Did Trump Just Admit to a Campaign Finance Violation?
For the first time, Trump and his team have admitted to paying porn actress Stormy Daniels through Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, to keep quiet about an alleged affair between her and Trump. Trump’s admission comes shortly after Fox News’ Sean Hannity interviewed Rudy Giuliani in his new capacity as Trump’s lawyer. The issue of the hush money payment has raised the specter of campaign finance violations, but Giuliani revealed that Trump paid Mr. Cohen back all the money given to Stormy. According to Trump and his team, this exonerates Trump from charges of campaign finance violations. Others are not so sure.
But Mr. Giuliani has historically been something of a loose cannon who is not used to having his words carefully managed… Asked about his remarks after finishing the Fox News interview, Mr. Giuliani said that what might have seemed to some viewers — including, perhaps, Mr. Hannity — like a slip of the tongue, was actually a planned disclosure.
“That removes the campaign finance violation, and we have all the documentary proof for it,” Mr. Giuliani said
If Mr. Trump reimbursed his lawyer, it wouldn’t necessarily absolve the president and Mr. Cohen of potential campaign-finance violations. No law limits the amount presidential candidates can spend on their campaign, but if Mr. Trump ultimately paid Ms. Clifford to protect his candidacy, he may have had to disclose it as a campaign expenditure, according to legal experts.
If Mr. Cohen supplied the funds upfront, the move could still count as an in-kind campaign contribution, which would have exceeded the legal campaign contribution limit and would have had to be disclosed.
…the campaign can’t just take loans of any size from anyone without reporting them as long as Trump pays them back later. If that were legal, there would be no point in having campaign finance laws… By not reporting a loan from Cohen meant to aid the election of Donald Trump, the campaign would have violated the law. Had Cohen not been repaid, the violation was his own, as an agent of the campaign making a contribution to it of that size.