Under the Freedom of Information Act, CREW requests an unredacted copy of the public record in MUR 6920, In the Matter of American Conservative Union, et al.

The requested records are likely to contribute to greater public awareness of the record supporting the Commission’s findings in MUR 6920 that Government Integrity, LLC made an unlawful conduit contribution through the American Conservative Union that Now or Never PAC and its treasurer knowingly accepted in violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act (“FECA”), 52 U.S.C. §§ 30122 and 30104(b)(3)(A). The Commission has now made public a redacted copy of the public record in MUR 6920, but the redactions deprive the public of very valuable information.

As noted in the recently released Statement of Reasons of Commissioner Ellen L. Weintraub, this case “is an egregious example of someone using a web of organizations to hide the true source of a $1.7 million contribution to a super PAC – and getting away with it.” Full transparency of all participants in this unlawful scheme serves important public interests recognized by the Supreme Court in Citizens United, specifically to hold “elected officials accountable for their . . . supporters,” in revealing “whether elected officials are ‘in the pocket’ of so-called moneyed interests,” and in “enable[ing] the electorate to make informed decisions.” 558 U.S. 301, 370 (2010). At the same time, because the redacted entities made a contribution covered by the disclosure provisions of the FECA, they enjoy no privacy right and therefore cannot claim harm from disclosure.

Read the request here.

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