Former federal prosecutor Paul Butler pointed out what he believes is obvious criminal behavior on the part of Donald Trump in the newly released Michael Cohen tape.
According to Butler, Trump’s successful effort to silence a Playboy model just before the 2016 election is clearly a violation of campaign finance laws.
“What would be a criminal issue is if this is, in fact, to aid the campaign, which the tape makes fairly clear it is,” he said.
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Paul Butler says released Cohen tape shows Trump violated campaign finance laws. #ctl #p2 #TrumpTapes pic.twitter.com/PxER7XOxA7
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) July 25, 2018
Butler said:
It’s really shady, it’s really unseemly, it’s probably legal on the part of Trump if all he is doing is paying hush money to people like Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels. That’s not against the law. As Ken said, what would be a criminal issue is if this is, in fact, to aid the campaign, which the tape makes fairly clear it is, then it should have been reported. … They’re very concerned about the period before the election. Cohen is clearly now an agent of the campaign. He’s no longer just Mr. Fix it and Mr. Trump’s lawyer. He is making representations on behalf of the campaign.
Other politicians have faced indictments for less
As it’s been pointed out since the tape was released on Tuesday, other politicians have faced criminal charges for campaign finance violations when the evidence was far less damning. (See John Edwards)
In the case of Trump, he’s literally on tape speaking with his then-personal lawyer about how to pay off women he’s had affairs with.
Note that it’s not just one affair, as was the case with Edwards. It’s multiple affairs with multiple payoffs.
To add icing to the criminal cake, the conversation between Trump and Cohen took place during the campaign, showing that their intent was to impact the election.
At the end of the day, it’s difficult to know which scandal is more threatening to Trump – or if it even matters at this point – but there is no question that this president is in serious legal trouble on a number of fronts.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
