The reason that Righties keep dismissing the felonious use of personal funds to aid a campaign and election is simple. They don't believe in the federal election laws. They've been skirting the intent of the laws and the FEC for decades. For instance, the notion of "political innovation" was applied to excuse what they did with the 501(c) law to avoid reporting to the FEC. Either way, they would've avoided tax reporting with exempt status, but avoiding the FEC requirements meant that people contributing over the limits -- transfers of large sums and so forth -- would not be identified as supporting a candidate.
There is irony in the hush money situation. The money -- personal money of Trump -- was paid to silence people who otherwise wanted to exercise their First Amendment rights and publish their stories. If Trump had followed the FEC requirements, the reporting of the expenditures would have defeated the reason for making them in the first place.
Trump admitted to Cohen and others that the money was spent to avoid losing votes in the election. It was not done to save his wife embarrassment. Here, intent is everything. He intended, by making the payments, to withhold information from the public affecting the election. The expenditure was therefore done specifically to facilitate the campaign. The expenditure should have been reported, and intentionally failing to report it is a felony.
It is very likely that there will be corroborating testimony from others, so dismissing Cohen's statements as "he-said-he-said" won't fly. Otherwise, they wouldn't have picked up Pecker and Weisselberg under immunity.
And as I said before, the amount of money only counts when it falls under the threshold of FEC regs. A $199 payment to Stormy or Karen would be undetectable. It would not have to be reported. Anything bigger would be above the radar, and would essentially be a form of fraud, even if the fraud itself were not illegal. Paying off hookers to protect your reputation isn't illegal, but violating federal election law to affect the election most certainly is.
you just go off on tangents always patting your self on the back, your opinion is the only one that matters right? and im a traitor because i just ask what he did wrong? sorry there wasn't a memo sent out to me i missed it, Im sure he has lots of gray area activity being a businessman and prez, at least he is not going for a new oil business right? heh so lets just focus on what was done and how to prove it show to the citizens to make a change. If i dont know about something and you cant tell me and just attack me how does that help me know? i only know that you dont want to focus on the topic and attack anyone who asks a question
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