Michael Cohen plea

[Dill]

(08-22-2018, 05:36 PM)bfine32 Wrote: Well the above is a question I've had. Everyone in here is stating the payoff came from Campaign funds; however, I've never heard anyone confirm that. Would it make a difference (legally) if it did come from his private funds? To me that's a huge difference whether you're paying these women off with your own funds or funds donated to your campaign. 

I don't really need a "oh you're just supporting Trump" spill; simply curious. I freely admit what he did is (at best) morally wrong. 

To the law it is a huge difference as well.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/08/22/dershowitz_candidate_entitled_to_pay_hush_money_committed_no_election_crime.html

According to Alan Dershowitz, there is no limit on how much a candidate can contribute to his own campaign. So if Trump used personal funds to pay off the women, in the form of a "loan" to Cohen, and those funds are regarded as campaign contributions, then they are perfectly legal contributions to his own campaign--even if he gave Stormy a million dollars.   So no law is violated; just that something was hidden from Melania, and from voters who, for the most part, would not care if Trump paid off porn stars and playmates. But if Cohen up and decided to pay off the ladies on his own, that WOULD be a campaign violation, the money coming from a 3rd party. (Dershowitz is pretty eccentric, though, a contrarian on many legal issues.)

If the money originally came from the campaign itself (Trump denies this), which would have the legal status of a corporation (not Trump's private stash of money), then Trump's actions would be subject to campaign finance laws.  If Trump reimbursed the campaign at a later date, then he could argue that even though the money was funneled through the campaign, it was not "from" the campaign since when the books are tallied, that 130,000 will not be missing.

Just rambling here, but a close look at how the record of payments to whom or what and when might also correlate to the public disclosure of the affair. If it does, that would suggest money did come from the campaign and Trump only "paid back" the campaign (Cohen) when the transaction was in danger of investigation. I am wondering who was in control of the campaign funds, what records were actually kept.