BY: Lachlan Markay
July 26, 2016 2:50 pm
Democratic Party lawyers had to step in repeatedly to prevent illegal or prohibited political fundraising by a new Democratic National Committee group designed to coordinate legal strategy with hundreds of friendly attorneys, internal documents show.
Multiple proposed fundraising pitches by the new Democratic Lawyers Committee (DLC) invoked the names of high-ranking administration officials in what would have been violations of federal laws and White House policies against political activity by administration officials, according to emails between the group’s top staffers and their attorneys.
The hacked emails, released by the group WikiLeaks last week, provide a detailed narrative of the DLC’s formation and its hectic first few months, which saw celebrity attorney Gloria Allred micromanaging the group’s self-described “propaganda,” a senior DNC staffer admonishing colleagues for nearly spoiling its rollout with illicit fundraising asks, and DNC staffers pretending to be then-chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz on email in order to land a venue for a high-dollar fundraiser.
“The stated goal of the DLC is to organize the legal community and [we] must arm them with the information, contacts, and inspiration they need to provide significant support for the Democratic Party’s fight to maintain control of the White House and help elect Democrats up and down the ballot in 2016,” according to talking points circulated internally.
The perks that attorneys get for their involvement with the group depend on the sums that they donate. For $500, they get “regular email updates including talking points, and the Party’s response to current events.”
Those who give $150,000 annually, DLC’s top donor tier, get seats on the DNC’s national finance committee, VIP tickets to exclusive DNC events, and “access to special activities and invitations.”
“DLC members will have access to insider knowledge of the DNC’s campaign strategy, which allows members to be more effective in their efforts on behalf of the President and his successor,” according to the group’s donor pitch.
The official DLC rollout took place in early May, when DNC fundraising staffers Clayton Cox, Max Marshall, and Jordan Vaughn set up a conference call designed to raise money for the new effort and recruit member attorneys.
They landed former Obama campaign aide Stephanie Cutter and top White House political operative David Simas to speak on the call. But the effort immediately ran into legal trouble when a DNC finance official asked attorneys at Perkins Coie, a leading Democratic law firm, to review its invitation.
“Per White House policy, a WH official (Simas) cannot be included on a page that contains a link to a DNC solicitation,” Perkins Coie attorney Ruthzee Louijeune told DLC staffers in an email on the evening of May 2. The call was scheduled for the next day.
The invitation also identified Cutter and DNC finance co-chair Robbie Kaplan, who would speak on the call, by their professional associations: Kaplan with the New York law firm Paul, Weiss, and Cutter as a founding partner of the firm Precision Strategies.
Under federal law, corporations cannot use their resources to raise political funds. Endorsing a fundraising pitch is considered an illegal in-kind contribution. After a phone call with the DNC, Louijeune told staffers to strike Cutter’s and Kaplan’s corporate titles “to avoid triggering prohibited corporate facilitation.”
Staffers removed the titles from the conference call invitation. But Louijeune was forced to step in once again when a proposed email blast promoting the call identified Kaplan and four other attorneys involved in the DLC by their official titles at their respective law firms.
