John -

It’s been a busy few weeks for CREW on all fronts—particularly in court.

Just last week, CREW sought a temporary restraining order in our Presidential Records Act lawsuit to ensure the Trump administration is keeping records of President Trump’s contact with foreign leaders. With reporting from the Ukraine scandal indicating that records may not be being preserved as legally required, we went to the court to ensure that records were preserved. The day after we filed the request, the Department of Justice, after initial reluctance, promised that all relevant records related to the president’s contact with foreign leaders would be preserved pending the outcome of our lawsuit, and the court later issued an order locking that pledge in. Many people were rightly alarmed that the White House may not have been making and preserving records of President Trump’s meetings and calls with foreign leaders, but thanks to CREW’s swift legal action, we now have this crucial assurance from the government and the court.

We had another win recently, when Americans for Job Security, a dark money group we filed complaints about starting in 2012, reached an agreement with the FEC to disclose their donors and spending. This is the first time since the 2010 Citizens United ruling that a dark money group has been found to be a political committee, and thus required to disclose their donors and expenditures. Their deadline for disclosure is this week. Read more about this landmark development here.

In case you missed it last month, CREW also had a landmark victory in our historic emoluments lawsuit, CREW v. Trump, which we filed on President Trump’s first day in the Oval Office. We won our appeal, following a judge’s dismissal of the case nearly two years ago, reviving the case and providing an important path towards holding President Trump accountable for his corruption. If you missed it, read more in our statement here.

It can often be a long fight for accountability in the courts, but these are crucial battles we need to fight to protect and defend our democracy. Here at CREW, we’ll continue our work against corruption and conflicts of interest, through persistent legal actions, innovative research, and policy development, until we have a more accountable government.

Thank you,

Noah Bookbinder
Executive Director, CREW