Richard Painter Quotes

Richard Painter

Profession : Lawyer

Birth : October 3, 1961

If I do a campaign, I'm going to do it my way.

Richard Painter

I've been concerned about ethics in government for a long time. And the problems we've had under President Trump are only indicative of the longer-term problem of the erosion of public office and government.

Richard Painter

I've taken firm positions on issues the voters care about, and I will get my positions implemented.

Richard Painter

Ethics knows no party. Those rules should be applied the same in a Republican administration and a Democratic administration.

Richard Painter

The second part of the Mueller report lays out a very clear case against Donald Trump for obstruction of justice. The facts are very strong.

Richard Painter

Russia may very well be front and center again in 2020 as they were in 2016 regarding interference in America's presidential election. But the Trump administration is seeking to use its power of diplomacy to bring other countries into the act as well.

Richard Painter

Donald Trump wants to ignore the rule of law. He ignores the Constitution. He ignores the subpoenas. The Republicans in the House and Senate are afraid to stand up to him, with only a few exceptions.

Richard Painter

If President Trump will not remove White House officials who are clearly violating the law, he's not doing his job and this would be yet another grounds for Congress considering impeaching and removing the president.

Richard Painter

I have to say that every white-collar criminal defense lawyer knows when the chief financial officer turns state's evidence, everyone in the executive suite is in a lot of trouble because the chief financial officer knows exactly where the money is coming and going.

Richard Painter

Well, the problem is that when you mix discussion of official United States government business with discussion of your personal business, you can tread dangerously close to the bribery statutes.

Richard Painter

Here is where you get into the danger zone, when the government official starts talking about U.S. government business and then also talking about what personal business favors they might want. And when the conversation goes down that road, it does risk crossing the line into solicitation of a bribe.

Richard Painter

I grew up in Illinois, went out east to school, and went back to Illinois to teach... Illinois is a great state for ethics.

Richard Painter

I think President Trump could pardon anyone he wanted and have it be an effective pardon. I think there would be a big price to pay if he started pardoning people in connection with the Russian investigation.

Richard Painter

We have two political parties in this country; we cannot have one of them be abandoned to complete nutcases. We've got to have two good political parties.

Richard Painter

We shouldn't have a president invested in either Russia or Turkey.

Richard Painter

By having the President's name on buildings, that is a potential terrorist target.

Richard Painter

Republicans insist that if you're going to run for political office, you have to be loyal to President Trump. This is wrong. This is not the America I want to live in. This is not the America I want my children to live in.

Richard Painter

I tried to salvage the situation with the Republican Party for a long time. We've had for decades a departure from the fundamental values of the Republican Party and from America.

Richard Painter

The real problem with the Republican Party is that for decades it has shifted constantly to the right politically. Consequently, the Republican Party is picking up a very different demographic than it used to, a less well-educated demographic of people who are more prone to authoritarianism.

Richard Painter

I go on all the channels, mostly CNN and MSNBC. I have gone on Fox every couple of months.

Richard Painter