Canadian Politics Today

Yeah he says he's getting arrested.

Pretty clear he'll be in litigation until he's dead at this point.

The walls are closing in. 🤣

https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/1637054382154891264?t=MdbhNflFMpMKhv-I47dYBA&s=19

They are!  I wonder if the rabid authoritarians finally made up a “crime” they can pin on him.  Is this about two consenting adults having a relationship? 😂

Paying off a hooker out of campaign funds.

Poor Trump.

I thought it was a gift to keep an affair silent?  How was it out of campaign funds when it happened king before he decided to run for office?  Do you think the consensual relationship between two adults is something the government should be getting to now?  Is that how much Trump has broken the Liberal brain?  Is there a principle or institution that the left isn’t willing to burn to the ground in order to achiever their obsession with imprisoning Trump?  I get it though, he’s a complete d bag.  He says terrible things.  He operates with no regard for people’s feelings and/or societal norms.  But you’re adults, get over it already.

I thought it was a campaign funding issue ?

I thought it was a gift to keep an affair silent?  How was it out of campaign funds when it happened king before he decided to run for office?  Do you think the consensual relationship between two adults is something the government should be getting to now?  Is that how much Trump has broken the Liberal brain?  Is there a principle or institution that the left isn’t willing to burn to the ground in order to achiever their obsession with imprisoning Trump?  I get it though, he’s a complete d bag.  He says terrible things.  He operates with no regard for people’s feelings and/or societal norms.  But you’re adults, get over it already.

They gave her hush money in 2016.  The Trump lawyer who did it was sentenced to 3 years in prison I believe, I think he had Trump repay him with campaign money or something

Paying off a hooker out of campaign funds.

I thought it was a campaign funding issue ?

That's not exactly what happened.

I explained Trump's potential crimes back in post 8174. I'll go into a little more detail here.

(Note however that at this point we won't know what he is getting charged with, or what evidence they have, until the actual indictment is made public and Trump is actually in court. These seem to be the most logical suggestions.)

There are a couple of areas where Trump might be in legal jeopardy...

First of all, there is a potential campaign funding issue, but not in the way you suggest (with him misusing election funds).

If it was revealed during Trump's campaign that he had an affair, it had the potential to harm his election chances.  Thus, the payment to Stormy Daniels to keep her from talking would have improved his chances of winning in 2016 and thus could have been considered a campaign contribution.

All large campaign donations need to be tracked, even if it is a politician "donating" to his own campaign. (Why? likely because they want to limit the ability of donors to "buy" politicians.) So Trump's  $100k+ payment should have been registered. But it was not.

This is not some unique, never before seen crime. In fact, this was one of the reasons Trump's previous lawyer Cohen went to jail.

The second issue is that the payment was (probably) made through the Trump organization (rather than a payment from Trump's personal accounts). Now, Trump may be the main owner of the Trump organization, but even the sole owner of a company cannot use the company as their personal piggy bank, making it pay for personal expenses. (Why not? Well, there are tax implications for one.) Trump supposedly had the money paid to Stormy Daniels listed as "legal expenses" in the Trump Organization's books. Since Stormy Daniels is not a lawyer, and she was not working for the Trump organization, then the Trump organization paying her off under the guise of "legal expenses" was fraudulent.

And just like the issue of campaign finance, this is not some new invention, some never-before-seen prosecution.

Trump COULD have paid off Stormy Daniels in a way that was 100% legal... he could have 1) taken money out of the Trump organization (perhaps as a salary increase or bonus, with whatever income tax implications are involved) to pay her from his own bank account rather than the Trump organization, and 2) when he paid her off, properly listed it as a campaign contribution. But Trump did not do any of that. And thus the reason why he might end up facing real, criminal charges.

Now, given all the crimes he has committed, this seems like pretty small potatoes. (I would much rather see him jailed for document theft and bank/tax fraud.) But still, he broke the law. Others have been jailed for the same sorts of crimes. And saying "Trump should be given different treatment because he's more famous, or he committed bigger crimes so we should ignore the small stuff" flies in the fact that "everyone is equal under the law".

There may be other laws that were broken too... There may be legal restrictions on companies financing and coordinating with election campaigns. There may also be some perjury or tax fraud charges thrown in there as well (although as I said before, we will have to wait and see whatever charges are included in the indictment.) And given Trump, it would not surprise me if they added things like Witness Tampering (based on his call to protest over his indictment).

I really hope Trump goes to prison. If Trump is not charged with the crimes he committed during his Presidency, the door is open to future candidates thinking they can engage in all sorts of criminal behaviour, without repercussions (I'm looking at you, DeSantis).

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I really hope Trump goes to prison. If Trump is not charged with the crimes he committed during his Presidency, the door is open to future candidates thinking they can engage in all sorts of criminal behaviour, without repercussions (I'm looking at you, DeSantis).

This has been the case since forever.  How long did Nixon go to prison?

Yes, Nixon avoided prison. A lot of people (myself included) think it was a mistake for Ford to grant him a pardon.

But, there are a couple of differences between the Nixon and Trump cases....

- Trump's crimes and abuses of power are much more extensive and much more serious than Nixon's

- With Nixon, it at least appeared that his supporters understood the gravity of the situation. Republicans in congress were willing to vote with impeachment if it came to that, and republican voters seem to be a bit more... contrite. (I don't necessarily agree that a pardon was necessary to "heal the nation", but it might sort of been plausible.) With Trump, republican politicians are almost universally lining up to support him, and the MAGAchud supporters are largely a group of racist brain-damaged morons. Any attempt to "heal the nation" by granting leniency to Trump will be unsuccessful, and treating Trump like the criminal he is is necessary to send a message.