[EL] ELB News and Commentary 10/12/19

Fri Oct 11 21:03:46 PDT 2019

Trump at Louisiana Rally Says Democrats are Pursuing “illegal, invalid and unconstitutional bullshit impeachment.”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107669>
Posted on October 11, 2019 8:50 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107669> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT dispatch.<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/11/us/trump-rally-louisiana-lake-charles.html?emc=rss&partner=rss>
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>

SDNY Investigates Rudy Giuliani for FARA Violation Connected to Ukraine Shenanigans<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107667>
Posted on October 11, 2019 8:42 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107667> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/11/us/politics/rudy-giuliani-investigation.html>

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating whether President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani broke lobbying laws in his dealings in Ukraine, according to two people familiar with the inquiry.
The investigators are examining Mr. Giuliani’s efforts to undermine the American ambassador to Ukraine, Marie L. Yovanovitch, one of the people said. She was recalled in the spring<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/26/us/politics/yovanovitch-trump-ukraine-ambassador.html?module=inline> as part of Mr. Trump’s broader campaign to pressure Ukraine into helping his political prospects.

The investigation into Mr. Giuliani is tied to the case against two of his associates who were arrested<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/10/us/politics/lev-parnas-igor-fruman-arrested-giuliani.html?module=inline> this week on campaign finance-related charges, the people familiar with the inquiry said. The associates were charged<https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/1886-indictment-giuliani-associates/a5dd834e350dc3b860c2/optimized/full.pdf#page=1> with funneling illegal contributions to a congressman whose help they sought in removing Ms. Yovanovitch.

Mr. Giuliani has denied wrongdoing, but he acknowledged that he and the associates worked with Ukrainian prosecutors to collect potentially damaging information about Ms. Yovanovitch and other targets of Mr. Trump and his allies, including former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his younger son, Hunter Biden. Mr. Giuliani shared that material this year with American government officials and a Trump-friendly columnist in an effort to undermine the ambassador and other Trump targets.

Federal law requires American citizens to disclose to the Justice Department any contacts with the government or media in the United States at the direction or request of foreign politicians or government officials, regardless of whether they pay for the representation. Law enforcement officials have made clear in recent years that covert foreign influence is as great a threat to the country as spies trying to steal government secrets.

A criminal investigation of Mr. Giuliani raises the stakes of the Ukraine scandal for the president, whose dealings with the country are already the subject of an impeachment inquiry. It is also a stark turn for Mr. Giuliani, who now finds himself under scrutiny from the same United States attorney’s office he led in the 1980s, when he first rose to prominence as a tough-on-crime prosecutor and later ascended to two terms as mayor of New York.
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, lobbying<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=28>

“Kentucky Democrats sue state for labeling 175,000 voters ‘inactive’ before election”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107664>
Posted on October 11, 2019 8:21 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107664> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Lexington Herald-Leader:<https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article236007548.html>

The Kentucky Democratic Party sued the State Board of Elections Thursday, claiming it unlawfully placed 175,000 registered voters on an “inactive” list that might infringe on their right to vote.
The lawsuit filed in Franklin Circuit Court followed unsuccessful discussions <https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/apnews.com/4b056486ba6340938fc56a8ef02fbb5e> between the two sides.
“After weeks of conversations with the State Board of Elections staff that raised more questions than it provided answers, we determined that we had no choice but to file this lawsuit in order to protect Kentucky voters from facing unfair burdens at the polls,” Kentucky Democratic Party Chairman Ben Self said in a statement.
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Posted in NVRA (motor voter)<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=33>

“Facebook Is Threatening Our Elections—Again”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107662>
Posted on October 11, 2019 8:17 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107662> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Vanita Gupta:<https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/10/11/facebook-threatening-elections-again-229844>

After Facebook was implicated in the 2016 election wreckage, the company made strides to shore up the platform against future harms to our democracy. But now, Facebook is sabotaging its own efforts through a new policy<https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2019/09/elections-and-political-speech/>: the explicit exemption of politicians’ speech from its community standards<https://www.facebook.com/communitystandards/>.

