Paul Manafort Guilty of 8 Charges

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Shadowrider

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So did he authorize the payment or not? Because if he did authorize it, are we to believe that Cohen paid that money out of his pocket as a donation? And didn’t get paid back? If he did get paid back, was it from Trump’s personal and/or business accounts? If so, he’s still in the clear. And to answer another poster, you can absolutely count that payment as a business expense. Trump has a brand to protect. Paying that hush money to protect the brand certainly qualifies as a business expense. So unless there is proof that Cohen paid it and never got paid back or proof that Trump paid it out of his campaign money, then this is a non-story.
Careful, lest you'll harsh their mellow.
 

Shadowrider

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How about obama? His campaign was found guilty of campaign issues and they only paid a fine. A quite substantial fine BTW.
Conservatives go to jai.

The contribution overage wasn't technically illegal, so the fine was appropriate. Now as to the criminal stuff? That'll come out with Hillary's when we nail her to her cross.
 

Hobbes

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So did he authorize the payment or not? Because if he did authorize it, are we to believe that Cohen paid that money out of his pocket as a donation? And didn’t get paid back? If he did get paid back, was it from Trump’s personal and/or business accounts? If so, he’s still in the clear. And to answer another poster, you can absolutely count that payment as a business expense. Trump has a brand to protect. Paying that hush money to protect the brand certainly qualifies as a business expense. So unless there is proof that Cohen paid it and never got paid back or proof that Trump paid it out of his campaign money, then this is a non-story.

Well that's not the way the US Attorney in the SDNY sees it.
Cohen is charged and pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations.
 

Hobbes

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You can read what has been unsealed in court right here.

https://www.businessinsider.com/michael-cohen-court-documents-plea-deal-charges-2018-8/

In a nutshell,

Cohen caused AMI, the corporation that owns the National Enquirer, to make an illegal corporate contribution by paying Karen McDougal $150,000 and then burying her
story in order to help the Trump campaign avoid bad publicity during the campaign.
It's illegal for a corporation to make a donation directly to a candidate. Donations must be made to the candidate's election committee.

Cohen used fraudulently obtained loans to open a shell company and pay Stormy Daniels to hush up.
Then Cohen fraudulently invoiced the Trump organization $35,000 a month during 2017 calling it a retainer.
The Trump organization paid the $35,000 a month and posted it to legal expenses with the notation "retainer fee".
They also "grossed up" the total amount for tax purposes.

What's not clear is, why Mr. Weisselburg was granted immunity and what kind of immunity it was.
The prosecutors in the SDNY already had most of this from subpoena documents from both Cohen and the Trump organization.
 

SlugSlinger

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Late as in they didn’t file at all and they were caught.

President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign was fined $375,000 by the Federal Election Commission for campaign reporting violations — one of the largest fees ever levied against a presidential campaign.

Among many miscellaneous reporting errors, the main issue with Obama’s campaign finances was a series of missing 48-hour notices for almost 1,300 contributions totaling more than $1.8 million. The notices must be filed out for contributions of over $1,000 that are received within 20 days of election day.
 

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