[EL] ELB News and Commentary 10/10/19

Thu Oct 10 10:24:02 PDT 2019

“The Arrest of Giuliani’s Ukraine Associates Shows How Much Trump Has Already Corrupted Our Elections”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107649>
Posted on October 10, 2019 10:22 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107649> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

I have written this piece<https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/10/giuliani-ukraine-associates-arrested-sdny-trump-corrupt-elections.html> for Slate. It begins:

The news<https://www.wsj.com/articles/two-foreign-born-men-who-helped-giuliani-on-ukraine-arrested-on-campaign-finance-charges-11570714188?shareToken=ste1ae7f42ebd644b4b9a2e9637d5f2aa3> of Thursday’s indictments of two associates of Rudy Giuliani’s, who according to their lawyer (and former Trump lawyer) John Dowd, assisted<https://www.wsj.com/articles/two-foreign-born-men-who-helped-giuliani-on-ukraine-arrested-on-campaign-finance-charges-11570714188?mod=e2tw> Giuliani “in connection with his representation of President Trump” shows that foreign interference in American elections is a feature and not a bug of the Trump campaign and presidency. And the connections to the emerging Ukraine scandal show that the corruption runs deep in this administration.
The tale told in Thursday’s unsealed indictment<https://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/U.S.v.LevParnasetalIndictment.pdf?mod=article_inline> is complex, and it will take a while to unravel all the parts. But here’s what we know so far. Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two Ukrainian-born American citizens, conspired with others, including a Russian citizen and businessman, to violate campaign finance laws for both personal and political gain. Among other things, Parnas and Fruman, along with their co-conspirators, funneled foreign money through a limited liability company and between each other to violate federal campaign finance laws barring foreign contributions to American campaigns and limiting how much any American citizen can give to a federal candidate for office….

This is also just the latest of the Trump connections to foreign sources to help Trump’s political goals. There was the Trump Tower meeting in June 2016 where Russians offered some dirt on Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner. There was all the pro-Trump Russian activity on social media, the leaking of the DNC emails, and the hacking into voter registration databases in the 2016 election. There is Trump publicly inviting China to dig up dirt on Biden and pressuring the Ukrainian president to do so. And now there is this.
The ban on foreign interference in American elections is justified by an interest in American self-government. We want those with the greatest stake in American democracy to be the ones who decide who will represent us in the most important offices of the land. Trump’s actions show that he doesn’t respect this idea of American self-government and surrounds himself with people who are willing to do whatever it takes to assure his political goals.

And we can thank the Supreme Court for helping to make this sorry turn of events happen<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2018/12/21/justice-alito-you-owe-president-obama-an-apology/>.

Shortly after the Supreme Court decided Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission in 2010, President Barack Obama warned in his State of the Union that the ruling could allow for foreign nations, acting through corporations and other entities, to try to influence the outcome of U.S. elections. Justice Samuel Alito, in attendance at the SOTU, mouthed that this was “not true.”

And Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, when a lower court judge, upheld the ban on foreign spending in elections but interpreted it narrowly purportedly on First Amendment grounds to allow even more foreign influence in our elections.

Whether the latest revelations from Thursday’s indictments fit into another article of impeachment is uncertain at this early point. But what is certain is that the worry that those from the Founding Fathers to Obama have had about foreign interference is well taken. When someone like Trump without American interests is at the helm, preserving American self-government is challenging indeed
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

“Political Campaigns Know Where You’ve Been. They’re Tracking Your Phone.”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107647>
Posted on October 10, 2019 10:19 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107647> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WSJ<https://www.wsj.com/articles/political-campaigns-track-cellphones-to-identify-and-target-individual-voters-11570718889>:

When Donald Trump took the stage last month in Fayetteville, N.C., to support Republican candidate Dan Bishop in a special election<https://www.wsj.com/articles/republican-dan-bishop-wins-north-carolina-congressional-seat-with-trumps-support-11568168459?mod=article_inline>, thousands of people showed up.
Mr. Bishop was seeking their support. An outside Republican group was looking for something more. It wanted their data.
Unknown to the crowd, the Committee to Defend the President, a Republican political-action committee that supports Mr. Trump, had hired a company to collect unique identification numbers from attendees’ smartphones that evening, based on location data those phones were sending to third parties. The goal was to target ads at people it could drive to the polls the next day. Mr. Bishop won by about 3,800 votes.
The PAC now plans to use the technique, which is called geofencing, in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election<https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/campaign-wire-election-2020?mod=article_inline> in about half a dozen swing states to find people who may not be registered to vote, said its chairman, Ted Harvey.
“It’s another aggressive, on-the-ground effort to get those people identified,” Mr. Harvey said.
Democratic and Republican candidates, political parties and outside groups are increasingly tapping into a new source of data as they gear up for the 2020 election: your smartphone. That is allowing for more granular—and sometimes invasive—voter targeting than has been used before.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Californians can register to vote on election day at any polling place under new law”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107645>
Posted on October 10, 2019 10:15 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107645> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

