Earlier today, Bradley Smith continued our conversation about whether Donald Trump’s hush-money payments violated federal election law. I say maybe — depending on the evidence. Unless I’m completely misreading Smith, he says no, hush-money payments cannot constitute criminal campaign-finance violations. Full stop.
To be very clear, as I acknowledge in my original piece arguing that Trump is in serious trouble, a judge may agree with Smith’s argument. There is no binding judicial precedent that is specifically on point. While I think it is meaningful that a federal judge permitted prosecutors to try John Edwards on a similar theory, I freely acknowledge that this determination does not bind a different court. I do believe, however, that the judge in Edwards’s case (and the prosecutors in the Southern District of New York) were following the natural and proper reading of the relevant statutes. Smith disagrees, and he’s no less than a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission. This debate is important. So let’s continue it.
I think I’ve located the crux of our disagreement in these paragraphs from Smith’s most recent piece.
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