so this morning two associates of rudy giuliani are charged with federal elections crimes as the president openly asks ukraine and china to investigate his political rival. joining me now is ellen winthrop. we're excited to have you on to help us understand what the rules actually are. i don't want to read the indictment to you, but these men are charged with funneling foreign money into the u.s. elections system. broadly speaking, what laws did they break and why do they exist? >> thanks, john, for having me. i don't want to talk about the specifics of this case. but i am happy to talk to you about the law. there are laws against individuals or groups funneling money through other groups in order to hide the source of the money. it's a law against contributions in the name of another, and there's another really important law against foreign contributions.