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PaperclipPerfector  5mo ago (text post)   27978 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of May 27, 2024

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The federal authority in charge of prosecuting this kind of crime did not think it was a crime.

Could they have? According to LawyerGPT

Lack of Criminal Authority: The FEC does not have the authority to prosecute criminal violations. When potential criminal conduct is identified, the FEC refers such cases to the Department of Justice (DOJ) or relevant U.S. Attorney's Offices for criminal investigation and prosecution.

The DOJ also was referred this conduct and did not charge it. Saying this was an election law violation requires a tortured interpretation of the statute, and arguably would have put Trump in a catch-22 situation where classifying the expense as a campaign expense would be illegal, but also not classifying it as a campaign expense was illegal.

Ok? They didn't refer Trump's conduct to anyone either -- probably because they didn't think it was clear that paying Daniels was a campaign expense. Or maybe because paying her through an intermediary doesn't make it a donation by that person.

Ok? They didn't refer Trump's conduct to anyone either -- probably because they didn't think it was clear that paying Daniels was a campaign expense.

They did think paying McDougal off was a campaign expense though. Remember the FEC committee is equally split between Republicans and Democrats so what the FEC thinks is basically what a 6 person panel equally split between two opposing sides can hammer out as a compromise. They fined AMI for paying McDougal off on behalf of Trump.

Did Trump pay them back?

probably because they didn't think it was clear that paying Daniels was a campaign expense.

I believe not, just pointing it out because it does counter a couple of your points (that they didn't think it was clear paying an affair partner was a campaign expense) and (paying through an intermediary doesn't make it a donation).

For McDougal they held it was a campaign expense and that AMI paying it made it a donation, which therefore needed to be declared etc.

For Daniels, Trump paid back Cohen which is the difference here, not whether it was a campaign expense, or whether absent Trump paying it back it would have been a donation. Both of those were held to be true in the McDougal case. Paying the intermediary back is the difference here.

I guess a tabloid newspaper is the kind of organization that might plausibly make a large donation to a presidential campaign; there's sort of a tinge of bribery, so go ahead and fine them I guess. (It doesn't seem like the sort of thing they would do without some quid pro quo involved)

However it seems much less plausible that a lawyer working for Trump would make such a large donation? And if he wanted to surely there are better ways to launder it -- the intent is all-important here AFAICT.

See comment above. Important to note that Brad Smith was appointed by a dem so his opinion adds some weight.

The FEC looked at this very case and decided not to bring any action. The Judge in this trial prevented Trump from providing this fact to the jury.

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