Congress

Wall Street Journal: Ted Cruz, Mark Meadows Proposal Would Allow Unlimited Campaign Contributions

By Byron Tau

A measure reintroduced on Wednesday by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina would toss out the current $2,700 per-election limit on individual donors while requiring donations greater than $200 to be disclosed within a day…

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has also long sought to loosen campaign finance rules, arguing political spending is a form of speech protected by the U.S. Constitution… 

“The current system is absurd,” said Mr. Cruz. “As a candidate who has had super PACs supporting me and super PACs attacking me, it makes no sense not to have candidates able to communicate their own messages and instead have this bizarre world of super PACs.”

The SuperPAC Elimination Act from Messrs. Cruz and Meadows would keep in place the ban on corporate contributions to candidates.

The Hill: Cruz calls for lifting campaign fundraising limits

By Ben Kamisar

Joining with Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), Cruz is filing legislation that the pair argues will increase transparency and treat all campaign donations like free speech.

“Restrictions to political contributions are always presented under the guise of preventing corruption and holding politicians accountable, when in fact they accomplish exactly the opposite: protecting incumbent politicians,” Cruz said in a statement.

“Establishing unlimited contributions paired with immediate disclosure is the best way to promote transparency, eliminate the viability of SuperPACs going forward, and ensure that free speech is protected in the electoral process.”

Los Angeles Times: Rep. Nancy Pelosi elected by House Democrats for another term as minority leader

By Lisa Mascaro

House Democrats elected Rep. Nancy Pelosi for another term as minority leader after she fended off a rival who said the November election showed the party needs change at the top…

Pelosi remains a fundraising powerhouse and despite interest by other Democrats in taking a turn at leadership, few have been able to make the case to their peers that they could match her drive…

Democratic Rep. Adam B. Schiff of Burbank, in nominating Pelosi during a closed-door meeting Wednesday, said, “We need the very best to lead us…. No one is a better tactician than Nancy Pelosi.”  

Supreme Court

12 News Arizona: Why flag burning is legal in the U.S. and is likely to stay that way

By Brett McGinness and Richard Wolf

Most of the people on Trump’s list of 21 potential high court nominees would agree with Scalia, according to Jeffrey Rosen, president of the nonpartisan National Constitution Center. The flag-burning decisions, he says, are “entrenched as part of our First Amendment tradition.”

What’s more, only Justice Samuel Alito among current justices has been willing to restrict free speech considered by many to be abhorrent, such as protests at a Marine veteran’s funeral and videos that depict the mutilating animals.

By contrast, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the 8-1 decisions upholding those forms of speech in 2010 and 2011. And he cited the court’s past protection of flag burning in controversial 5-4 rulings that upheld the right to spend freely on political campaigns.

“If the First Amendment protects flag burning, funeral protests and Nazi parades – despite the profound offense such spectacles cause – it surely protects political campaign speech despite popular opposition,” Roberts wrote in McCutcheon v. FEC, a 2014 case that struck down aggregate limits on campaign contributions.

Trump Administration

Financial Times: Trump pledge fails to quell concerns of business conflicts

By Courtney Weaver

Donald Trump tried on Wednesday to quell uproar over potential conflicts of interests in his presidency by promising to fully separate himself from his business empire…

Yet ethics experts and lawyers warn that Mr Trump’s separation from his businesses will not go far enough, given the dual roles that his children play in both his business empire and on his presidential transition team…

“The only real solution here is for Trump to divest his assets to a true blind trust that is managed by a truly independent trustee.” 

“If he doesn’t resolve the conflict of interests coming to his own business empire, he’s not going to be effective at addressing other ethics issuing facing Washington,” said Richard Painter, former chief ethics lawyer for George W Bush.  

Politico: How Trump can keep his company

By Darren Samuelsohn and Isaac Arnsdorf

Trump has dismissed suggestions he sell everything, and his aides had stayed mum beyond issuing an official statement that his three oldest adult children and a “team of highly skilled executives” will soon be in command of the official Trump Organization. While a patchwork approach is certainly more complicated, and it might still result in litigation and bad headlines, political, business and legal experts told POLITICO it’s also the price Trump must pay if he’s serious about making the leap from international entrepreneur to president of the United States…

No matter what Trump does with his financial arrangements, GOP campaign finance lawyer Jan Baran warned that the president should be ready for criticism.

“You think of all these solutions and how they’re supposed to work effectively and you conclude they don’t eliminate problems. In fact, many of them create more problems.” Baran said. “He’s going to have to make a decision about how he’s going to go forward with the knowledge that that no matter what he does he’s going to be criticized or potentially attacked for anything he’s doing.”

