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Trump-Stormy Daniels settlement at heart of potential NY DA indictment didn't violate campaign law: FEC expert
Fox News ^ | 3/18/23 | Aaron Kliegman

Posted on 03/19/2023 7:50:56 AM PDT by Libloather

Prosecutors in the Manhattan district attorney's office won't have much of a legal leg to stand on if they indict former President Donald Trump on violating campaign finance law, according to a legal expert and former member of the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

"If the state charges are based on a supposed violation of federal campaign finance law, then the Manhattan DA is way off base," Hans von Spakovsky told Fox News Digital.

Von Spakovsky's comments came shortly after Trump said Saturday that he expects to be arrested Tuesday amid reports saying the Manhattan district attorney's office is preparing to issue an indictment for alleged hush money payments that Trump made as a presidential candidate in 2016.

**SNIP**

In the final weeks of the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump's then-lawyer Michael Cohen sent $130,000 to Daniels to prevent her from disclosing her alleged 2006 affair with Trump, who has denied the affair. Trump subsequently reimbursed Cohen.

It's been widely speculated that Trump could be charged with overseeing the false recording of the reimbursements in his company's internal records as "legal expenses."

Prosecutors are also expected to charge Trump with violating campaign finance laws by arranging the payments to buy Daniels' silence weeks before the 2016 election. However, experts have questioned the legal reasoning behind such a charge.

"A settlement payment of a nuisance claim is not a federal campaign expense," said von Spakovsky, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation. "The state DA has no authority to prosecute a federal campaign finance violation in any event."

Such cases, he argues, are within the province of the FEC, where he served as a commissioner, or the U.S. Justice Department, explaining that both agencies have known about the facts for years but have chosen not to prosecute Trump.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Front Page News; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2024; campaign; crookedtrump; fec; indictment; lockhimup; ny; stormydaniels; sureitdidnt; trumpindictment
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Comment #21 Removed by Moderator

To: lilypad

“Prosecutors are also expected to charge Trump with violating campaign finance laws by arranging the payments to buy Daniels’ silence weeks before the 2016 election.”

Stupid

He wasn’t running for local or state office.

No jurisdiction and wildly off base for a variety of other reasons.


22 posted on 03/19/2023 8:14:34 AM PDT by Vendome (I've Gotta Be Me https://youtu.be/wH-pk2vZG2M)
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To: pepsionice

“Doesn’t this all go back to the…”

The only thing this goes back to is they don’t want Trump in the White House following his oath of office, protecting and defending the Constitution, he doesn’t need to take care of the support of the constitutionally ignorant voters.

It goes back to the fact that he is so, to their disappointment-surprisingly, honest in his personal, business and governmental dealings that, they couldn’t even frame him with Russia Russia Russia, and this is all they’ve got left.


23 posted on 03/19/2023 8:14:43 AM PDT by stanne
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To: ohioman

You are a sick low IQ creature and exhibit A of the garbage that now posts here .
Not even bright enough to handle the truth or carry on an argument ,


24 posted on 03/19/2023 8:16:02 AM PDT by ncalburt ( Gop DC Globalists are the evil)
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To: dowcaet

You can bet that Obama/Soros are behind this....pulling Bragg’s strings, and maybe even the ones that are pulling Obama/Soros’s strings are initiating it.

Funny how terrified they still are of Trump winning again. It gives me hope that maybe they do NOT actually have all future US elections tied up via their election/voter fraud system. If they did, why would they be so afraid of Trump and so hellbent on disqualifying him? Hope springs.


25 posted on 03/19/2023 8:19:22 AM PDT by Danie_2023 (I haven't given up....I'm just regrouping.)
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To: Libloather
And Bragg should be fired.

Bear in mind that Bragg is only a slave on the liberal plantation. You don't fire slaves. You typically whip them if they disobey.

Or give them only bread and water. He greatly fears that, but have you seen a pic of him? He has never known food deprivation in his life. A typical, fat, self-satisfied liberal who has, incidentally, let crime run wild on his watch.

26 posted on 03/19/2023 8:19:24 AM PDT by 17th Miss Regt
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To: coincheck

The NY state DA is a he!


27 posted on 03/19/2023 8:20:27 AM PDT by Reily (!!)
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To: Libloather

It was extortion
She never had sex with him.
https://nypost.com/2018/01/30/stormy-daniels-now-denies-ever-having-an-affair-with-trump/

Affair never happened
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/porn-star-stormy-daniels-says-affair-with-trump-never-happened/2018/01/30/d8d5fcea-0633-11e8-b48c-b07fea957bd5_story.html

“The alleged affair never occurred.”

