[gandalftb]

“What if they weren’t lovers and her accusations are false?”

Then why pay the hush money?

Famous men get extorted and sued all the time. Ya just don’t pay unless the accuser has some sort of leverage, corroboration, photos, etc.

Besides, it’s perfectly legal to pay hush money to whomever for whatever.

The core issue that seems to be getting ignored is that when you are a candidate for national office, hush money has to be declared as a campaign expense and reimbursement declared a contribution.

[monkeyshine]

when you are a candidate for national office, hush money has to be declared as a campaign expense

That may be true. I don't know and IANAL. Question though - the affair was alleged to have happened in 2006. And it was not exactly a secret. The allegations of the affair were already published in 2011 by Life & Style magazine.

So how do you pay hush money for something that is already in the public domain? That is why they structured the deal to "buy her story rights" so they she would not talk about it any further. But it seems to me that it cannot be "hush money" when it is already printed in the news.

[caww]

.......”when you are a candidate for national office, hush money has to be declared as a campaign expense and reimbursement declared a contribution”......

Then do congressional leaders have ‘taxpayers funding’ their hush money account for payoffs to those in sordid affairs or paid off to keep quiet while in office or while running???