Wall Street Journal: Ethics Office’s Tweets at Donald Trump Cause a Stir

By Natalie Andrews

The Office of Government Ethics’ Twitter account typically sends out a handful of tweets a week, often with links to dry ethics documents. But Wednesday, starting around noon, the account tweeted out nine messages, all focused on Mr. Trump’s statement about how he would handle his business interests once he is president…

An OGE spokesman confirmed the OGE tweets were sent by its office, which works to prevent and resolve conflicts of interest in the executive branch and guides in the presidential transition. OGE spokesman Seth Jaffe said the office has no details beyond the tweets offered as to what the president-elect plans to do.

“Like everyone else, we were excited this morning to read the President-elect’s Twitter feed indicating that he wants to be free of conflicts of interest,” he said. “Divestiture resolves conflicts of interest in a way that transferring control does not. We don’t know the details of their plan, but we are willing and eager to help them with it.”

NJ.com: Here’s what $1M will buy you at Trump’s inauguration

By Jonathan D. Salant

President-elect Donald Trump, who railed against big donors on the campaign trail, is seeking contributions of up to $1 million to fund his inauguration.

That seven-figure donation to the Presidential Inaugural Committee will buy seats at an exclusive luncheon with Cabinet nominees and congressional leaders, according to a committee brochure.

Donors at that level also will be invited to a special dinner with Vice President-elect Mike Pence; a candlelight dinner with appearances by Trump, Pence and their wives; tickets to the inaugural parade; and special access to the inaugural ball…

Inaugural committee spokesman Boris Epshteyn said donations would not be accepted from registered lobbyists, that any excess funds would go to charity, and that the goal was to avoid using taxpayer money.  

Washington Examiner: Trump’s Treasury pick has given millions to Dems and far-left groups

By Justin Haskins

President-elect Trump selected Steven Mnuchin on Wednesday to serve as secretary of the treasury. Mnuchin was the Trump campaign’s national finance chairman, and the two have run in the same New York circles for decades…

According to Federal Election Commission filings, Mnuchin himself gave tens of thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates, including at least $2,300 to President Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign and $2,000 to his 2004 Senate campaign.

He also gave $2,300 to Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign and almost $4,000 to her Senate campaigns. Mnuchin also gave $10,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 2004…

Although some of that money did go to Republicans, including small donations to John McCain, the vast majority of the donations were given to Democrats, including former Democratic Party presidential candidates John Kerry, John Edwards and Howard Dean.

Candidates and Campaigns

CRP: Stein’s recount effort brings in twice as much as her campaign

By Ashley Balcerzak

So how does this new stream of fundraising work? There are handbooks filled with rules about political fundraising to help win an election, but what about to confirm that results are accurate?

There are a couple of ways to go about this, says Bob Biersack, senior fellow at the Center for Responsive Politics. What Stein has done is set up a separate recount account, which follows the same rules and contribution limits as a campaign committee. No corporations, unions or foreign nationals may donate to it. But this recount round resets the limits: Even if you maxed out to Stein, this counts as a separate “election,” so you can give as much as $2,700 once again. Also, Stein needn’t worry about the fundraising restrictions that came with her acceptance of public matching funds earlier on.

On the spending side, according to the Federal Election Commission, the funds can only go toward expenses directly related to the recount, such as paying the state staff that counts the votes or any other administrative or overhead payments, as well as post-election litigation (which, as with anything involving lawyers, can be pricey).

CBS News: Jill Stein’s recount fundraising: What happens to leftover money?

By Emily Schultheis

When the fundraising plea was first posted to Stein’s website, it included a short message to say the campaign was “raising money to demand recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.” That language was updated late last week to include a line about what would happen to unused funds.

“If we raise more than what’s needed, the surplus will also go toward election integrity efforts and to promote voting system reform,” the new line on the website said…

Usually, FEC guidelines say campaigns need to go back to their donors and ask if they would be willing to have their donations transferred to a different fund. In this case, since Stein’s campaign has indicated on its site that it planned to use the additional funds for “election integrity efforts,” that could give them more of an argument to transfer funds without going back to donors and asking for permission. 

Law Newz: FEC Complaint Alleges Jill Stein is Serving as Front for Clinton Campaign in Recount Effort

By Chris White

The Republican Party of Wisconsin filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission on Wednesday that alleges Jill Stein is allowing her campaign to be used as a front for Hillary Clinton’s campaign in the recount effort. Stein has denied those allegations…

The GOP argues Stein’s actions are essentially a coordinated $3.5 million expenditure on behalf of the Clinton campaign, in excess of the $2,000 amount allowed by federal campaign donations laws.

“The recount effort is non-partisan and Stein is not coordinating with any other campaign. Any allegations to the contrary are fabrications. The FEC complaint is nothing but a PR stunt to push a false narrative that will ultimately have no impact on the recount in Wisconsin,” David Cobb, Campaign Manager for the Jill Stein campaign said in a statement provided to LawNewz.com.