TIME: Trump Lawyer's Porn Star Payoff Could Have Broken the Law. But It Might Not Matter
Trump’s longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen, conceded Tuesday night that he arranged for the adult film star — whose birth name is Stephanie Clifford — to receive $130,000 just weeks before the 2016 election, but he argued the payment was lawful and was never reimbursed by the Trump Organization or the campaign.
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Common Cause is not the only group that thinks the payment could have been a violation. Brendan Fischer, the Federal & FEC Reform Program Director at the Campaign Legal Center, had a similar opinion. “The fact that this came one month before the election means there is strong evidence that this was a payment made in connection with the Trump campaign and therefore was an in kind contribution to the Trump campaign and would have exceeded the $2,700 contribution limit and was never reported by the Trump campaign as a contribution,” Fischer told TIME.
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Fischer noted that the Republican-appointed commissioners have often adopted “very narrow reading of the law” even on “clear violations” in the past. “There is a chance the FEC will fail to enforce the law in this instance, that they’ll accept an argument from Cohen that this statement had nothing to do with the campaign and it was simply a personal transaction,” he said.