CfA Asks Ethics Office to Investigate Rep. Nancy Mace
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** CfA's October 6, 2023 Newsletter
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With your support, Campaign for Accountability is working to expose corruption and hold the powerful accountable.
** This Week's Updates:
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CfA Urges Office of Congressional Ethics to Investigate Rep. Mace for Fundraising on Capitol Grounds
Yesterday, CfA sent a letter ([link removed]) to the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) urging it to investigate whether Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC-1) violated federal law and House ethics rules by soliciting campaign contributions on Capitol grounds. The letter concerns a Fox Business interview that Mace conducted in the Capitol Rotunda, during which she asked viewers to donate to her campaign. Later, she shared a clip of the interview on social media and repeated her request for financial support—but later deleted the post. As CfA noted to the OCE, federal criminal code prohibits all federal employees, including Members of Congress, from soliciting campaign donations in the Capitol and other government buildings. Violations are punishable by fines of up to $5,000 and imprisonment of up to three years, or both.
Calling lawmakers out for flouting this exact restriction is certainly precedented. The Senate Select Committee on Ethics recently admonished Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) for similar conduct after he solicited campaign contributions in TV interviews conducted in multiple Senate buildings. Yet, with Graham, it didn’t go farther than a slap on the wrist.
CfA Executive Director Michelle Kuppersmith said, “Simply admonishing a member of Congress who clearly and egregiously violates the ban on soliciting contributions on the Capitol grounds appears insufficient to deter this misconduct when the prize for breaking the rules may be a massive fundraising haul. The OCE should investigate and, if it finds Rep. Mace violated the law, refer her to the Department of Justice for further action.”
CfA’s letter was covered by the Daily Beast, here ([link removed]) .
North Carolina Narrows its Public Records Law
Members of North Carolina’s General Assembly can now prevent their documents from becoming part of a public record, thanks to a measure rolled into the budget ([link removed]) by state Republicans and passed this week. Lawmakers were already able to pull documents from the record with specific exemptions, Raleigh-based lawyer Mike Tadych told the Associated Press ([link removed]) , but the new policy will allow records requests to be denied without a reason. Outgoing Republican House Speaker Tim Moore told reporters that the existing process had been too cumbersome, and framed the new law as a way to reduce administrative costs and save taxpayer dollars.
Moore himself has been the subject of multiple CfA ([link removed]) ethics ([link removed]) complaints ([link removed]) regarding alleged abuses of power and the misappropriation of campaign finances, some of which were carried out using public records. Access to records is further complicated by new powers granted to the partisan “Joint Legislative Committee on Government Operations,” also known as “Gov Ops.” Read more in Judd Legum’s Popular Information ([link removed]) .
FTC Consults Creatives on Generative AI
On Wednesday, the FTC held a roundtable discussion ([link removed]) on generative AI with representatives from creative industries, who described the impact that this technology has had on their work and livelihoods. FTC Chair Lina Khan opened the roundtable by pushing back on the concept of “AI exemptions,” and reiterated ([link removed]) that her agency has the authority to reign in businesses that deceive consumers or engage in unfair competition. While every speaker felt that unregulated AI posed a threat to creative jobs, many also pointed to the role it has played in supercharging internet scams. Neil Clarke, who runs the acclaimed fiction magazine Clarkesworld ([link removed]) , told FTC staff that his publication was forced to close submissions after being swamped by AI-generated stories. Clarke and his team eventually traced this
phenomenon back to a group of “side hustle” con artists on YouTube, who sold online courses that promised to help people make money by submitting AI-generated stories to magazines. Clarke built anti-AI safeguards, at great time and expense, but the YouTubers showed their audiences how to circumvent them. When Clarke asked YouTube to take the videos down, he said the company didn’t respond. The scheme never resulted in any AI-generated stories being published, meaning the scammers were the only ones to profit.
A number of the roundtable’s participants have already joined suits brought against AI companies, which could eventually protect their work through existing law. As Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya underscored in his closing remarks, though, Congress created the FTC knowing that there would be innovation in unfair competition, and that narrow prohibitions might not be enough to protect the American public. “The shape of what I’m seeing concerns me profoundly,” Bedoya concluded, and assured advocates that the FTC would be listening to their testimonies.
What We're Reading
FTC, Justice take on digital giants as Congress dawdles ([link removed])
Leonard Leo says he will not cooperate with D.C. Attorney General tax probe ([link removed])
SEC Seeks to Force Musk Testimony on Twitter Stock Purchases ([link removed])
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Be on the lookout for more updates about our work in the upcoming weeks. Thanks again for signing up to be a part of CfA!
Sincerely,
Michelle Kuppersmith
Executive Director, Campaign for Accountability
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