Congress was asked Thursday to clarify legislation prohibiting political candidates from requesting or accepting foreign election help as lawmakers continue reacting to the special counsel’s investigation into Russian interference.
Introduced by Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, the Prohibiting Foreign Election Assistance Act would update federal law to specifically account for conduct uncovered by the special counsel’s probe.
To wit, the bill would amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to clarify that information sought or obtained for a political advantage qualifies as a “thing of value” under existing law and thus illegal for a candidate or campaign to seek or receive from a foreign government or citizen.
The bill would also require the Federal Election Commission to provide candidates with a written explanation of the law for them to sign and return.
“Seeking foreign assistance in a political campaign is unethical, unpatriotic and wrong – this bill will reinforce that it’s also illegal,” said Mr. Schiff, California Democrat.
President Trump welcomed help from Russia during his 2016 campaign against former Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, and he recently indicated he was unopposed to receiving assistance from abroad while running for re-election in 2020.
“It’s not an interference, they have information — I think I’d take it,” Mr. Trump said in an interview with ABC News last week, setting off a firestorm and spurring a stern warning from the nation’s top election official.
“Let me make something 100 percent clear to the American public and anyone running for public office: It is illegal for any person to solicit, accept or receive anything of value from a foreign national in connection with a U.S. election,” reacted FEC Chairwoman Ellen Weintraub.
Despite already being on the books, Mr. Schiff suggested his bill was needed on the heels of Mr. Trump’s recent remarks, however.
“For the last two years, the country has been gripped by an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, yet the president still thinks that it’s OK to accept campaign assistance from a foreign power,” Mr. Schiff said in a statement. “That’s why I’m introducing legislation to make it crystal clear that seeking or obtaining foreign assistance in the form of dirt on an opponent from a foreign power or foreign national is illegal and ensuring all campaigns and employees are informed of the law banning foreign campaign contributions.”
The White House did not immediately return a request for comment.
Multiple members of the president’s election campaign were offered assistance from Russians during the 2016 race, and his oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., famously set up a meeting with at Trump Tower in New York City with a Russian lawyer he believed to have damaging information concerning Mrs. Clinton.
Robert Mueller, a former FBI director who led the special counsel’s probe, previously said that prosecutors considering charging the president’s son over the meeting but were uncertain whether the information he was offered constituted a “thing of value” under existing law.
“There are reasonable arguments that the offered information would constitute a ’thing of value’ within the meaning of these provisions, but the Office determined that the government would not be likely to obtain and sustain a conviction,” Mr. Mueller wrote in his report summarizing the special counsel’s probe.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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