How Gridlock Social Media Giants and the Clintons Made the Internet Ripe for Russian Meddling
Marc Elias
In the months after Hillary Clinton declared her 2016 presidential candidacy  her legal team began devising ways to maximize big-money support for her campaign. Leading that team was  powerhouse Democratic attorney Marc Elias .
 Elias  quickly identified loopholes in campaign finance law that would maximize the utility of an array of pro-Clinton super PACsâgroups with which the campaign was  in most instances  legally barred from coordinating. One of  his  ideas was unprecedented in both its audacity and legal ingenuity.
â  Elias  quickly identified loopholes in campaign finance law that would maximize the utility of an array of pro-Clinton super PACsâgroups with which the campaign was  in most instances  legally barred from coordinating. One of  his  ideas was unprecedented in both its audacity and legal ingenuity. â
CTRâs activity was limited solely to producing online content. Its staffers were not compensated by any other political entity and it was offered that content for free. As a result   Elias  reasoned in a memo  âNone of CTRâs planned communications are âpublic communicationsââ as defined under the FECâs 2006 rule.
âThat is significant  because the FECâs coordination restrictions apply only to âpublic communicationsâ and do not cover other types of communications â  Elias  added. âAccordingly  CTR may disseminate these communications in coordination with the campaign without making an impermissible in-kind contribution.â
Facebookâs legal counsel in that case was none other than... Marc Elias.
 Elias   indeed  is a recurring character in much of the drama that has led the social media political landscape to this current point.  He  also represented Google before the FEC in 2010 in what was the last instance of the FEC affirmatively ruling on a case involving the âsmall itemsâ exemption for a major digital advertiser. In that case   Elias  convinced the commission to exempt Google from disclosure rules as long as the pages to which its ads redirected did disclose who was behind them.
In the months after Hillary Clinton declared her 2016 presidential candidacy  her legal team began devising ways to maximize big-money support for her campaign. Leading that team was  powerhouse  [TGT]  .
  [TGT] quickly identified loopholes in campaign finance law that would maximize the utility of an array of pro-Clinton super PACsâgroups with which the campaign was  in most instances  legally barred from coordinating. One of   [TGT]   ideas was unprecedented in both its audacity and legal ingenuity.
â   [TGT] quickly identified loopholes in campaign finance law that would maximize the utility of an array of pro-Clinton super PACsâgroups with which the campaign was  in most instances  legally barred from coordinating. One of   [TGT]   ideas was unprecedented in both its audacity and legal ingenuity. â
CTRâs activity was limited solely to producing online content. Its staffers were not compensated by any other political entity and it was offered that content for free. As a result    [TGT] reasoned in a memo  âNone of CTRâs planned communications are âpublic communicationsââ as defined under the FECâs 2006 rule.
âThat is significant  because the FECâs coordination restrictions apply only to âpublic communicationsâ and do not cover other types of communications â   [TGT] added. âAccordingly  CTR may disseminate these communications in coordination with the campaign without making an impermissible in-kind contribution.â
Facebookâs legal counsel in that case was none other than... Marc Elias.
 Elias   indeed  is a recurring character in much of the drama that has led the social media political landscape to this current point.  He  also represented Google before the FEC in 2010 in what was the last instance of the FEC affirmatively ruling on a case involving the âsmall itemsâ exemption for a major digital advertiser. In that case    [TGT] convinced the commission to exempt Google from disclosure rules as long as the pages to which its ads redirected did disclose who was behind them.