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> The punishment for the crimes he's accused of has so far been none. For him. Other people have been sent to jail for Trump's crime, while Trump was shielded

> The punishment for the crimes he's accused of has so far been none. For him. Other people have been sent to jail for Trump's crime, while Trump was shielded due to his position. A shield that he won in part by illegally paying off a porn star to hide that fact from the public.

jfengel 4y ago
Could he have avoided that just by paying this all with his own money? The amount in question seems comparatively trivial. Why would be risk so many people, and himself, over an amount that a billionaire should have been able to find dropped between the couch cushions? Is it just miserliness? Or is there some legal principle that made it necessary to funnel the money through his campaign?
- ModernMech 4y ago
  Paying hush money to porn stars is technically a campaign contribution. The amount isn’t really the problem, just as the affair isn’t either —- it’s the fact he hid it. He could have paid all of this with his own money in one lump sum, but then he would have had to report it. Campaign finance law is written specifically for people like Trump. If you have a lot of money and you want to run the country, fine. But we the public need to know how you are financing your campaign. We want to know what was purchased and where the money came from. That’s the ideal. Otherwise, foreign governments and corporations can bankroll a presidential campaign, and then compromise the entire country when their candidate gets elected. None of us want that. Trump obviously couldn’t report this campaign expenditure, because it would have defeated the purpose of a hush money payment. So instead he decided to commit crimes, and those crimes could very well have made a difference in 2016 considering how close it was.
  - jfengel 4y ago
    Huh. Interesting. I'm surprised it wouldn't have been easier to pay it himself, then say, "I'm paying off this porn star to save my marriage, and is completely independent of the campaign, which is why I didn't report it." It would have been a lie, but at least it would have had a fig leaf. Right now they're having trouble pretending that this is purely a partisan abuse, since the crime is obvious. Of course I'm sure he and his lawyer went over all that and had their reasons. Or maybe this is all just hindsight bias.
- JumpinJack_Cash 4y ago
  > > Could he have avoided that just by paying this all with his own money He should have just owned it and bragged about it. They failed the damage containment on the real bad stuff such as what he said in the Access Hollywood tape. And it ended up actually helping him! The prosecutor is also searching publicity because Trump is done for and he won’t be the nominee so they felt hard pressed to do this before it becomes clear to everybody otherwise they would have gotten little publicity and satisfaction out of it.

jfengel 4y ago

Could he have avoided that just by paying this all with his own money? The amount in question seems comparatively trivial. Why would be risk so many people, and himself, over an amount that a billionaire should have been able to find dropped between the couch cushions? Is it just miserliness? Or is there some legal principle that made it necessary to funnel the money through his campaign?

ModernMech 4y ago
Paying hush money to porn stars is technically a campaign contribution. The amount isn’t really the problem, just as the affair isn’t either —- it’s the fact he hid it. He could have paid all of this with his own money in one lump sum, but then he would have had to report it. Campaign finance law is written specifically for people like Trump. If you have a lot of money and you want to run the country, fine. But we the public need to know how you are financing your campaign. We want to know what was purchased and where the money came from. That’s the ideal. Otherwise, foreign governments and corporations can bankroll a presidential campaign, and then compromise the entire country when their candidate gets elected. None of us want that. Trump obviously couldn’t report this campaign expenditure, because it would have defeated the purpose of a hush money payment. So instead he decided to commit crimes, and those crimes could very well have made a difference in 2016 considering how close it was.
- jfengel 4y ago
  Huh. Interesting. I'm surprised it wouldn't have been easier to pay it himself, then say, "I'm paying off this porn star to save my marriage, and is completely independent of the campaign, which is why I didn't report it." It would have been a lie, but at least it would have had a fig leaf. Right now they're having trouble pretending that this is purely a partisan abuse, since the crime is obvious. Of course I'm sure he and his lawyer went over all that and had their reasons. Or maybe this is all just hindsight bias.
JumpinJack_Cash 4y ago
> > Could he have avoided that just by paying this all with his own money He should have just owned it and bragged about it. They failed the damage containment on the real bad stuff such as what he said in the Access Hollywood tape. And it ended up actually helping him! The prosecutor is also searching publicity because Trump is done for and he won’t be the nominee so they felt hard pressed to do this before it becomes clear to everybody otherwise they would have gotten little publicity and satisfaction out of it.