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Trump defends hush money payments as 'simple private transaction'

JacksinPA

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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...s-as-simple-private-transaction-idUSKBN1O91JW

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump on Monday defended hush money payments reported by his former lawyer a day after Democrats said the U.S. president could face impeachment and jail time if the transactions are proven to be campaign finance violations.

Trump, in early morning tweets, said Democrats were wrongly targeting “a simple private transaction” after court filings last week drew renewed attention to six-figure payments by his personal lawyer to two women during the 2016 campaign so they would not discuss affairs with Trump.
============================================
Sounds like a pretty lame excuse for a married Presidential candidate.
 
Trump defends hush money payments as 'simple private transaction'

104161435-GettyImages-628833102.530x298.jpg


12/10/18
WASHINGTON - Donald Trump on Monday defended hush money payments reported by his former lawyer a day after Democrats said the U.S. president could face impeachment and jail time if the transactions are proven to be campaign finance violations. Trump, in early morning tweets, said Democrats were wrongly targeting “a simple private transaction” after court filings last week drew renewed attention to six-figure payments by his personal lawyer to two women during the 2016 campaign so they would not discuss affairs with Trump. Trump earlier this year acknowledged repaying his former lawyer Michael Cohen for the $130,000 paid to porn star Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels. He previously disputed knowing anything about the payments. On Monday, the president again denied wrongdoing and shifted any blame on Cohen.

I wasn't aware that Trump passed a Bar examination. He's spouting disinformation. With respect to the secret hush payments to Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels, Cohen and Individual-1 (Donald Trump) acted with the intent to influence the 2016 presidential election. Michael Cohen has already pleaded guilty to these crimes. He also recorded conversations relating to the secret payments. At this time, Donald Trump is an unindicted co-conspirator. But that status could change.
 
""I did not have sexual relations with that woman"
Bill Clinton.

Pretty lame excuse for a married President. :mrgreen:
 
Trump defends hush money payments as 'simple private transaction'

104161435-GettyImages-628833102.530x298.jpg




I wasn't aware that Trump passed a Bar examination. He's spouting disinformation. With respect to the secret hush payments to Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels, Cohen and Individual-1 (Donald Trump) acted with the intent to influence the 2016 presidential election. Michael Cohen has already pleaded guilty to these crimes. He also recorded conversations relating to the secret payments. At this time, Donald Trump is an unindicted co-conspirator. But that status could change.

No, actually he is not.
IF he is indicted for campaign finance violations after leaving office, the onus will be on the state of NY to prove intent.
Very difficult task to do; John Edwards?
 
Trump defends hush money payments as 'simple private transaction'

104161435-GettyImages-628833102.530x298.jpg




I wasn't aware that Trump passed a Bar examination. He's spouting disinformation. With respect to the secret hush payments to Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels, Cohen and Individual-1 (Donald Trump) acted with the intent to influence the 2016 presidential election. Michael Cohen has already pleaded guilty to these crimes. He also recorded conversations relating to the secret payments. At this time, Donald Trump is an unindicted co-conspirator. But that status could change.

Remember when Trump was asked if he knew about the "simple private transaction", and he said "No"? My kids were better liars when they were 2.

https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2018/04/05/trump-didnt-know-about-stormy-daniels-payment-air-force-one-sot.cnn
 
No, actually he is not.
IF he is indicted for campaign finance violations after leaving office, the onus will be on the state of NY to prove intent.
Very difficult task to do; John Edwards?

Which is belied by the fact that he lied about those "simple private transactions."
 
Trump defends hush money payments as 'simple private transaction'

104161435-GettyImages-628833102.530x298.jpg




I wasn't aware that Trump passed a Bar examination. He's spouting disinformation. With respect to the secret hush payments to Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels, Cohen and Individual-1 (Donald Trump) acted with the intent to influence the 2016 presidential election. Michael Cohen has already pleaded guilty to these crimes. He also recorded conversations relating to the secret payments. At this time, Donald Trump is an unindicted co-conspirator. But that status could change.

Name any POTUS candidate that did not "act to influence the election". IMHO, the most that was wrong was not reporting the "campaign related" expenditure per FEC rules.

Of course, the mandatory disclosing of a NDA expense defeats the very purpose for making it. This will make an interesting case for sure.
 
Welcome to aristocracy... much to our detriment
 
Name any POTUS candidate that did not "act to influence the election". IMHO, the most that was wrong was not reporting the "campaign related" expenditure per FEC rules.

Of course, the mandatory disclosing of a NDA expense defeats the very purpose for making it. This will make an interesting case for sure.

Or maybe the problem is that he lied about making those payments and that those payments were structured through multiple shell companies to disguise them.
 
