A Manhattan grand jury has just voted to indicted Donald Trump on criminal charges. The charges stem from his $130,000 hush money payment to Stormy Daniels – which Common Cause first alerted authorities to back in 2018. [1]

This is the first time a former U.S. president has ever been (indicted/arrested for a crime) – a shameful milestone for our nation.

But given Trump’s repeated, brazen wrongdoing – and his insistence that the rules that apply to everyone else don’t apply to him – the costs of inaction would be far, far greater.

Here’s what we know: in 2018, Common Cause filed campaign finance complaints with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Election Commission (FEC) urging them to investigate the $130,000 paid to Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about her relationship with Donald Trump so that the scandal would not influence the election.

During the investigation that followed, Trump’s personal lawyer and “fixer,” Michael Cohen, admitted to paying off Daniels on Donald Trump’s behalf – ultimately receiving a sentence of three years in federal prison and a $50,000 fine for multiple charges.

This payoff violated the same laws Common Cause has spent over 50 years working to strengthen and enforce – laws meant to advance transparency and ethics in government, and to keep our elections free from secret Big Money influence.

We must immediately prepare for an onslaught of disinformation and even threats from Trump’s backers who believe he’s above the law. I hope we can count on you to speak up.

[1] https://www.commoncause.org/media/feccomplaintstormydaniels/