecutors are examining Mr. Giuliani’s consulting work. Among the entities named in the subpoenas are Giuliani Partners, a security-consulting firm founded by Mr. Giuliani in… Continue reading

Breaking: Supreme Court, Ducking Major Confrontation Over Campaign Finance Limits for Now, Reverses 9th Circuit Ruling Upholding Alaska Campaign Contribution Limits

November 25, 2019, 7:00 amcampaign finance, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

I’ve been keeping my eye on Thompson v. Hebdon v. Hebdon for a long time. In this case, leading Supreme Court attorney Paul Clement filed a petition for the Supreme Court to take a case challenging Alaska’s campaign contribution limits… Continue reading

“Do not stifle shareholder voices”

November 24, 2019, 8:15 pmcampaign financeRick Hasen

Bruce Freed FT oped.

“Ending Foreign-Influenced Corporate Spending in U.S. Elections”

November 21, 2019, 6:51 amcampaign financeRick Hasen

New CAP report.

“A Trump Administration Plan that Could Boost Corporate ‘Dark Money’ in Elections”

November 19, 2019, 8:16 amcampaign financeRick Hasen

Ciara Torres-Spelliscy writes.

“Possible pay-to-play scheme for ambassador role in Trump administration uncovered by CBS News”

November 18, 2019, 7:18 amcampaign finance, chicaneryRick Hasen

CBS News: A CBS News investigation has uncovered a possible pay-for-play scheme involving the Republican National Committee and President Donald Trump’s nominee for ambassador to the Bahamas. Emails obtained by CBS News show the nominee, San Diego billionaire Doug Manchester,… Continue reading

Supreme Court Takes No Action Again on Major Campaign Finance Petition

November 18, 2019, 7:05 amcampaign finance, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Supreme Court takes no action yet again on major campaign finance petition. Court could eventually grant, or, perhaps at this point more likely now would be either some kind of summary action or a dissent from denial of cert. from… Continue reading

Campaign Legal Center Unsuccessfully Fights Effort to Allow Clinton Campaign and Allied Super PAC to Defend Itself in Federal Court (Comment from Marc Elias)

November 15, 2019, 4:02 pmcampaign finance, federal election commissionRick Hasen

Court order. Comment from Marc Elias via email: “The idea that a so called good government group would use the fact that the FEC is shorthanded to try to score a victory in court and not let the case… Continue reading