As a presidential candidate in August 2015, Donald Trump huddled with a longtime friend, media executive David Pecker, in his cluttered 26th floor Trump Tower office and made a request.
What can you do to help my campaign? he asked, according to people familiar with the meeting.
Mr. Pecker, chief executive of American Media Inc., offered to use his National Enquirer tabloid to buy the silence of women if they tried to publicize alleged sexual encounters with Mr. Trump.
Less than a year later, Mr. Trump asked Mr. Pecker to quash the story of a former Playboy model who said they'd had an affair. Mr. Pecker's company soon paid $150,000 to the model, Karen McDougal, to keep her from speaking publicly about it. Mr. Trump later thanked Mr. Pecker for the assistance.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trump-played-central-role-in-hush-payoffs-to-stormy-daniels-and-karen-mcdougal-1541786601

Even if he did it's nothing more than a small fine.

Trump did a thing.

This sounds awfully familiar. I swear I've heard this REEEEE before. And I'm pretty sure it was nothing last time.

Hillary and Obama violated campaign finance law and got caught. The Obama campaign paid a huge fine, if I recall.

Nobody cares. Just more WSJ and CNN REEEEEEEing about shit to distract from the theft of the election in progress.

It's not at the same level as blatantly attempting to steal elections as we are seeing right now.

Who gives a shit.

I heard a Judge attacked a woman at a party a few years back.

Something something he liked beer, something something he still likes beer...

Fucking commie cunts making mountains out of mole hills while true crimes are being committed in Broward County by the commies themselves.

This

Nobody cares

Will this receive more or less attention than the credible allegations of rape against that commie piss stain Mueller ?

Don't care.

Lol

My name... Is PECK.

Good for him, he should bag all he can, klinton did.

This. It's a giant nothing. Obama paid bigger fines.

You mean like Obama did and only got a $375,000 fine?

'Hey, look over here at this!'...meanwhile we have recent video of lines of Dems in Florida dropping off dufflebags full of 'early votes/provisional votes unloading them from their cars at polling places during the 'recount' in tight races where the GOP 'won'. There is a very true story happening right now about real voter fraud and the MSM is simply ignoring it. But lets worry about Trump taking petty cash in his campaign.

I have a background with federal political campaigns about 20 years ago.  I don't think any law or regulation has changed regarding in-kind contributions or candidate-contributions since then, so I'll share my opinion on this matter.

It's not a violation.

If I ran for federal office and I decided I needed to buy a car so I'd have reliable transportation, I could do it two ways:

1. I buy it myself with my own funds.
2. I use campaign funds to buy it.

If I paid with my own money and intended to keep it after the campaign, as it's a DURABLE item, then it's not a contribution to the campaign.

If I used campaign fund to buy it, I can drive it all during the campaign, and at the end of the campaign I can buy it back from the campaign if I wanted to keep it, paying fair market value.  Or, I can let the campaign sell it to someone else and use that income as settling the debt of the campaign.  But, the other person buying cannot pay more than the donation limit of $2700 as it's an in-kind contribution (for a material asset).

However, if I let a friend buy me the new car, or someone gifts it to me, and all along I knew I was going to keep the car after the campaign as a DURABLE item, it's not a contribution to the campaign.  But I'd probably have the report it on my income taxes.

The key to me with Trump is that his reputation has value and any allegation against him from these women would hurt his reputation beyond the campaign, and therefore it's DURABLE.  Candidate or third-party funded durable items are not campaign contributions.  Now I'm talking about a car here, it could be a computer, or a nice suit, but it cannot be direct election-related things like tv ads, yard signs, consultant fees, etc.

The FEC has a list of direct election-related items.  "Paying off mistresses" is not on the list.

So I see that Trump had a third-party handle these women financially, but it was to protect Trumps durable reputation, something that's outside of the campaign as he has huge financial interests before the campaign and will have them after he leaves office.  And as it's not a campaign related expense, none of the in-kind restrictions apply.

How much did the Obama campaign pay in fines for campaign finance violations?
If I remember correctly it was a few hundred thousand.

You need to call Never_Trumper Shepard Smith and inform him. According to him this is a BOMBSHELL and they have him this time.

Oh, and drop that exact post over in the Never_Trumper thread.

*Cue the Dennis Nedry "Nobody Cares" GIF.*

Tell that to Dinesh D'Souza!

The media/dems, because they will spin it by saying had the American people knew many might not have voted for him. They will say his lies and cover up stole the election.

Here they come...stealing elections with fraudulent ballots...taking advantage of another night club shooting for cover...attacking our president with every thing they got and from every angle and venue they control...the haters of the America of our founders are massing an attack on our president.

The man who wrote the in-kind contribution regulations alread said it is not a violation. This whole article is bullshit.

I’m wondering if Acosta had orders to make a scene that would distract from the election for a day. Then like magic the dems find boxes of ballots.