[EL] ELB News and Commentary 10/31/17

Tue Oct 31 07:37:16 PDT 2017

"Washington's Legions Of Lobbyists See Danger In Special Counsel's Indictment Of Manafort"<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95761>
Posted on October 31, 2017 7:29 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95761> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

BuzzFeed:<https://www.buzzfeed.com/johnhudson/washingtons-legions-of-lobbyists-see-danger-in-special?utm_term=.xq3P5dePX0#.ahDeqvneP1>

The threat of serving hard time for failing to disclose foreign lobbying work is rattling Washington's multi-billion dollar influence industry following Monday's 12-count indictment<https://www.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeednews/manafort-gates-mueller?utm_term=.rmd5AwZZR#.dj5xJDkkO> against Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates.

And although the charges have largely been seen as a blow to the White House, Monday's actions by special prosecutor Robert Mueller also sent shivers down the spines of Washington's lobbyists, both Democrats and Repulicans.

"It's a swampy place, and the swampy stink knows no partisan allegiance," said one senior Democratic congressional aide.

Manafort and Gates, who allegedly failed to disclose the full extent of their work on behalf of the pro-Russian Ukrainian Party of Regions, are now being charged under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, a 1930s era law aimed at curbing the influence of pro-German propaganda ahead of World War II.

In the last half century, the Justice Department has brought only a handful of enforcement actions against lobbyists for violations of FARA. That lack of prosecution resulted in a proliferation of under-the-radar lobbying. Now Washington's cottage industry of consultants and public affairs specialists can only wonder if that era has come to an end.
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Posted in lobbying<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=28>

"Conservative megadonors fund populist ads"<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95759>
Posted on October 31, 2017 7:27 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95759> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Weigel:<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/10/31/conservative-megadonors-fund-populist-ads/?utm_term=.29aa25275724>

The new ad from Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, a hub of the Koch donor network, comes at Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) from a surprising angle - attacking her as a foe of the little guy. In the spot, one of three now running in Wisconsin, a narrator talks over hard-rocking guitar and images of blue-collar workers.
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Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>

"Trump Campaign Got Early Word Russia Had Democrats' Emails"<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95757>
Posted on October 30, 2017 8:41 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95757> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/30/us/politics/trump-russia-mueller-indictment.html>

The guilty plea of a 30-year-old campaign aide - so green that he listed Model United Nations in his qualifications - shifted the narrative on Monday of the Trump campaign's interactions with Russia: Court documents revealed that Russian officials alerted the campaign, through an intermediary in April 2016, that they possessed thousands of Democratic emails and other "dirt" on Hillary Clinton.

That was two months before the Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee was publicly revealed and the stolen emails began to appear online. The new court filings provided the first clear evidence that Trump campaign aides had early knowledge that Russia had stolen confidential documents on Mrs. Clinton and the committee, a tempting trove in a close presidential contest.

By the time of a crucial meeting in June of last year, when Donald Trump Jr. and other senior Trump campaign officials met with a Russian lawyer offering damaging information on Mrs. Clinton, some may have known for weeks that Russia had material likely obtained by illegal hacking, the new documents suggested. The disclosures added to the evidence pointing to attempts at collaboration between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, but they appeared to fall short of proof that they conspired in the hacking or other illegal acts.
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Posted in campaigns<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

NC Republicans Question Nate Persily's Role As Redistricting Special Master<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95753>
Posted on October 30, 2017 6:28 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95753> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

....because<https://apnews.com/ccee069e3409426096b701042d792c18>, among other things, he attended a conference in 2006 and "Anita Earls, the plaintiffs' lawyer, worked for the center [hosting the conference] at the time."

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Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

"Facebook estimates 126 million people were served content from Russia-linked pages"<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95751>
Posted on October 30, 2017 3:03 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95751> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

CNN:<http://money.cnn.com/2017/10/30/media/russia-facebook-126-million-users/index.html>

Facebook will inform lawmakers this week that roughly 126 million Americans may have been exposed to content generated on its platform by the Russian government-linked troll farm known as the Internet Research Agency between June 2015 and August 2017, CNN has learned.

That estimate, which is equivalent to more than half of the total U.S. voting population, offers a new understanding of the scope of Russia's use of social media to meddle in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and in American society generally.

In written testimony to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism, a copy of which was obtained by CNN, Facebook General Counsel Colin Stretch says that 29 million people were served content directly from the Internet Research Agency, and that after sharing among users is accounted for, a total of "approximately 126 million people" may have seen it.
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Posted in campaigns<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, social media and social protests<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=58>

--
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
rhasen at law.uci.edu<mailto:rhasen at law.uci.edu>
http://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/full-time/hasen/
http://electionlawblog.org<http://electionlawblog.org/>

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