Category Archives: ethics investigations

“Second Circuit Holds No Special Standard for Charging Campaign Contributions As Bribes”

June 11, 2024, 7:17 amcampaign finance, ethics investigations, First Amendment theoryJustin Levitt

Paul Tuchmann explores the First Amendment implications of the 2d Circuit’s March decision in US v. Benjamin, about the indictment of the former Lieutenant Governor for an alleged deal to “funnel state money to a now-deceased developer in exchange for… Continue reading

“Missouri Ethics Commission finally has a quorum — but still can’t meet or take action”

June 11, 2024, 7:16 amcampaign finance, ethics investigationsJustin Levitt

They’ve finally got four out of six appointees, but only three of them can meet.

“D.C. ethics board recommends Rudy Giuliani be disbarred”

June 3, 2024, 7:06 amethics investigations, fraudulent fraud squadRick Hasen

NBC News: The D.C. Bar’s Board on Professional Responsibility on Friday recommended that Rudy Giuliani be barred from practicing law in the nation’s capital. In its report, the board cited Giuliani’s work in Pennsylvania following the 2020 presidential election in… Continue reading

Justice Alito’s Flag Story Doesn’t Add Up

May 29, 2024, 7:20 amethics investigations, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

New must-read reporting from Jody Kantor in the NYT: To better understand the clash, The Times interviewed Ms. Baden, her mother and her husband, as well as other neighbors, and reviewed the texts that Ms. Baden and her husband sent… Continue reading

“Time to Close the Hatch Act’s Escape Hatch”

May 20, 2024, 7:11 amconflict of interest laws, ethics investigationsRick Hasen

Hampton Dellinger for Politico: Since the Hatch Act was passed in 1939, government workers have faced strict limits on their political activity. And rightly so. Federal employees should be on the job for the public good, not partisan ends. Violators… Continue reading

FEC Commissioner Trey Trainor Has a Ted Cruz Campaign Sign on His Front Lawn at His Texas Home

May 1, 2024, 7:16 amconflict of interest laws, ethics investigations, federal election commissionRick Hasen

This, as the FEC reviews a complaint against Cruz.

“Ethics panel finds ‘substantial evidence’ Rep. Santos violated federal laws”

November 16, 2023, 7:47 amethics investigationsRick Hasen

WaPo: House investigators found “substantial evidence” that Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) knowingly violated a litany of ethics and criminal laws, according a House Ethics Committee report released Thursday. “Representative Santos’ conduct warrants public condemnation, is beneath the dignity of the… Continue reading

ELB Podcast 5:3: The Trump Prosecutions, the First Amendment, and Election Interference (Genevieve Lakier and Eugene Volokh)

October 30, 2023, 2:00 pmELB Podcast, election subversion risk, ethics investigations, First Amendment theoryRick Hasen

New ELB Podcast: Do gag orders against presidential candidate Donald Trump in his civil or criminal trials violate the First Amendment? What should we make of Trump’s claims that his actions to overturn the results of the 2020 elections are… Continue reading

“Indictment paints tale of Chinese interests and 2016 Trump campaign”

July 17, 2023, 3:29 amethics investigationsDan Tokaji

WaPo: “The Justice Department late Monday unsealed its indictment of Gal Luft, a dual Israeli and American citizen who ran a Maryland think tank. The indictment describes what it casts as an effort by Luft and a Chinese oil… Continue reading

Justice Alito’s Bad Textualism Extends to His Mangling of Words to Justify Not Reporting a Seat on a Private Jet Paid for by a Billionaire Litigant

June 21, 2023, 7:54 pmconflict of interest laws, ethics investigations, statutory interpretation, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Years ago in conversation with an originalist and textualist, the person I was speaking to defended originalism and textualism as constraining judges. The counterexample on the right was Justice Alito voting his values. The idea is that if all judges… Continue reading

“Judicial activist directed fees to Clarence Thomas’s wife, urged ‘no mention of Ginni’”

May 4, 2023, 8:51 pmethics investigations, Supreme Court, Voting Rights ActJustin Levitt

WaPo reports: Conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo arranged for the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to be paid tens of thousands of dollars for consulting work just over a decade ago, specifying that her name be left… Continue reading

“As First Republic Bank faltered, five members of Congress dumped their personal stock investments”

May 3, 2023, 3:58 pmethics investigationsJustin Levitt

That’s the lede from Raw Story. The piece goes on to state that “there’s no evidence that the lawmakers used information they obtained through their public service to inform their First Republic stock trades,” and four of the five (the… Continue reading

“Senate panel explores ethics standards for US Supreme Court as questions swirl”

May 2, 2023, 4:05 pmethics investigations, Supreme CourtJustin Levitt

Reuters on the Judiciary Committee’s hearing today.

“Florida commission slaps down Trump PAC’s ethics complaint against DeSantis”

May 1, 2023, 7:37 pmcampaign finance, campaigns, ethics investigationsJustin Levitt

Fox notes the Florida Ethics Commission decision that MAGA Inc. hadn’t sufficiently alleged the violation of Florida law in DeSantis’s will-he-or-won’t-he activities.