LAT reports.<https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-10-08/californians-register-to-vote-any-polling-place-2020-new-law>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

Video of Making Every Vote Count Foundation Event on National Popular Vote Now Available<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107643>
Posted on October 10, 2019 10:13 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107643> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Here<https://www.c-span.org/organization/?135280/Making-Vote-Count-Foundation-MEVCF> at C-SPAN.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“California’s only ‘independent’ political party won’t have to change its name”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107641>
Posted on October 10, 2019 10:07 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107641> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

LAT:<https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-10-09/american-independent-party-wont-have-to-change-name-veto-newsom-sb696>

An effort to limit voter confusion in California by banning the use of the word “independent” in a political party’s name<https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-political-parties-independent-confused-voters-20190621-story.html> was vetoed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday, a rejection of a proposal that would have forced one of the state’s lesser-known political parties to change its name.

The bill was the product of years of complaints by elections officials and political watchers who noted that voters who wanted to be unaffiliated with any party had been mistakenly registering with the American Independent Party of California instead of selecting the “no party preference” choice on voter forms. There were almost 518,000 voters registered with that party as of the last official state report, an increase of almost 30% over the past decade.

Newsom’s veto message said he couldn’t sign a bill that only impacted one group.
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Posted in ballot access<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=46>, third parties<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=47>

“Two Giuliani Associates Who Helped Him on Ukraine Charged With Campaign-Finance Violations”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107639>
Posted on October 10, 2019 10:03 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107639> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WSJ:<https://www.wsj.com/articles/two-foreign-born-men-who-helped-giuliani-on-ukraine-arrested-on-campaign-finance-charges-11570714188?mod=hp_lead_pos1>

Two Soviet-born donors to a pro- Trump fundraising committee who helped Rudy Giuliani’s efforts to investigate Democrat Joe Biden were arrested late Wednesday on criminal charges of violating campaign finance rules, including funneling Russian money into President Trump’s campaign.
Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two Florida businessmen, have been under investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, and are expected to appear in federal court in Virginia later on Thursday, the people said. Both men were born in former Soviet republics.
House committees issued subpoenas for documents from the two men on Thursday.
Mr. Giuliani, President Trump’s private lawyer, identified the two men in May as his clients. Both men have donated to Republican campaigns including Mr. Trump’s, and in May 2018 gave $325,000 to the primary pro-Trump super PAC, America First Action, through an LLC called Global Energy Producers, according to Federal Election Commission records.
The men were charged with four counts, including conspiracy, falsification of records and lying to the FEC about their political donations, according to the indictment<https://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/U.S.v.LevParnasetalIndictment.pdf?mod=article_inline> that outlines a conspiracy to funnel a Russian donor’s money into U.S. elections.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>

“Cross-partisan coalition urges presidential candidates to embrace transparency and disclose their big-money campaign fundraisers”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107637>
Posted on October 10, 2019 9:59 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107637> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Issue One release.<https://www.issueone.org/cross-partisan-coalition-urges-presidential-candidates-to-embrace-transparency-and-disclose-their-big-money-campaign-fundraisers/?platform=hootsuite>
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>

“The Supreme Court May Soon Deal a Final, Fatal Blow to the Voting Rights Act; A vital tool in the battle against voter suppression is in serious legal jeopardy”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107635>
Posted on October 10, 2019 9:58 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107635> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Mark Joseph Stern for Slate<https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/10/supreme-court-voting-rights-act-obliteration.html>.
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Posted in Voting Rights Act<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>

Senate Intelligence Committee Issues Further Report on Russian Interference, Adds Recommendations to Deter Foreign Interference in 2020<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107630>
Posted on October 8, 2019 10:41 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107630> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The report is here.<https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Report_Volume2.pdf>

In light of the Ukraine news, this first recommendation for the Executive Branch is notable:
[cid:image002.png at 01D57F54.D45CA740]
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, Election Meltdown<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=127>, social media and social protests<https://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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