Nearly a decade after his release from prison, having served nearly four years on corruption charges, disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff may be heading back behind bars, this time as the first person ever charged and convicted for criminal violations of the Lobbying Disclosure Act (“LDA”). Yesterday the Justice Department announced
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Enforcement
Campaign Finance Violation for Unregistered Political Committee Upheld in Washington State, but $18 Million Penalty Must Still Pass Excessive Fine Test
In one of the most watched campaign finance disclosure enforcement cases, last week, the Washington State Supreme Court upheld a trial court’s finding that a trade association intentionally failed to register and report contributions and expenditures in opposition to a ballot initiative that would have required labeling of genetically modified…
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FCC Proposes Nearly $10 Million Fine Against Campaign Vendor for Spoofed Robocalls
On December 13, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) issued a Notice of Apparent Liability (“NAL”) against Kenneth Moser and his telemarketing company, Marketing Support Systems (“MSS”), proposing a fine of $9,997,750 for allegedly transmitting more than 47,000 unlawful spoofed robocalls. The calls were made over a two-day period in May…
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So-Called “Dark Money” Group Reveals its Donors
In a rare case, a so-called “dark money” group has now publicly released the names of its donors. Under federal law, if an organization has as its “major purpose” the nomination or election of federal candidates, the organization may be a “political committee” required to report its receipts and disbursements…
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Investment Adviser Hit With $100K SEC Fine, a Reminder that Public Universities are Covered by Pay-to-Play Rule
In December, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) fined an investment adviser $100,000 for violating the SEC’s pay-to-play rule. The SEC’s rule effectively prohibits investment adviser executives and other “covered associates” of an investment adviser from making political contributions in excess of de minimis amounts ($350 per election if the…
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Colorado Enacts Replacement Campaign Finance Enforcement System
Just one week ago, a federal court in Colorado held that the state’s system for enforcing its campaign finance laws was unconstitutional. Moving quickly, the Colorado Secretary of state has enacted temporary enforcement rules, effective immediately.
Under the new rules, any person may file a complaint, just like under…
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Colorado Campaign Finance Enforcement System Found Unconstitutional
In a case with interesting ramifications, a federal court this week struck down major parts of Colorado’s campaign finance enforcement system as unconstitutional.
The system at issue, which was created through a ballot initiative, generally allowed any person who believed there had been a violation of the state’s campaign finance…
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“Straw Donor” Cases Are In The News Again Today
In a 2014 blog post about the Dinesh D’Souza case, we speculated that it might have been one of the first “straw donor” cases identified based on automated analysis of campaign finance disclosure reports. It’s not clear that was actually the case, though the Department of Justice did say…
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Covington Issues Updated Investigations Manual for House and Senate Chiefs of Staff
Covington today issued the third edition of its Chiefs of Staff manual on handling investigations of Members of Congress and Congressional staff. The manual was originally published in 2014, but has been updated twice since then. The new third edition includes some of the latest available statistics and examples. This…
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Covington Updates Investigations Manual for House and Senate Chiefs of Staff
Covington today released an updated version of its manual for Chiefs of Staff to Members of Congress concerning best practices for responding to government investigations of Members and their staff. Titled “A How-To Guide for Chiefs of Staff,” the manual describes how government investigations unfold and the steps that Chiefs…
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