Keith Davidson, a lawyer for Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, confirmed the statement was authentic but didn’t offer any further details.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/31/amid-publicity-tour-porn-star-stormy-daniels-denies-having-an-affair-with-trump.html


28 posted on 03/19/2023 8:21:31 AM PDT by toldyou (Even if the voices aren't real, they have some pretty good ideas.)
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To: Libloather

Shortly after former President Donald Trump announced he expects to be arrested, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said Republicans don’t need to protest the possible pending arrest because the “communist Democrats” have sealed their fate.

The representative from Georgia took to her professional Twitter account multiple times on Saturday to share her thoughts on Trump’s Truth Social post where he said illegal leaks from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office have led him to believe he will be arrested on Tuesday.

In her first tweet Saturday morning, Greene came after the Department of Justice and the Manhattan DA by stating the potential arrest is “ALL FOR POLITICS!”

“This is what they do in communist(s) countries to destroy their political opponents!” Greene wrote. “Republicans in Congress MUST subpoena these communists and END this! We have the power to do it, and we also have the power to DEFUND their salaries and departments! Enough of this!”

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-republicans-dont-need-protest-potential-trump-arrest

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1637124539455815683


29 posted on 03/19/2023 8:23:12 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (https://www Democrats Have All ready Won the 2024 Election, Regardless of Whom, Either Party Runs!!!)
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Comment #30 Removed by Moderator

To: Torahman

“The Founding Fathers would have indeed gutted the Federal Government and thrown these feckless posers in jail.”

No. The Founding Fathers would have already had them all hanging from the gallows. They didn’t mess around back then. A tradition that we really should ‘revisit’.


31 posted on 03/19/2023 8:25:35 AM PDT by Danie_2023 (I haven't given up....I'm just regrouping.)
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To: Libloather

“Alleged”

People in Trump’s position often settle out of court.

It’s why people like STD sue people like Trump.


32 posted on 03/19/2023 8:26:05 AM PDT by Leep (Hillary will NEVER be president! 😁)
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To: toldyou

Should be a wild week in the chattering classrs


33 posted on 03/19/2023 8:29:53 AM PDT by newzjunkey (We need a better Trump than Trump in 2024)
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To: ohioman

You are a very Sick Deranged Soul .
Wishing Cancer on a total Stranger when Posters here have died Of Cancer and so here have loved that died of cancer.
You need to keep off all sites and to get zapped here for such hate filled comments .


34 posted on 03/19/2023 8:32:28 AM PDT by ncalburt ( Gop DC Globalists are the evil)
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To: 1Old Pro
“ GOP plays T ball, dems play hardball global thermonuclear war”
35 posted on 03/19/2023 8:33:39 AM PDT by dsrtsage ( Complexity is just simple lacking imagination)
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To: ncalburt
Thanks Trump for Dragging the country thru your seedy habits of Paying off Hush Money to Porn Stars while your new Wife was at home with you new infant son .

I thought both Daniels and Trump denied anything happened.

36 posted on 03/19/2023 8:35:40 AM PDT by FreeReign
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they dont care about any legal jurisdictions..or getting a conviction..they want him cuffed and perp walked. Thats what matters..even if the case get tossed, the D.A. will be a liberal folk hero....


37 posted on 03/19/2023 8:41:33 AM PDT by basalt (qb's)
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To: Libloather

Articles like this are written as if Trump will be treated fairly. Obviously, these authors haven’t been paying attention over the last 8 years.


38 posted on 03/19/2023 8:43:23 AM PDT by Dan in Wichita
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To: Libloather

In NY State, abusing one’s DA or AG position for political lawfare to gain name recognition is a long-standing tradition

Cuomo, Spitzer and (almost) Schneiderman rose to governorship this way.

Bragg is playing political whore + Al Sharpton, to burnish his NY democrat credentials.


39 posted on 03/19/2023 8:46:06 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: ncalburt

That a cancerous troll like you has survived on FR for so long is the true outrage. (I have argued with you before.) We are a country in an undeclared war. Yet it is the 5th columnist like you who sides with an enemy who lies, cheats, steals, and kills.

I guess we should all be thankful that a “genius” such as yourself is defending the “rule of law” in New York.


40 posted on 03/19/2023 8:46:20 AM PDT by ohioman
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