Cohen will now claim that Trump was aware of the $130,000 payoff. It will be a case of Trump’s word against Cohen’s.
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Suppose Trump was aware of the payoff. How can he Constitutionally be denied the right to benefit from a payment that would protect him from a baseless charge just because he is running for office? Suppose I paid off Stormy just because I admired Trump. Would my helping Trump in any way when he was running for office be illegal?
“That” is the entire foundation of this crooked persecuter’s case: He (on behalf the State Attorney General and entire democrat party!) is claiming that - because Trump was running for office, any adverse publicity would be bad, and so any effort to reduce adverse publicity would be “good for the campaign, and so any effort to reduce adverse publicity IN ANY MANNER is a “campaign contribution”. Therefore, “Yes” you would be in violation of the campaign funding laws by paying off anybody -regardless of whether Trump knew about it or not!
Now, about that illegal money and monstrous Russian-Russian collusion campaign that the national press and FBI ran on behalf of Biden that was worth billions of bad publicity and continuing bad press, “that” was nothing. And must be ignored. “It” was NOT a contribution to Biden's campaign.
I just learned that payoffs for non-disclosure agreements are not a crime. In this case, the Dems calling it a campaign donation are living an illusion.