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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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"The alleged one-night stand between Daniels and Trump is far more of a stretch," wrote von Spakovsky. "Daniels had no connection to the presidential campaign of any kind and the encounter - if it occurred - didn't happen during the campaign itself. In any event, even if the Daniels payment were to be considered a campaign-related expense, unlike Edwards, the nominal $130,000 payment wasn't made by Trump campaign donors but by Trump's personal attorney (not the campaign's attorney) with whom he has a long-standing business relationship. . . . Even if one might be able to reasonably construe the payment to Daniels as somehow related to the presidential campaign, there still would be no violation since candidates are allowed to spend as much of their own money as they want on their own campaigns."

They still got nuthin'. And Bragg should be fired.

1 posted on 03/19/2023 7:50:56 AM PDT by Libloather
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To: Libloather

What money did Bill Clinton pay Paula Jones $850,000 with?


2 posted on 03/19/2023 7:53:10 AM PDT by Mr. K (No consequence of repealing Obamacare is worse than Obamacare)
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To: Libloather

What money did Congress pay all those sex scandals off with?


3 posted on 03/19/2023 7:53:53 AM PDT by Mr. K (No consequence of repealing Obamacare is worse than Obamacare)
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To: Mr. K

The Grift Fund


4 posted on 03/19/2023 7:55:53 AM PDT by wac3rd (Somewhere in Hell, Ted Kennedy snickers....l)
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To: Libloather

The Nazis are looking for anything to get Trump on. The bass turds feel as though he has embarrassed and run circles around their sorry, goat smellin’, political asses long enough. They’re going to indict him for not enough mustard on the ham sammich. They just want the photo op get photos to show to their kids and grandkids who find out grampa was nothing but a worthless, turd rolling, RAT politician.


5 posted on 03/19/2023 7:56:51 AM PDT by FlingWingFlyer ("Elections have consequences, stolen elections have catastrophes." - J.B. Shurk)
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To: Libloather

Doesn’t this all go back to the ‘bill’ that Cohen handed Trump and what was on the bill, then how Trump wrote ‘for’ on the check?


6 posted on 03/19/2023 7:58:08 AM PDT by pepsionice
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To: Libloather

Bragg is being pushed into doing this from people outside NY. Everything else The Swamp has tried to get Trump off the political stage has failed. This is the political version of a Hail Mary pass!


7 posted on 03/19/2023 7:58:43 AM PDT by dowcaet
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To: Libloather
The Great Political UnRegistration

On Wednesday morning, if the Republican Establishment has done nothing to defend Donald Trump against this political circus, leave the Party and register as an Independent. Millions of us doing this will get their attention.

8 posted on 03/19/2023 7:59:24 AM PDT by JonPreston
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To: Libloather

GOP plays T ball, dems play hardball.


9 posted on 03/19/2023 7:59:48 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: Mr. K

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.
—————-
How about the news and social media in regards to the laptop from hell.


10 posted on 03/19/2023 8:00:15 AM PDT by lilypad
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To: JonPreston

+1


11 posted on 03/19/2023 8:00:37 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: Libloather

Malicious prosecution


12 posted on 03/19/2023 8:00:50 AM PDT by ScottfromNJ
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To: Libloather

As I think about this after knowing it is only political theater it occurs to me:

Since when is settling a civil lawsuit out of court with a payment and a non-disclosure agreement? For anything?

And. Haven’t we been all through this already?


13 posted on 03/19/2023 8:02:03 AM PDT by Sequoyah101 (Procrastination is just a form of defiance.)
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To: Mr. K

“Cattle futures” profits?


14 posted on 03/19/2023 8:05:09 AM PDT by digger48
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To: dowcaet

Bragg lobbied to get his job, specifically to “get” Trump


15 posted on 03/19/2023 8:06:46 AM PDT by digger48
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To: Libloather; All

The case has all comes down to not wanting Trump to win a second term. They don’t like him, they don’t like what he represents so they have been targeting him for the last 8 years or so. Rule of law my backside


16 posted on 03/19/2023 8:07:51 AM PDT by wiseprince (Me,)
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To: dowcaet

I thought this had been settled a few years ago.
I remember that she had tried to bring charges against President Trump and it got thrown out and her weasel lawyer had got into some trouble over this?

I think that this will be another nothing burger.

Couldn’t President Trump turn around a bring a malicious prosecution case against the New York DA. I think this is the second time she has tried to prosecute Mr Trump.
The first case also ended up being dropped.


17 posted on 03/19/2023 8:08:51 AM PDT by coincheck (Salvation is for today, not tomorrow, you might not make it that far.....)
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To: Libloather

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 .
Just Bill and Hillary dragged us thru odd sordid like with Monica .
We need a Fresh start away from this crowd .


18 posted on 03/19/2023 8:09:37 AM PDT by ncalburt ( Gop DC Globalists are the evil)
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To: Libloather

Bill Clinton paid off Paula Jones.
Paid $875K (???)
The penalty was $700K

Bill did not have the $875?
Someone made up the difference

Nobody says nothing
Nobody is pursuing the truth


19 posted on 03/19/2023 8:10:31 AM PDT by Steven Tyler
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To: Mr. K

If Bubba ever wakes up from his drunken stupor there will be hell to pay. He can start in the Senate and expose all the ‘hush money’ that has been paid out over decades to protect these filthy tbastards with Your Tax Money! Now your daughters are coming home from middle school without their breasts! How much of this evil bullshit can you stand!. The Founding Fathers would have indeed gutted the Federal Government and thrown these feckless posers in jail.


20 posted on 03/19/2023 8:11:56 AM PDT by Torahman (Remember the Maccabees)
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