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Notes -
The context of that is that it is a campaign expenditure. You’ve stolen a base assuming it is a campaign expenditure.
You should read what Brad Smith wrote about mixed motives and campaign finance law. Your view seems to be that subjective intent matters but then you create a wholly ungovernable and dangerous scheme for candidates.
Imagine there is a debate coming up. Candidate wants to look sharp so goes to buy a new suit. Well his motive is to look good for campaign purposes so should he use campaign funds? If he does, then he opens himself up to claims that he improperly used funds to pay for the campaign because after the debate he still has this fancy suit (ie there is a mixed use).
Let’s say his proud mother buys the suit for him. Did they run into a campaign finance problem because subjectively it was for the benefit of the campaign? Or was it? Was it just a proud mom having affection for her son and proud of where he was?
Let’s say the candidate is friends with Person X. X regularly has lunches with Y and Z and routinely brings other interesting people to lunch. X brings along the candidate because he wants Y and Z to vote for him but also thinks the candidate is interesting and it would make for an enjoyable lunch. X pats for the expensive lunch. Campaign contribution? If so, does the candidate have to pay for brunch with campaign funds? Now you created jeopardy in that case.
All of these hypos show why mixed motive cases should not be policed because they create untenable and unknowable catch 22 situations for candidates. It is why Brad Smith believes the rules are bright line.
So I think, much like the Colorado case you got dreadfully wrong, you aren’t thinking about the havoc your interpretation of the rules would wrought. Once you think about that, then it becomes clear it can’t be what the system was intended to do.
To be clear, this isn’t a resurrection of the church of the holy trinity. But it is asking in dense texts with hard to understand meanings “does this interpretation create such a crazy system that we don’t think ambiguous phrases should be constructed to lead to such a crazy result.” That is, it is a clear statement principle somewhat similar to the major questions doctrine.
My understanding is that the law says that if the expenditure would not have occurred but for the candidacy, then it is a campaign expenditure. If it would have occurred anyway, then it is not. So in reference to the Trump case, the question is if Cohen would have paid off Daniels if Trump had not been trying to get elected. Presumably, the jury was satisfied that the evidence showed he would not have.
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