Since 2016, Facebook has maintained a “newsworthiness” exemption, meaning content that violates community standards—including hate speech and harassment—can still be posted when the public interest in viewing the content outweighs the risk of harm. With its new policy, Facebook will automatically presume speech from politicians to be newsworthy. Simply put: While major news organizations are strengthening fact-checking and accountability, Facebook is saying: If you are a politician who wishes to peddle in lies, distortion and not-so-subtle racial appeals, welcome to our platform. We will not fact-check. You are automatically newsworthy. You are automatically exempt from scrutiny.

More<https://twitter.com/juliacarriew/status/1182803465086464000>:
[cid:image002.jpg at 01D58077.4D836D20]<https://twitter.com/juliacarriew>
<https://twitter.com/juliacarriew>
Julia Carrie Wong<https://twitter.com/juliacarriew>
✔@juliacarriew<https://twitter.com/juliacarriew>

<https://twitter.com/juliacarriew/status/1182803465086464000>

Elizabeth Warren is now running FB ads with a false statement about Mark Zuckerberg and FB endorsing Trump for president, to draw attention to FB's controversial policy allowing politicians to make false statements in ads. https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/11/politics/elizabeth-warren-facebook-ad/index.html …<https://t.co/hulwrb3cc3>
[View image on Twitter]<https://twitter.com/juliacarriew/status/1182803465086464000/photo/1>
<https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1182803465086464000>
12.5K<https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1182803465086464000>
4:41 PM - Oct 11, 2019<https://twitter.com/juliacarriew/status/1182803465086464000>
Twitter Ads info and privacy<https://support.twitter.com/articles/20175256>
<https://twitter.com/juliacarriew/status/1182803465086464000>
4,049 people are talking about this<https://twitter.com/juliacarriew/status/1182803465086464000>

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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>

“Indicted Donors Spread Campaign Cash Widely; Pair of Soviet-born Florida businessmen donated $675,000 to at least 14 GOP candidates and groups last year”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107660>
Posted on October 11, 2019 2:53 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107660> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WSJ reports.<https://www.wsj.com/articles/indicted-donors-spread-campaign-cash-widely-11570829526?emailToken=2a779e709d5e2a920ab014e7441a1f0fFzzKHRf5FjmJVgC9aOmkkjRY+00FTNj35A3pwZgv8Dz2okFztPsKeES1i0bfts2OXbW1reoGOmXFg+5lODZwlpd0GO+rrWFgBNTyYa/KDmE%3D&reflink=article_copyURL_share>

At least 14 Republican candidates and groups directly received a total of $675,500 in campaign contributions last year from Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, the Soviet-born Florida businessmen indicted this week on campaign-finance violations.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan say six of their donations involved either a shell company used to hide the men’s identities or foreign money meant to curry favor with U.S. politicians. The pair made numerous contributions between February and July, many of them to umbrella political groups that then parceled out money to dozens of GOP politicians, a Wall Street Journal review of state fundraising and Federal Election Commission records found.

“It appears that Fruman and Parnas made their political contributions in order to buy access and advance their own interests, and in some instances the interests of foreign officials,” said Brendan Fischer, director of federal reform at the Campaign Legal Center, which filed a complaint with the FEC in July 2018 about the fundraising activities of Messrs. Parnas and Fruman. “Every single one of these contributions is suspect because they were made with an ulterior motive.”
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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>

“Hawaii and Kansas to Use Ranked Choice Voting Ballots in 2020 Primaries”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107658>
Posted on October 11, 2019 2:51 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107658> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

FairVote reports.<https://www.fairvote.org/hawaii_and_kansas_to_use_ranked_choice_voting_ballots_in_2020_primaries>
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Posted in alternative voting systems<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=63>, political parties<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=25>, primaries<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=32>

