Category Archives: campaigns

Potentially Bad News for Trump and Trump Organization: SDNY Still Investigating Michael Cohen for Campaign Finance Crimes

February 7, 2019, 9:19 amcampaign finance, campaigns, chicaneryRick Hasen

Potentially a big deal here: “In particular, the Government represents that aspects of its investigation remains ongoing, including those pertaining to or arising from Cohen’s campaign finance crimes.”A bad sentence for Individual 1 and the Trump Org execs who… Continue reading

“Billionaires Flooded Republicans’ Coffers Just Before the Tax Cuts Passed”

February 7, 2019, 7:28 amcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

Mother Jones: From the looks of it, GOP politicians got what they wanted, too. From the time the tax bill was first introduced on Nov. 2, 2017, until the end of the year, a 60-day period, dozens of billionaires and… Continue reading

“Justice and Homeland Security report finds no foreign interference in 2018 elections”

February 5, 2019, 9:26 pmcampaigns, chicaneryRick Hasen

CBS News: There is no evidence to date of any foreign interference in the 2018 midterm elections, according to a new joint report released by the Justice and Homeland Security Departments on Tuesday. While specific conclusions remain classified, the… Continue reading

“Trump Inaugural Committee Ordered to Hand Over Documents to Federal Investigators”

February 5, 2019, 6:54 amcampaign finance, campaigns, chicaneryRick Hasen

NYT: In the subpoena, investigators also showed interest in whether any foreigners illegally donated to the committee, as well as whether committee staff members knew that such donations were illegal, asking for documents laying out legal requirements for… Continue reading

“Democratic Presidential Hopefuls Compete To Spurn Establishment Cash”

February 2, 2019, 9:19 amcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

Peter Overby for NPR: As Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Kirsten Gillibrand jumped into the Democratic presidential nomination contest, they staked out the same position against corporate campaign cash.“The money in politics is corrupting. It controls everything,” Gillibrand… Continue reading

“Mueller Could Have More Than Russia on His Mind: There were foreign nationals from many countries surrounding the Trump campaign, argues Brennan Center fellow Ciara Torres-Spelliscy.

February 1, 2019, 3:51 pmcampaigns, chicaneryRick Hasen

Interesting.

Trump’s Presidential Fundraising May Be Unprecedented So Early Before Election, But So Is His Massive Campaign Spending

February 1, 2019, 8:04 amcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

Robby Mook: Wow. Does Trump’s campaign have an 85% burn rate?! How is that possible?"The latest fundraising disclosures bring the total haul for Trump's reelection effort to more than $129 million…The campaign had more than $19.2 million in cash… Continue reading

“Donald Trump’s Campaign Cash Machine: Big, Brawny and Burning Money”

February 1, 2019, 7:25 amcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

CPI reports.

Is WaPo Fact Checker Right to Give 4 Pinocchios to Trump’s Claim That Hush Money Payments to Former Mistresses Were Not a Campaign Finance Crime? I Would Give None.

January 28, 2019, 7:21 amcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

Here’s how the WaPo fact check ends: Trump says he never ordered Cohen to break the law and silence Daniels and McDougal. But when he says such payoffs are not criminal to begin with, his defense goes off the rails.… Continue reading

“Roger Stone’s Indictment Could Be Good News for Donald Trump Jr.”

January 25, 2019, 11:32 amcampaign finance, campaigns, chicaneryRick Hasen

I have written this piece for Slate. It begins: Why didn’t Special Counsel Robert Mueller charge self-proclaimed dirty trickster Roger Stone with violating campaign finance laws? And what does this say about Donald Trump Jr.’s potential exposure for his Trump… Continue reading

“Exclusive: GOP reaches landmark agreement to juice small-dollar fundraising”

January 21, 2019, 7:20 pmcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

Politico: President Donald Trump’s political team and top Republican officials have reached a landmark agreement to reshape the party’s fundraising apparatus and close the financial gap that devastated them in the midterms. With the deal, Republicans hope to create a… Continue reading

#NC09: “Bladen prosecutor’s calls went unreturned as state probed absentee ballot issues”

January 16, 2019, 7:06 amcampaignsRick Hasen

WRAL: In the summer of 2017, the chief prosecutor for Bladen County sent the head of North Carolina’s State Board of Elections a series of increasingly insistent emails over the board’s voting integrity concerns in his county. The upshot: Why… Continue reading

“Older People Shared Fake News on Facebook More Than Others in 2016 Race, Study Says”

January 11, 2019, 8:19 amcampaignsRick Hasen

NYT: When it came to sharing fake news on Facebook during the 2016 election, no age group was quite as active as those aged 65 and older, according to a new study. The study, published Wednesday in Science Advances,… Continue reading

“New ‘Testing the Waters’ Report Examines How Presidential Candidates Ignore Campaign Finance Laws & Regulators Let Them”

January 10, 2019, 8:55 amcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

Release: Today, Common Cause released a new report on the many ways presidential candidates bend and break campaign finance laws as they barnstorm early primary states, fundraise, evade contributions limits, and build their campaign teams while denying they are… Continue reading

Election Law Blog

The law of politics and the politics of law