Money politics has long dominated American politics, but the scale of the problem has gotten much worse since the Supreme Court made its infamous 2010 ruling known as Citizens United. The latest news on this front comes from a really interesting article by Just Security written by Fred Wertheimer:

The Mueller Report established beyond a reasonable doubt that Russia invaded the 2016 presidential election to disrupt our democracy, harm presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and help presidential candidate Donald Trump.

The United States has long prohibited foreign governments – and other foreign nationals, including individuals and corporations – from being involved in U.S. elections.

It turns out, however, that there are major loopholes in this prohibition that allowed Russia to legally spend money in connection with the 2016 presidential election. These loopholes must be closed.

The PAID AD Act — developed by Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Rep. John Sarbanes (D-MD) — now successfully attached as a floor amendment to H.R. 1 by Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), closes the loopholes revealed by Russia’s cyber invasion into the 2016 presidential race. PAID AD is an acronym for the less mellifluous name, “Preventing Adversaries Internationally from Disbursing Advertising Dollars.” (Disclaimer: my organization, Democracy 21 worked with the offices of Senator Klobuchar and Rep. Sarbanes on the legislation.)

See full story here. Also visit Democracy Chronicles main sections on American Democracy and Money Politics or our articles on Worldwide Corruption.