While President Donald Trump seems content with the so-called job Rudy Giuliani is doing as his unofficial minister of propaganda, something the former New York City mayor told ABC News host George Stephanopoulos may have sealed Trump’s fate as it relates to the investigation of hush money payments made to women the president allegedly had extramarital affairs with.
Specifically, Giuliani commented that the hush money payments cannot be campaign finance violations if they were for a personal reason:
“It has to be for the sole purpose. If there’s another purpose, it’s no longer a campaign contribution — if there’s a personal purpose.”
To bolster his bogus argument, Giuliani then cited the case of former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards:
“It’s not a contribution if it’s intended for a purpose in addition to the campaign purpose. In the case of Edwards’s lover Rielle Hunter, right, the payment of $1.1 million was intended to shut her up and was intended to avoid embarrassment with Edwards’s wife and with his children.”
Problem is, that’s not even close to being true.
Here’s what the law (which Rudy has clearly not read) actually says on the matter. It defines a campaign contribution as:
“Any gift, subscription, loan, advance, or deposit of money or anything of value made by any person for the purpose of influencing any election for Federal office.”
Oops! Looks like Rudy really stepped in it this time, clearly admitting that Trump did indeed violate campaign finance law and can be charged for that crime.
Giuliani has now confirmed that the payments were not only personal. They were also for the purpose of the campaign, meaning that the president had Michael Cohen make the hush money payments in order to influence the campaign. And that could well open Trump up to charges of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government.
In other words, an attorney for the president just made the case against his client a slam dunk for prosecutors.
Nice work, Rudy!
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