Top lawyers from Barack Obama’s White House are launching United to Protect Democracy, a group aimed at keeping Trump from breaking ethics rules. (And it draws its name from a line in President Barack Obama’s farewell address.)
The group already built a $1.5 million operating budget and hired five staffers, a number it expects to double soon, Politico reported.
United to Protect Democracy incorporated as both a 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4), allowing them to operate as a nonprofit but participate in some forms of political advocacy as well.
“When people hear concerns about democracies declining into authoritarianism, they expect that moment to come in a singular thunderclap where everyone can see that this is the time,” said Ian Bassin, the organization’s leader. “In reality, often times, democracies decline over a period of years that happen through a series of much smaller steps.”
The organization has already submitted 50 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests regarding ethics in the Trump administration. With this information, the group hopes to bring what they “find to reporters, build it into pressure for congressional oversight with the help of a campaign director they’ll hire, and, as necessary, to file lawsuits,” according to Politico.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer, responding to the group’s formation, said, “This administration has raised the level of ethics training and oversight to a new level compared to the practices of the previous administration.”
