[EL] An overview of campaign finance laws relevant to the Muller Investigation

[Paul Ryan]

Thanks, Doug.  Also, Matt, I’ve written a few things for Just Security on these topics here<https://www.justsecurity.org/author/ryanpauls/> and here<https://www.justsecurity.org/author/ryanpauls/page/2/>, which link to many of the complaints and other docs Doug pointed you to.  Included are analyses of possible campaign violations by team Trump arising from the Trump Tower meeting<https://www.justsecurity.org/43072/smoking-gun-donald-trump-jr-trump-campaign-committee/> in June 2016, the hush payments to Daniels and McDougal, Manafort data sharing with Russians and Roger Stone’s request for hacked emails from WikiLeaks.  I’m happy to discuss any/all of this stuff in more detail, so don’t hesitate to email or call.  Best,

Paul Seamus Ryan | Common Cause | Vice President, Policy & Litigation
Office: 202-736-5716 | Mobile: 202-262-7315 | @ThePaulSRyan
805 Fifteenth Street NW, Suite 800|Washington, DC 20005

From: Law-election <law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu> On Behalf Of Doug Spencer
Sent: Tuesday, February 5, 2019 5:34 PM
To: Matthew Sag <matthewsag at gmail.com>
Cc: law-election at uci.edu
Subject: Re: [EL] An overview of campaign finance laws relevant to the Muller Investigation

Matt,

Common Cause has been all over this. Although their legal arguments haven't been fleshed out in court yet, your students might find it interesting to see the allegations in the Stephanie Clifford and Karen MacDougald cases as a complaint (e.g., see here<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commoncause.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F09%2FCC-v.-Trump-Stormy_AMENDED-Complaint_3.12.18.pdf&data=02%7C01%7Cpryan%40commoncause.org%7C7310e4cbc7c14c7c1e0b08d68bba1c12%7Cdb39e4b4de324cf9b66e9d02d8172178%7C0%7C1%7C636850028795277302&sdata=aa84GtSzXbtvGe3BzDxco8jwFwshQup5TOZ6pQjJ%2BO8%3D&reserved=0>). And to see how Common Cause has pushed the DOJ to intervene<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commoncause.org%2Fresource%2Fcommon-cause-v-trump-cohen-stormy-daniels%2F&data=02%7C01%7Cpryan%40commoncause.org%7C7310e4cbc7c14c7c1e0b08d68bba1c12%7Cdb39e4b4de324cf9b66e9d02d8172178%7C0%7C1%7C636850028795287315&sdata=uujY5BHmDNfBl7GIP5EOmFgBql15xweteJxQB8BAG3w%3D&reserved=0> as well. It should set up a nice discussion about both the substance (should the phrase "anything of value" be void for vagueness?) and the general process (concerned citizens/orgs file complaint with FEC, and if it feels compelled the FEC can independently enforcement and/or sometimes will itself file suit in the DDC. DOJ may also intervene in certain cases).

There are links to Common Cause-authored memos and op-eds about Roger Stone's alleged connection to WikiLeaks, the campaign's alleged false expense reporting, and alleged foreign solicitation at this page<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commoncause.org%2Fcampaigns%2Fcampaign-finance%2F&data=02%7C01%7Cpryan%40commoncause.org%7C7310e4cbc7c14c7c1e0b08d68bba1c12%7Cdb39e4b4de324cf9b66e9d02d8172178%7C0%7C1%7C636850028795297319&sdata=tU5DTegDaJqbz2L9Eu%2B%2B7f4MxEPv0qtxZeBZjGrAaBE%3D&reserved=0>.

