John,

You’ve been hearing a lot from CREW about Donald Trump and the threat he poses to our democracy, but Trump is far from our only focus. We’re working hard shining a light on congressional ethics issues and advocating for a better government at the congressional level.

Back in September, New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez was charged with taking bribes from New Jersey businessmen to impede law enforcement investigations and advance foreign interests. In a series of damning indictments, the Department of Justice accused him of accepting gold bars and hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for using his influence in the Senate. In one indictment, he was charged with acting as a foreign agent of the Egyptian government, not for a short time, but for four years.

These charges are unprecedented: CREW checked—and we can’t find another example of a sitting senator being charged with acting as a foreign agent.

That’s a huge national security threat, which is why we’re calling on the Senate to expel Menendez. We know that’s not a step to be taken lightly, but we see no alternative here.

Speaking of expelling members of Congress, former representative George Santos now says he’s planning to run again. He was expelled after facing charges that he stole money for his campaign, deceived donors and faked loans.

In other news, Senator Kyrsten Sinema announced this month that she would not be running for re-election, but she didn’t announce her plans for the nearly $10.6 million cash on hand in her campaign account, and another $466,000 in her leadership PAC.

With the FEC largely failing to enforce the law, a campaign committee can continue operating *forever* after a candidate has left office, or even died—a phenomenon known as "zombie PACs." There’s also the option for these PACs to become a slush fund, allowing former officeholders to pay for personal expenses or even a future lobbying career. We’ll keep an eye on Sinema and others’ war chests to see how they use the money, or hopefully, wind down the funds.

This month, we also sent a letter to Representatives Jim Jordan and James Comer, who chair the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees, explaining that congressional oversight should be used to uncover corruption, tackle financial waste and make the government run better—not for illegitimate, politically motivated attacks. They have not been using these key committees for legitimate oversight, but we’ll be watching them closely and pushing them to use their authority in the right way.

One thing that would be good for Congress to investigate are Jared Kushner's foreign business deals, as some House Democrats have pointed out.

Congress should also add banning congressional stock trading to its to do list—and we’re going to keep saying so until they finally get it done. The conflicts of interest just keep piling up. This month, the headline was: Politicians Who Voted to Ban TikTok May Own as Much as $126 Million in Tech Stocks. Americans deserve better.

Thanks,

CREW HQ