Process
Status Items Highlights Done See section below Claims None Questions None Output None
Highlights
Time 0:18:27
Campaign Finance Disclosures
- FICA required candidates to disclose any expenditures or contributions that exceeded $100.
- File spending reports periodically to administrative offices to comply with FICA.
- Realize that the public is unlikely to review these reports unless the information is readily available.
- Fred Wertheimer sent volunteers to Capitol Hill to photocopy each report and write press releases to ensure media and public access to this information. Transcript: Speaker 1 The issue of disclosure was central to all of this. FICA required candidates to disclose any expenditures or contributions that exceeded $100. It required disclosure reporting for candidates, political parties, and political action committees. It also required candidates to file spending reports periodically to administrative offices deep within the bowels of the Capitol. Speaker 2 And we thought no one’s going to look at them. And the public is not going to find out this information if reporters don’t have it before them, because it would take a hell of a lot of work to review these reports. Speaker 1 That’s Fred Wertheimer, who in 1972 was the young legislative director for Common Cause.
Time 0:34:01
Watergate Corporate Corruption
- Watergate prosecutors aimed to send a strong message by targeting both corporations and their executives.
- In 1973, prosecutors aggressively pursued corporate corruption, a contrast to today’s leniency towards corporate executives.
- Corporations were offered leniency for self-disclosure and cooperation.
- 19 companies and 21 executives were convicted for illegal contributions to Nixon’s campaign, some of which funded activities like the Watergate break-in. Transcript: Speaker 1 This is a big deal and almost unimaginable today. Watergate prosecutors were trying to send a very specific message. Speaker 2 We were not going to just let the corporation dig into its pocket and pay. The Gildy Pleas and the plea bargains were a deterrent to others not to engage in this misconduct. It was even though you’re pleading guilty to a misdemeanor, it’s not a high priority of a CEO of a name-brand company to go to court and confess guilt in connection with a crime. Speaker 1 On October 17th, 1973, special prosecutor Archibald Cox issued a statement indicating that both the corporations and their primary responsible corporate officers would be charged. That same day news outlets eagerly reported on the fallout. Speaker 2 Three big US corporations pleaded guilty today to making each more than $125,000 and illegal contributions to President Nixon’s 1972 campaign. Speaker 1 The firms are good year tire and rubber minnesota mining and manufacturing and american airlines in court attorney herbert miller said the airline pleaded guilty reportedly it’s Fifty five thousand dollar donation was laundered through accounts in lebanon prosecutor thomas mcmryde warned that he will seek tougher penalties which could mean jail for corporation Executives who do not come forward as American Airlines did. By the way, I remember being a teenager and first learning about Watergate from a TV mini-series in the 1990s that included this commercial. This presentation of Watergate is sponsored in part by American Airlines. I guess I didn’t realize how on the nose that really was. In essence, Watergate was the first campaign finance scandal of the modern era and it exposed incredible corporate corruption. Ultimately, the campaign contribution task force obtained convictions of 19 companies and 21 executives for making illegal corporate contributions to President Nixon’s