Commissioner Ellen Weintraub of the U.S. Federal Election Commission Urges New York State Legislature To Support The Democracy Preservation Act. Posted on June 2, 2021 Challenging Foreign Influence FEC Commissioner Ellen Weintraub sent a letter to members of the New York State Legislature, urging them to support the Democracy Preservation Act and protect New York’s state and local elections from foreign influence. “Elections at all levels in the United States have been under sustained direct attack from our foreign adversaries,” Commissioner Weintraub writes.Read More
New Free Speech For People Video Explains How Foreign-Influenced Corporations Interfere in U.S. Elections. Posted on June 1, 2021 Challenging Foreign Influence Checkout our latest video explaining how to stop multinational corporations such as Uber and Amazon from spending millions of dollars trying to influence U.S. elections. We The People are fighting back. As the video explains: Seventy-three percent of Americans, including majorities of both Democrats and Republicans, support limiting political spending by companies with any foreignRead More
WATCH: New York Democracy Preservation Act Virtual Town Hall – May 13, 2021 Posted on May 14, 2021 (May 14, 2021) Challenging Foreign Influence Since the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United, foreign-influenced corporations have spent millions to sway elections in New York. Take Airbnb, for example: the home-sharing platform, partly owned by a Russian oligarch’s venture fund, funneled $11M into a super PAC to defeat legislators seeking to impose restrictions on the company in 2016. But NewRead More
VIDEO: Free Speech For People And Our Fight To End Foreign-Influenced Corporate Spending in Our Elections Posted on March 31, 2021 (April 2, 2021) Challenging Foreign Influence Free Speech For People has been at the forefront in the fight to end foreign-influenced corporate campaign spending, researching, drafting, and advocating for legislation on all levels of government. We helped to successfully pass laws in St. Petersburg, Florida in 2017, and in Seattle, Washington in 2020. Seven states (Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, NewRead More
New York Attorney General Sues to Dissolve National Rifle Association Posted on August 6, 2020 Corporate Abuse of Power New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit in New York state court against the National Rifle Association and four top executives. The complaint charges the executives with diversion of millions of dollars away from the charitable mission of the organization for personal use by senior leadership, awarding contracts to the financial gain ofRead More
New York State Senate Considers Ban On Foreign-Influenced Corporate Spending In State Elections Posted on February 12, 2020 (June 2, 2020) Challenging Foreign Influence Following in the footsteps of Seattle and St. Petersburg, FL, the Democracy Preservation Act seeks to ban political contributions from foreign-influenced corporations in New York The New York State Senate is considering a bill that would ban foreign-influenced corporations from contributing to political campaigns. The proposed legislation, introduced by Senate Deputy Leader Michael Gianaris, goesRead More
Bill to close presidential pardon loophole sent to New York governor for signature Posted on October 11, 2019 (July 27, 2020) Challenging Corruption UPDATE: On October 16, 2019, New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the bill into law. The New York state legislature has sent a bill to Governor Cuomo that would close New York’s presidential pardon loophole. Background New York state’s double jeopardy statute may currently allow certain defendants pardoned by the president for their federal crimesRead More
Curbing Corruption One Step at a Time: Taking Trump out of Trump SoHo. A Victory for Divest Trump SoHo Posted on November 27, 2017 (October 3, 2018) After months of pressure, the private equity fund that owns Trump SoHo will buy out the Trump Organization’s contract to market and manage the troubled luxury condo/hotel, breaking a chain of illegal payments from state and local pension funds to the President.Read More
Free Speech For People Calls on the NY Attorney General to Revoke the Trump Organization’s Charter Posted on February 15, 2017 (February 15, 2017) Free Speech for People demands an investigation into President Trump’s unconstitutional conflicts of interest and dissolution of Trump Organization.Read More
New York Becomes The 17th State To Call For A Constitutional Amendment To Reclaim Our Democracy Posted on June 15, 2016 (June 15, 2016) New York is now the 17th state in the country to call for a 28th Amendment to the US Constitution to overturn the Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. FEC ruling and to reclaim our democracyRead More