Latest Developments:
- A United Stated District Court in Missouri issued an injunction in Make Liberty Win v. Zigler. The court enjoined the Missouri Ethics Commission from enforcing a requirement that committees file a statement of organization at least 60 days before an election. The plaintiff is a federal PAC that sought to establish a state PAC in order to influence a Missouri election.
- A United States District Court in Montana upheld the Governor of Montana’s Executive Order 15-2018. The Associated Press reports that the judge “upheld an executive order by Montana’s governor that requires companies to report political spending if they want to bid on large state contracts.” Specifically, the Executive Order requires “all entities submitting offers for state government contracts with a total contract value of over $25,000 for services or $50,000 for goods to disclose ‘covered expenditures’ [political contributions or expenditures] that the contracting entity has made within two years prior to submission of their bid or offer.”
In Case You Missed It:
- FARA Guilty Plea: The Associated Press reports that the American consultant involved in “an illicit lobbying effort to get the Trump administration to drop an investigation into the multibillion-dollar looting of a Malaysian state investment fund,” pleaded guilty. Since we reported this story last week, she has pleaded “to a single count involving a violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires individuals enlisted by foreign entities to lobby the U.S. government to register that work with the Justice Department.” The unregistered agent “faces up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine when she’s sentenced in January.”
- Chicago Corruption Plea: According to WBEZ, the former Cook County Commissioner charged with corruption, reported here last week, has reached a plea agreement. He has admitted “he took ‘multiple extortion and bribe payments’ worth a total of more than $250,000.” He was investigated after telling a local businessman that campaign contributions were a “‘fixed cost’ of doing business in his district.”
- Got His Goat: A public official in Arizona resigned after accepting a goat as compensation for helping a group of farmers who were trying to secure water rights. The Associated Press reports that the official “used city workers” in what was characterized as an “outside job.” The farmers hired the official “as a consultant to help them get irrigation water from an (sic) property association, paying him with a goat for his work and agreeing to provide additional [cash] compensation if he was successful.”
- Red Light Corruption: The Chicago Tribune reports that a “former executive for a red-light camera company who wore a wire for the FBI as part of a sprawling public corruption investigation was charged Monday with bribery conspiracy in an alleged scheme to get cameras installed in Oak Lawn.” The article points out that his previous cooperation “led to charges against a number of Democratic politicians and power players.”