What a striking development. Donald Trump pocketed millions of dollars in unlawful payments from foreign governments during his first term, his Administration shut down a probe into whether his campaign received an illegal and urgent $10 million bribe from Egypt, and foreign nationals are spending millions on Trump-owned cryptocurrencies right now in apparent hopes of buying their way out of federal criminal investigations through undisclosed payments. The Trump Administration has also systematically dismantled crime-fighting efforts at the Department of Justice aimed at foreign corruption of our politics and actually announced its indifference to violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
So it’s rich indeed for Americans to read now that Trump has launched a big initiative to ‘crack down on foreign influence’ in American politics with one purpose—crippling the fundraising platform of his political opponents.
Today’s presidential decree targeting the campaign infrastructure of the Democratic party with precisely zero evidence of wrongdoing is the kind of edict you’d expect from a power-mad dictator in a Banana Republic. This president, with his approval ratings underwater and sinking like a stone, is desperately seeking to undermine his political opposition by cutting off their access to funding.
— Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Committee on the Judiciary
