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Nondisclosure Agreements Arenu2019t Illegal
As Yoo and Shu explained in their February op-ed, prior to Braggu2019s breathless pursuit, Southern District of New York prosecutors and the FEC looked into Trumpu2019s so-called campaign violations. Both u201cdeclined to pursue the case because Trump used his own money, not campaign finance money, and because reimbursing someone for a hush-money payment does not fit the definition of an in-kind campaign contribution.u201d
u201cIn fact, candidates do not have to disclose expenses that would have been incurred even if no campaign existed; it is highly likely that Trump would have paid Daniels regardless just to avoid any marital strife or embarrassment to himself and his family,u201d wrote Yoo, a Professor of Law at the University of California at Berkeley, and Shu, a legal scholar and commentator who served in the administrations of Presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush.
Federal campaign law strictly prohibits candidates from using any campaign funds for what are considered personal expenses. Say you buy a car and six months later you decide to run for office. You canu2019t use your monthly car payments as a campaign expense. Letu2019s face it, Bidenu2019s weaponized U.S. Department of Justice would have been all over Trump had the former president run afoul of the law.
u201cHad Donald Trump used campaign funds to enter into a settlement into payment with this woman the DOJ would have gone after him,u201d von Spakovsky said.
The settlement has been described as u201chush money.u201d But there are a long list of famous leftists who have demanded such nondisclosure agreements. Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, and Tiger Woods, just to name a new. Remember when Rep. Nancy Pelosi called fellow Democrat colleague John Conyers an u201ciconu201d after the Michigan congressman resigned under a cloud of sexual misconduct allegations? Pelosi took quite a tongue lashing for lionizing a man whose aide Marion Brown claimed violated her body and propositioned her for sex. Guess who was forced to sign a nondisclosure agreement? Brown broke the NDA to tell her story.
u2018Double System of Justiceu2019
Of course, the statute of limitations on the alleged crimes has expired, but partisan Bragg is pushing New Yorku2019s u201ctollingu201d provision that stops the clock when the suspect is out of state.
u201cBut itu2019s hard to believe the legislature would have intended u2026 that serving as president of the United States counts as being out of state,u201d David Shapiro, a financial crimes specialist and former FBI special agent, told CBC News.
u201cThis case is going to have serious, serious problems,u201d Mark Bederow, a criminal defense attorney and former New York City prosecutor, told CBC News before the grand jury came back more than a year ago with its indictment against Trump. He said Braggu2019s decision to pursue formal charges was u201cstunning.u201d
Yoo and Shu shoot down Braggu2019s assertion that had the Trump campaign disclosed the u201cin-kindu201d payment before the election it would have affected the outcome. Trump lost deep blue New York by 20-plus points. So he would have lost by more votes? Besides, the payment would not have been required to be reported until months after the election.
u201cAgain, imagine that a district attorney decided to charge [Secretary of State] Tony Blinken and Hunter Biden for an illegal, undisclosed in-kind campaign contribution when they lied in October 2020 to conceal that the abandoned laptop actually belonged to Hunter (u201cearmarks of a Russian information operationu201d),u201d the legal experts wrote.
Itu2019s difficult to see Braggu2019s case as anything but the naked political prosecution it is. But a Manhattan grand jury agreed to this insane indictment. What are the chances a Manhattan trial jury wonu2019t convict the man the left loves to hate?
But thereu2019s a price to pay for this political show trial, and some Democrats are smart enough to know the bill could be quite costly. In this case, exposing Americau2019s double system of justice will likely do more to help Trump than to hurt him this November.
https://thefederalist.com/2024/04/12/alvin-bragg-kicks-off-another-frenzied-lawfare-trial-with-weakest-case-against-trump-yet/