092518 political law links

INDICTMENT FOR TRIP.   RC.  “The Justice Department has issued an indictment of former non-profit head Kevin Oksuz for his role in a plot to hide the fact that a 2013 congressional delegation trip to Azerbaijan was funded by that country’s government.”

HEARING SET.   SDU.  “Rep. Duncan Hunter and his wife, Margaret, are scheduled to be back in court Dec. 3 for a status conference on charges they illegally used more than $250,000 in campaign funds to fund their lavish lifestyles and filed false campaign finance records to cover it up.”

MI:  ALLEGATIONS AGAINST CANDIDATE.   FRE.  “The Democratic Party’s candidate for state representative in a key Oakland County district was told to resign from her campaign Monday by state party officials after they learned of allegations that she had embezzled money from another politician’s campaign funds.”

OR:  CANADIAN QUESTIONS.   BB.  “Jordan Cove, a subsidiary of Calgary-based ­Pembina Pipeline Corp., has made $150,000 in political campaign contributions since Sept. 2017 … Here’s the potential problem: Jordan Cove LNG, the Coos Bay business to which most of those contributions are attributed, is registered as a foreign partnership and a foreign limited liability company with the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office, one with its principal office in Calgary, Canada.”

TAIWAN:  BITCOIN CONTRIBUTION.   LBCN.  “Hsiao Hsin-Chen, a candidate for the Taipei City Council, has reportedly disclosed that he had received a donation in Bitcoin, local media says. Purportedly, this is the first time a cryptocurrency has been used to make a political donation.”

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9.24 Political Law Links

E-FILING ARRIVES.   YAH.  “For the first time, U.S. Senate candidates must file campaign finance reports electronically, giving the public more immediate access to information about the candidates’ campaign donors and spending.”

BIAS DENIED.   NYT.  “Sundar Pichai, Google’s chief executive, said in an email to employees on Friday that the company has never and will never bias its search results for political purposes.”

DONOR SPOTLIGHT.   NYT.  “The return on investment for many of the Republican Party’s biggest political patrons has been less than impressive this year. But not for Sheldon Adelson.”

STEAM LOST.   POLITICO.  “The Justice Department says that since FARA came under scrutiny, there has been a substantial uptick in foreign-agent registrations under the law, and the DOJ has issued twice as many advisory opinions about FARA to the industry this year as it had a year earlier.”

CA:  BAN APPROVED.   EN.  “The California Fair Political Practices Commission recently decided that political candidates in the state cannot receive cryptocurrencies as campaign contributions. To make its decision, the commission was informed by a staff report that indicated virtual currency could make campaign finance violations much more difficult to investigate.”

WI:  ETHICS EMPHASIS.   F11.  “Wisconsin Public Radio reports that LeaderEthics-Wisconsin is committed to ensuring political leaders at the statewide and national levels are handling issues in an ethical way. The organization recently held an event where former state lawmakers discussed their experiences with ethics in politics.”

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9.20.18 political law links

DECISION STANDS.   ATL.  “Secret money in politics will soon be a lot less secret. The Supreme Court on Tuesday let stand a lower-court ruling forcing politically active nonprofit groups to disclose the identity of any donor giving more than $200 when those groups advertise for or against political candidates.”

REFORMER CHRISTMAS.   ESQ.  “What matters is that, in this case at least, there seems to have been a faction on the Court that is willing to be flexible on dark money, and that’s willing to overrule the Chief on the subject, too. Of course, it’s a 4-4 court right now. I am not optimistic about the future, but this was a nice moment.”

TIMES ON RUSSIA AND 16.   NYT. “For two years, Americans have tried to absorb the details of the 2016 attack: hacked emails, social media fraud, suspected spies — and President Trump’s claims that it’s all a hoax. The Times explores what we know and what it means.”

FB AT WAR.   NYT.  “More than 300 people across the company are working on the initiative, but the War Room will house a team of about 20 focused on rooting out disinformation, monitoring false news and deleting fake accounts that may be trying to influence voters before elections in the United States, Brazil and other countries.”

E-FILING STARTS.   OS.  “After over 15 years of legislative attempts, Senate candidates might finally start electronically filing their campaign finance reports.”

REFORMERS IGNORE.   DC.  “Nine months ago this week, the Committee to Defend the President filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), accusing the Democratic establishment of orchestrating the most elaborate money laundering scheme in U.S. electoral history.”

COMPLAINT ON FUNDRAISING.   NYT.  “A progressive group in Utah that advocates government transparency and accountability filed a federal complaint against Representative Mia Love, a Republican, on Tuesday over alleged campaign finance violations, escalating the liberal fight against the vulnerable incumbent just seven weeks before November’s midterm elections.”

ETHICS GRADE.   CNN.  “Ethics and trustworthiness are not the exact same thing. And what people said when they voted for candidate Trump versus how they feel about President Trump may well be two very different things.”

AUSTRALIA:  LOBBYING OVERVIEW.   GUA.  “There’s only so much information available on Australia’s largely opaque lobbying system. It takes time, effort, and the right tools to wade through the federal lobbyist register and join the dots. So, we have extracted the data, broken it down, and reshaped into something digestible.”

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