Because the Trump campaign has yet to be held liable for these alleged violations, most of the available materials are on the "offensive" side. Defenders of Trump and critics of Common Cause (not a perfectly overlapping group) have certainly generated some press (see, e.g., here<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsweek.com%2Frand-paul-defends-trump-campaign-finance-violations-shouldnt-be-criminal-1251256&data=02%7C01%7Cpryan%40commoncause.org%7C7310e4cbc7c14c7c1e0b08d68bba1c12%7Cdb39e4b4de324cf9b66e9d02d8172178%7C0%7C1%7C636850028795297319&sdata=pqeSF%2FUGplmWIDRFJMEoJxbI0ZK%2Fr%2Fg7uql25OZxTko%3D&reserved=0>, here<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.heritage.org%2Fcrime-and-justice%2Fcommentary%2Ftrumps-ex-lawyer-didnt-violate-campaign-finance-laws-and-neither-did&data=02%7C01%7Cpryan%40commoncause.org%7C7310e4cbc7c14c7c1e0b08d68bba1c12%7Cdb39e4b4de324cf9b66e9d02d8172178%7C0%7C1%7C636850028795307327&sdata=BD%2F8ByLS4ZUQDS0aQWqro3RI69CHx%2BL%2FqWXVYz825oM%3D&reserved=0>, and here<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Fopinion%2Ftrump-did-not-violate-campaign-finance-law-despite-what-prosecutors-say&data=02%7C01%7Cpryan%40commoncause.org%7C7310e4cbc7c14c7c1e0b08d68bba1c12%7Cdb39e4b4de324cf9b66e9d02d8172178%7C0%7C1%7C636850028795317339&sdata=gNx7lAGkou1rt9FCUD0rNUt6CfpC3WOyU1PH87rey3U%3D&reserved=0>) but there's no simple clearinghouse similar to what Common Cause has compiled.

One more thought is to filter the Election Law Blog for all stories related to Trump (see here<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fs%3DTrump%26x%3D22%26y%3D11&data=02%7C01%7Cpryan%40commoncause.org%7C7310e4cbc7c14c7c1e0b08d68bba1c12%7Cdb39e4b4de324cf9b66e9d02d8172178%7C0%7C1%7C636850028795317339&sdata=JZvqsruh589nm0Nh8%2F7rr5AMl5hQnKSPO7P3Fl%2BRArE%3D&reserved=0>). This should be helpful if you're interested in media coverage of the campaign finance issues.

HTH,
Doug

-----
Douglas M. Spencer
Professor of Law & Public Policy
University of Connecticut

Visiting Professor, 2018-2019
Harris Public Policy
University of Chicago

http://www.dougspencer.org<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Foutlook.office.com%2Fmail%2Finbox%2Fid%2FAAQkADdjMTM4NDQ4LTcwMWItNDdjNS04NzE5LTRjM2M4ZGVkYmRlNwAQAJgVtPZDv7xDidqBTuvM5qo%253D&data=02%7C01%7Cpryan%40commoncause.org%7C7310e4cbc7c14c7c1e0b08d68bba1c12%7Cdb39e4b4de324cf9b66e9d02d8172178%7C0%7C1%7C636850028795327356&sdata=8bKM0cREcALYSCdw4JYkAqYUc9JxrjO0Ppuj7PnzK7o%3D&reserved=0>

On Tue, Feb 5, 2019 at 3:24 PM Matthew Sag <matthewsag at gmail.com<mailto:matthewsag at gmail.com>> wrote:
Is anyone aware of a good resource that summarizes the potential ways in which members of the Trump campaign may have, violating the campaign-finance laws in relation to the 2016 presidential election? I thought this might be a good way of introducing my election law students to material that can otherwise seem a little bit dry and technical.

Your assistance would be appreciated!

Matthew Sag
Georgia Reithal Professor of Law at Loyola University Chicago School of Law; Associate Director for Intellectual Property, Institute for Consumer Antitrust Studies; Member of the American Law Institute; Co-founder of ScotusOA.com, a website devoted to empirical analysis and forecasts of US Supreme Court oral arguments. For links to publications, biographical details, see MatthewSag.com. Working papers also available on SSRN.com.
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