The attorney named as President-elect Donald Trump’s White House counsel, Donald McGahn, has been called “kryptonite to campaign finance reform,” “a totally partisan politico,” and “notorious for politicizing and crippling enforcement of federal campaign finance laws.”
Indeed, journalist Jon Schwarz wrote at The Intercept on Sunday that McGahn “bears as much responsibility as any single person for turning America’s campaign finance system into something akin to a gigantic, clogged septic tank.”
As one of six members of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) from 2008-2013, McGahn “demonstrated a much stronger interest in expanding the money-in-politics swamp than draining it,” Common Cause vice president Paul S. Ryan told Schwarz.
As the Center for Public Integrity reported in May, when McGahn was merely serving as an adviser to the Trump campaign:
“Now, as Trump’s White House lawyer, McGahn will provide crucial advice on the nomination of judges, including to the Supreme Court,” Schwarz noted. “While Trump has criticized Citizens United, and called the Super PACs that sprang up in its wake ‘horrible’ and a ‘total phony deal,’ McGahn is a vociferous defender of the ruling.”
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