John,

Representative George Santos may have been expelled from office last week, but if there's one thing we know about politics right now, it's that his expulsion doesn't mean our work for a more ethical government is over.

In fact, it feels like we're busier than ever, advocating for a ban on congressional stock trading, pushing for accountability for January 6th and continuing to call for other corrupt officials to resign (we're looking at you, Senator Menendez and Justice Thomas). Here’s just some of what we’ve been up to:

1. In a brand new investigation of senators’ personal finance disclosures, we discovered that ten senators own up to $1.2 million in Big Oil stocks, all while voting on climate bills and sitting on committees tasked with addressing the climate crisis. Needless to say, that’s a huge conflict of interest (and another of the many reasons congressional stock trading needs to be banned).


2. We delved into the tax forms of two dark money groups tied to some big names. One group called One Nation shelled out over $60 million to its sister super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, last year. It did so in part because Mitch McConnell was reportedly working aggressively to make that happen. We also found that the Conservative Partnership Institute—a group that has been described as the “insurrectionists’ clubhouse”—brought in more than $36.3 million in 2022. More than 62% of the group’s revenue came from just four anonymous donors, and its affiliated groups involve key election deniers like Mark Meadows and Stephen Miller.


3. In a new analysis of tax data from the group American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, we revealed how corporations are able to secretly bankroll a group promoting policies that undermine democracy and disproportionately target marginalized communities. Thanks to weak disclosure laws, ALEC has no legal obligation to disclose its funding sources—despite annual revenues that have exceeded $10 million.


4. When the Supreme Court’s new code of conduct dropped, we outlined exactly how the code lacks teeth. Introducing a set of new rules for the justices is an important step, but it needs to be made enforceable and binding to restore public trust in the Court and truly address its ethics crisis.


5. We explained why the Supreme Court also needs staggered 18-year term limits to mitigate its corruption. Lifetime SCOTUS appointments encourage powerful outside actors to unethically gain justices' favor through expensive trips and gifts, which means corruption among justices mounts over the decades they spend on the bench.


6. We urged James Comer and Jim Jordan to stop interfering with the DC Attorney General’s investigation into Leonard Leo, making clear: congressional interference in an ongoing investigation isn’t legitimate oversight, it’s a weaponization of Congress’s oversight powers.

Other ethics news we’re watching includes the Senate Judiciary Committee authorizing subpoenas for GOP megadonor Harlan Crow and judicial activist Leonard Leo last week, Mike Johnson’s shady finances, and Ohio GOP senate candidate Frank LaRose missing deadlines to disclose his finances and raising questions about a $250,000 loan he made to his campaign.

We’re also seeing a huge increase in attention in our tracker—originally launched in 2021—that details the corporations that fund the 2020 election deniers in Congress as Home Depot faces criticism for donating $1 million to GOP election deniers.

We’re making real waves in the real world with our accountability and transparency work, and that’s exactly what we want to keep doing. If you want to help us do that, we hope you’ll consider making a donation now. →

Thank you,

Team CREW