What you are advocating is a fallacy known as "Tu Quoque", and it means that wrongdoings by one party, make wrongdoings by another party acceptable.
No it doesn't.
You have it backwards. Read what I wrote.
I'm not saying that Cruz doing it makes Trump doing it acceptable.
I'm saying that if it's unacceptable for Trump to be connected to sleazy characters, then it is equally unacceptable for Cruz.
No need to even pull out the fancy latin. Every kid knows “two wrongs don’t make a right”.