A series exploring how money from abroad has entered the 2016 presidential election thanks to Citizens United.
Source: The Intercept
The Citizens United Playbook
Immediately after the Supreme Court issued its Citizens United ruling, President Obama warned that it would “open the floodgates for special interests, including foreign corporations, to spend without limit in our elections.”
While many experts believed Obama was right, no one has been able to point to a specific example of foreign cash flowing into a presidential election. Until now. The Intercept’s Jon Schwarz and Lee Fang discovered that a corporation owned by a Chinese couple made a major donation to Jeb Bush’s Super PAC Right to Rise USA — and it did so after receiving detailed advice from Charlie Spies, arguably the most important Republican campaign finance lawyer in American politics.
Their four-part series exposes the corrosive effects of Citizens United on American democracy, examining in detail the roadmap provided by Charlie Spies; the Chinese couple behind the gift; and their connections to an array of U.S. politicians, including former U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke.
Betsy Reed
Editor-in-Chief
https://theintercept.com/2016/08/03/citizens-united-foreign-money-us-elections/
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