[EL] HuffPost: FEC enforcement "gag" order

[Rick Hasen]

I found your suggestion that the Democratic Commissioners boycott 
tomorrow's meeting to be especially intriguing:

    One Democratic commissioner left in February, leaving three
    Republicans and two Democrats on the Commission. McGahn is hoping to
    take advantage of the partisan imbalance by proposing a "gag" order
    in new enforcement guidelines
    <http://www.fec.gov/agenda/2013/mtgdoc_13-21-a.pdf>, to be approved
    by a 3-2 majority, that would: (i) prevent FEC staff from viewing
    public resources in conducting their investigations, such as
    candidate and government Web pages, news reports, business databases
    and social media sites; and (ii) prohibit FEC staff from sharing
    information with the Department of Justice (DOJ), which handles
    criminal investigations of campaign finance scandals.

    If the ability of FEC staff even to conduct an investigation can be
    hamstrung from the onset, then the Commission need not face many
    more embarrassing obstructionist votes. Just as importantly for
    those seeking to block enforcement of the campaign finance laws, the
    DOJ will also be hobbled in its criminal investigations.

    Prior to announcement of McGahn's proposal, FEC General Counsel
    Anthony Herman unexpectedly resigned from the agency last month.
    After the announcement, Herman felt compelled to warn the FEC and
    the public of the pending danger to campaign finance enforcement and
    submitted public testimony to the Commission.

    If the Republican commissioners continue to vote as a bloc on this
    proposal, they will effectively neuter the enforcement ability of
    FEC staff and hinder Justice investigations of egregious violations.

    Though it is a big ask of the remaining two Democratic
    commissioners, they could take a page from McGahn's playbook and not
    show up at the next FEC meeting, thereby denying quorum and any
    agency decision on the gag order.


On 7/23/13 1:25 PM, Craig Holman wrote:
> Colleagues:
>
> On Thursday, July 25, the Federal Election Commission will vote on a 
> proposal by departing Commissioner Don McGahn that would hamper the 
> ability of the FEC staff to conduct investigations of violations of 
> campaign finance law. As is widely known, the agency has been 
> beleaguered by Commission deadlocked votes since 2008, preventing many 
> an enforcement action. Among the proposals: unless the Commission 
> approves ahead of time -- (1) Prohibit FEC staff from looking at 
> certain public resources in the conduct of investigations, such as 
> candidate web pages; and (2) Prohibit FEC staff from sharing 
> information with the Department of Justice, which handles criminal 
> complaints of egregious violations of the campaign finance law. Lisa 
> Gilbert and I have published an op-ed about this maneuver in today's 
> Huffington Post. 
> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-holman/a-parting-shot-to-neuter_b_3641120.html
>
> Craig Holman, Ph.D.
> Government Affairs Lobbyist
> Public Citizen
> 215 Pennsylvania Avenue SE
> Washington, D.C. 20003
> T-(202) 454-5182
> C-(202) 905-7413
> F-(202) 547-7392
> Holman at aol.com
>
>
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-- 
Rick Hasen
Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science
UC Irvine School of Law
401 E. Peltason Dr., Suite 1000
Irvine, CA 92697-8000
949.824.3072 - office
949.824.0495 - fax
rhasen at law.uci.edu
hhttp://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/full-time/hasen/
http://electionlawblog.org

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