No, actually he is not.
IF he is indicted for campaign finance violations after leaving office, the onus will be on the state of NY to prove intent.
Very difficult task to do; John Edwards?
Yes, Trump is spreading disinformation (lies). It’s what he does, constantly. Looking forward to witnessing his indictments.
 
Name any POTUS candidate that did not "act to influence the election". IMHO, the most that was wrong was not reporting the "campaign related" expenditure per FEC rules.
Of course they all act to influence their chances of election. Duh.

There’s a real and significant difference between an error of omission and a deliberate falsification (Trump’s action is the latter).
 
""I did not have sexual relations with that woman"
Bill Clinton.

Pretty lame excuse for a married President. :mrgreen:

I think he was trying to draw a line between fellatio & full-on coitus. I believe there is a distinction in many cultures.
 
Or maybe the problem is that he lied about making those payments and that those payments were structured through multiple shell companies to disguise them.

Imagine that - someone wanting to keep a NDA agreement private.
 
Of course, one could point out the result of the last impeachment effort based on lying about a private matter.

Or one could talk to someone about the impeachment mentioned in her post, but since that wasn't me, I'm not sure who wants to talk about it in this thread.
 
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...s-as-simple-private-transaction-idUSKBN1O91JW

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump on Monday defended hush money payments reported by his former lawyer a day after Democrats said the U.S. president could face impeachment and jail time if the transactions are proven to be campaign finance violations.

Trump, in early morning tweets, said Democrats were wrongly targeting “a simple private transaction” after court filings last week drew renewed attention to six-figure payments by his personal lawyer to two women during the 2016 campaign so they would not discuss affairs with Trump.
============================================
Sounds like a pretty lame excuse for a married Presidential candidate.

How does one separate the two questions? Were these payments to prevent Malania from finding out to maintain a harmonious home environment or strictly to keep the secret on the campaign trail? Maybe Melania has a very heavy rolling pin and a hot temper? Trump was always a braggart about his female conquests. Shades of gray seems to be a legal bitch, eh?
/
 
Which is belied by the fact that he lied about those "simple private transactions."

Your opinion does not change what I wrote in Post #4, but keep trying.
 
Imagine that - someone wanting to keep a NDA agreement private.

That argument doesn't work because the NDA's were drafted right around the election long after the affairs happened. It also doesn't work because if they were legal then the use of multiple shell companies would have been an unnecessary waste of time.

There is no way in which the issue can be framed to make it look legitimate.

If you're interested in the details you can read about them in the sentencing memorandum beginning on page 11 under "Cohen's illegal campaign contributions" and ending on page 14.

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5453401-SDNY-Cohen-sentencing-memo.html
 
Of course they all act to influence their chances of election. Duh.

There’s a real and significant difference between an error of omission and a deliberate falsification (Trump’s action is the latter).

The horror - someone wanted to keep a NDA agreement private. I do agree that once the cat was out of the bag, and the election was over, that it was stupid to lie about having made the DNA(s).

Do you recall the outcome of the last impeachment effort based on lying about a private matter? I doubt that many elected officials will agree that being removed from elected office for lying (about a private matter) is a wonderful idea. If paying for DNAs or having an affair with an intern were illegal acts then possibly they should rise to level of impeachment but simply telling lies about them is not likely to be seen as such.
 
Or one could talk to someone about the impeachment mentioned in her post, but since that wasn't me, I'm not sure who wants to talk about it in this thread.

Fair enough, but historical context (precedent?) is important.
 
Simple it was not.

Quite complicated attempt at concealment.

Try again, Mr. Conspirator.
 
Trump defends hush money payments as 'simple private transaction'


...And he's going to continue to use that line/lie and whatever other form of equivocation and/or lies of omission he can conjure to make political what is really a legal matter.
  • Paying someone to keep quiet isn't, in the abstract, illegal; however, doing so is "shady."
  • Paying for quiescence to abet the ends of one's election campaign is illegal if any of the following is true:
    • The payment exceeds campaign contribution limits.
    • The payment isn't reported as a campaign contribution, regardless of whether it exceeds contribution limits.
  • Instructing a second party to make a payment to a third party and promising to reimburse the second party creates for the first party a liability to the second. If the first party is an individual who is required to submit an SF-87 and they fail to disclose the liability, their omission thus is illegal.
 
Trump just justified illegal hush-money payments as a "private transaction."

That is, however, not a defense. He's too effing stupid to know it's an admission of his own corruption.

He really is in that deep over his head and completely ignorant of how things work.
 
Imagine that - someone wanting to keep a NDA agreement private.

Imagine that, Trump directing Michael Cohen to make two hush payments mere weeks before the election to influence the election ... and neglecting to report such payments to the FEC.

But then again, reporting such payments would have illuminated Trumps adultery and severely crippled his electability.

Each of these unreported hush payments is illegal and a felony crime.
 
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