Rick Hasen: Legitimate Hush Money
on Saturday, August 11, 2018Rick Hasen Money Quote saying claiming that payments intended to keep someone from talking are labeled as legitimate campaign expenses when they are actually illegal campaign hush money. Rick Hasen said:
“I’m not sure I’ve seen a campaign try to claim hush money as a legitimate expense, but of course the whole point of the Stormy Daniels payments controversy is that they were not made from the campaign account and reported when they were campaign related” — Rick Hasen
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In this quote, election law expert Rick Hasen is referring to the controversy surrounding payments made by former President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen to the adult film actress Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 election.
Hasen notes that while campaigns don’t normally try to classify “hush money” payments as legitimate expenses, the Trump campaign denied the Daniels payments were campaign-related since they came from Cohen’s personal funds, not the campaign account. However, Hasen suggests the whole point of debate is that the payments were aimed at influencing the election, so should have been reported regardless of the funding source according to campaign finance law.
The overall interpretation is that Hasen is criticizing the Trump campaign’s argument that the Daniels payments fell outside campaign reporting rules, since their purpose seemed clearly aimed at impacting the election even if routed through non-campaign channels according to Hasen’s legal assessment.
— Muckmaker™ (@RealMuckmaker) December 17, 2018
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