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Democracy 21: White House Move Yesterday to Rig FEC Enforcement Decision by Removing David Mason from FEC Constitutes Political Obstruction of Justice

WASHINGTON, May 7 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- "The White House action taken yesterday to rig any FEC enforcement decision concerning campaign finance questions that have been raised regarding the presumptive Republican nominee for President, Senator John McCain (R-AZ), constitutes political obstruction of justice," according to Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer.

"The White House action powerfully demonstrates why there must be a new approach to enforcing the nation's campaign finance laws," Wertheimer said.

Yesterday, the White House withdrew the nomination of "holdover" FEC Commissioner David Mason to continue to serve as a Commissioner on the FEC.

The White House got rid of Mason after President Bush twice had found him to be an acceptable Republican appointee to the Commission.

In December 2005, President Bush made a recess appointment of Mason to serve on the FEC. In January 2007, after the recess appointment ran out, President Bush nominated Mason for Senate confirmation to fill a Republican seat on the Commission.

The White House gave no explanation for why Mason, a previously acceptable nominee, had suddenly been withdrawn.

"It is clear why the White House threw Mason off the FEC," Wertheimer said.

"In a letter to Senator McCain earlier this year, Commissioner Mason had raised questions about McCain's request to withdraw from the presidential primary public financing system and about a loan that Senator McCain's campaign took out and the collateral provided for the loan," Wertheimer said.

"By just raising questions about enforcement matters relating to Senator McCain's presidential campaign, Commissioner Mason sealed his fate and lost his job," Wertheimer stated.

"The White House action taken to dispose of Mason was eerily reminiscent of earlier actions taken by the White House and the Justice Department to dispose of U.S. Attorneys whose enforcement actions or inactions they disagreed with," Wertheimer stated.

"Mason's removal from the FEC by the White House has sent a powerful and destructive message to the three pending Republican FEC nominees that even the slightest bit of independence will not be tolerated and that the job of a Republican FEC Commissioner is to protect the interests and needs of Republicans, not to implement and enforce the campaign finance laws," Wertheimer stated.

In nominating Don McGahn to replace David Mason on the FEC, the White House and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have chosen an individual whose past record shows disdain for the FEC and little interest in the proper enforcement of campaign finance laws.

McGahn is counsel to the NRCC. He previously served as a campaign finance and ethics lawyer for former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, and as a member of DeLay's legal team, representing him in legal and ethics issues regarding the Jack Abramoff affair.

"McGahn's own words show his misguided view of the FEC and provide the best evidence for why he should not be an FEC Commissioner," Wetheimer stated.

In an interview with Julian Salisbury (November 16, 2001), a British academic who wrote a PhD dissertation about the FEC, McGahn made the following comments about the FEC:

"The Commission is nothing more than Congress' constitutional power to be the final judge in its own elections. That is where it comes from, the creation of House and Senate. So because of that, how independent can you be? When with the stroke of a pen, you're out of business tomorrow. It's not really like other agencies. It's not an executive branch agency. You have the President who nominates and the Senate confirm, the President appoints. But it's not like other agencies because you have the charge of the fox guarding the hen-house. You gonna appoint your guys to make sure you are taken care of. The original intent was for it to be a glorified Congressional committee. That's the way I see it. But over time it has got more independent and more money. The flip side is that you have a certain Senator who wants their guy on the Commission, just cos they want them. You can't really stop that but that doesn't really get you the most qualified person either."

McGahn was the NRCC's counsel in October 2002, when the NRCC initiated a scheme to circumvent the new McCain-Feingold law banning soft money in federal elections, just weeks before the law was to take effect.

The scheme involved the NRCC transferring $1 million in soft money to the Leadership Forum, a surrogate group set up by House Republican leaders to spend soft money on the 2004 House races. The $1 million was later returned by the Leadership Forum to the NRCC after the scheme became a public issue.

In response to an FEC complaint filed by Democracy 21 and other reform groups against the NRCC circumvention scheme, the FEC general counsel concluded that ''had the money not been returned, the evidence would have pointed strongly to a conclusion that the NRCC 'financed' the Forum,'' which would have been illegal. Since the $1 million had been returned the FEC took no further action.

When the FEC conducted an audit of Delay's Leadership PAC, ARMPAC, and found that the PAC had improperly spent more than $200,000 in soft money in the 2002 elections and failed to report more than $300,000 it owed to vendors, McGahn, ARMPAC's lawyer, denigrated the FEC audit and finding, describing it as, "An esoteric, minutiae question about overhead ratios that has been concocted by the FEC, that is no longer the law."

For the latest reform news and to access previous reports, releases, and analysis from Democracy 21, visit www.democracy21.org.

CONTACT: Kristen Hagan

202-429-2008

khagan@democracy21.org

SOURCE Democracy 21

Tags: ,EXE,LEG,POL,Democracy-21-FEC-Rig

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