“A Spice Company Spent $92,000 on Pro-Impeachment Facebook Ads in a Week”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107656>
Posted on October 11, 2019 2:40 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107656> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT reports.<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/11/business/penzeys-spices-impeach-ads.html>
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>

“We have no idea who is paying Rudy Giuliani; A loophole in ethics laws lets Trump’s personal lawyer sidestep disclosure.”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107654>
Posted on October 10, 2019 7:44 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107654> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Trevor Potter and Delaney Marsco<https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/10/10/we-have-no-idea-who-is-paying-rudy-giuliani/>:

Rudolph W. Giuliani is not the secretary of state. In fact, he has no official position in President Trump’s Cabinet or administration. Yet he is traveling the world holding himself out as a U.S. government operative<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/impeachment-inquiry-puts-new-focus-on-giulianis-work-for-prominent-figures-in-ukraine/2019/10/01/b3c6d08c-e089-11e9-be96-6adb81821e90_story.html?tid=lk_inline_manual_2>, engaging in some unknown amount of “unofficial” diplomacy and insisting his work is not only officially sanctioned by the president but also assisted by the State Department. The president’s “private lawyer” is not charging Trump for his services, but he and his law firm are known to have dozens of clients — including foreign entities — who are paying for whatever services they think Giuliani can provide for them.
That is a very convenient setup for Giuliani — but it leaves the public in the dark about the wealthy special interests who might be subsidizing his gratis work for Trump — or for whom he might actually be working while invoking Trump’s name and that of the State Department. Because Giuliani is not officially a federal employee, he can sidestep ethics obligations that would require transparency behind the foreign or domestic interests who are paying him.

CNN:<https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/10/10/politics/giuliani-fruman-parnas-finances/index.html?>

Rudy Giuliani’s financial dealings with two associates indicted on campaign finance-related charges are under scrutiny by investigators overseeing the case, law enforcement officials briefed on the matter said.
The FBI and prosecutors in Manhattan are examining Giuliani’s involvement in the broader flow of money that have become the focus of alleged violations that are at the center of the allegations against Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, the sources said. The sources did not say that Giuliani was a target of the investigation.
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

FEC Chair Ellen Weintraub Facing New IG Complaint from Member of Congress: “I Will Not Be Silenced”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107651>
Posted on October 10, 2019 7:04 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107651> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Start here:<https://twitter.com/EllenLWeintraub/status/1182384194359562240>
[cid:image004.jpg at 01D58077.4D836D20]<https://twitter.com/EllenLWeintraub>
<https://twitter.com/EllenLWeintraub>
Ellen L Weintraub<https://twitter.com/EllenLWeintraub>
✔@EllenLWeintraub<https://twitter.com/EllenLWeintraub>

<https://twitter.com/EllenLWeintraub/status/1182384194359562240>

I will not be silenced.

The independence of the United States Federal Election Commission will not be compromised.

/1
[View image on Twitter]<https://twitter.com/EllenLWeintraub/status/1182384194359562240/photo/1>[View image on Twitter]<https://twitter.com/EllenLWeintraub/status/1182384194359562240/photo/1>[View image on Twitter]<https://twitter.com/EllenLWeintraub/status/1182384194359562240/photo/1>[View image on Twitter]<https://twitter.com/EllenLWeintraub/status/1182384194359562240/photo/1>
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37.7K<https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1182384194359562240>
12:55 PM - Oct 10, 2019<https://twitter.com/EllenLWeintraub/status/1182384194359562240>
Twitter Ads info and privacy<https://support.twitter.com/articles/20175256>
<https://twitter.com/EllenLWeintraub/status/1182384194359562240>
13.8K people are talking about this<https://twitter.com/EllenLWeintraub/status/1182384194359562240>

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Posted in federal election commission<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=24>

--
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
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rhasen at law.uci.edu<mailto:rhasen at law.uci.edu>
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http://electionlawblog.org<http://electionlawblog.org/>

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