Doesn't matter whether he was there are not. It's not a crime nor is it even a violation of campaign finance...just wishful left-winged, talking points. If John Edwards' situation was ok, how in the world can you spin this as being wrong by any stretch?
@orangelvis let me help you here--I don't want you to be woefully uninformed.
With campaign finance felonies you need to prove two things--very high standards--that you knowingly violated the law (you were aware of the laws and went ahead and broke them anyway) and that you did it willfully.
The FEC only has civil and not criminal enforcement. If they find anything it will always be civil in the form of fines. This happens routinely--a campaign staffer didn't file papers in time--boom, fine. Another puts the wrong amounts--more fines. Every campaign can get dinged especially larger campaigns like at the presidential level. No biggie.
To prove knowing and willful violation of the law we now have Cohen's testimony (which by itself would not be enough), the recording, the shell company, the receipts, and most importantly AMI also affirming everything Cohen has said. AMI is a credible witness in the way Cohen isn't. That is more than enough evidence to prosecute. Combine that with shifting public statements by Trump himself (I didn't know, oh wait--I knew but it isn't a biggie, back to idk--etc etc) and his goose is cooked.
Edwards was prosecuted but was acquitted because the govt (when conservatives cared about morality) couldn't prove it was knowing or willful violation of the law.
Again, you need someone literally in the room saying that someone did this and probably another party along with corroborating documents to ever meet the high burden for criminal campaign violations (which bc of their dollar amount over 25k are felonies up to 5 years in prison). You need to prove coordination.
And that is exactly what we have in this case...
Cohen out on good morning america--wow...
We also need to talk about Mariah Butina, inauguration spending, Saudi arms payments to kill Yemen children, covering for Khashoggi murder, a 7 year old dead on the border, etc. etc.
With regards to the problems with AMI spilling the beans: "The use of corporate funds to make a contribution to a presidential campaign has been illegal for decades. That makes the offense in Trump’s case significantly more serious than the charges against Edwards, or even the already serious charges Trump could face for conspiring with Cohen to make illegal and unreported individual contributions. And because the source of the payments can ultimately be traced back to the Trump Organization, prosecutors have many robust sources of evidence to comb. Those sources already suggest there were false payments (which would likely violate federal and state tax laws) and “grossing up” of Cohen’s money to account for his personal taxes. All of this may amount to consciousness of guilt and may also be a path for prosecutors to discover who authorized the payments in the first place (likely “Individual-1” or one of his children). The evidentiary record is going to reveal how involved Trump and his family was in these payments — a corporate record that was completely nonexistent with Edwards."
From the George Conway, Trevor Potter, and Neal Katyal:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outl...ngerous/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.ef35f9aae66d
