Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Charging Trump Over Hush Money Payouts Implicates Congress In The Same Behavior

If they charge President Trump for paying women to not publish scandalous claims, would prosecutors then be compelled to pursue members of Congress who have also made such payoffs?
Michael Cohen was sentenced to 36 months in prison on Wednesday for various crimes the Robert Mueller investigation found he had committed. As CNN recently reported, prosecutors from the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office alleged he admitted to paying off two women (hush money) and that he did so in coordination with and at the direction of President Trump, thereby violating one or more campaign finance laws.
On the day of Cohen’s sentencing, the Gateway Pundit reported that prosecutors for the Southern District of New York announced that they had reached a non-prosecution agreement with American Media, Inc., the company that paid $150,000 to one of the women. As part of the non-prosecution agreement, American Media reportedly admitted that it made the payment in concert with the Trump campaign in order to bury the story so that it would not influence the election.
Not surprisingly, and as if on cue, this has led to renewed calls for impeachment and possibly criminal charges against the president by some Democrats. However, such action, if successful, could create bad precedent and have far-reaching implications.
Despite American Media’s reported admission, there are expenditures that might “influence an election,” yet not constitute campaign-related expenses. According to an article in The Daily Signal, the Federal Election Campaign Act (52 U.S.C. 30114 (b)(2)) specifically says that campaign-related expenses do not include any expenditures “used to fulfill any commitment, obligation, or expense of a person that would exist irrespective of the candidate’s election campaign.”
Read the rest of the story HERE.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If anyone breaks the law by committing campaign finance felonies, HELL YES they should be indicted and prosecuted.

Trump did do this. He is implicated in a felony. Bring the hammer down.

-Martha