It's possible that the $130,000 payoff to Stormy Daniels came from the Trump campaign:
Did President Donald Trump’s campaign reimburse one of the president’s businesses for the cost of paying hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels?
That’s a question that’s now being asked by the government watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), which has flagged a Trump campaign reimbursement filing that sent $130,888.33 in campaign funds to a limited liability corporation called Trump Tower Commercial....
According to the Wall Street Journal’s reporting, longtime Trump attorney Michael Cohen set up a separate LLC called Essential Consultants in October 2016 that he used as a vehicle to pay off Daniels in exchange for remaining silence about her past affair with the president....
Given that the payment made from the Trump campaign to Trump Tower Commercial LLC was for roughly the same amount that Essential Consultants LLC paid to Daniels — and given the fact that the payout occurred just one month after the 2016 presidential election ended — this transaction is sure to raise questions over whether campaign funds were used to cover the costs of paying off a porn star.
Is that really what happened? I don't know. But if it is, I'm sure the many deplorables who responded to all those Trump fund-raising emails would be fine with it.
We know the press loves interviewing Trump voters, so in the next round of rural diner interviews, Trump fans should be asked: Would it upset you to learn that the money you gave to the campaign was used to conceal an affair with a porn star? We can be fairly certain that they won't object on the basis of morality.
But wouldn't they have assumed that their hard-earned cash was being used for voter turnout, TV ads, and the like? Wouldn't they regard paying for a porn star's silence as an inappropriate diversion of funds?
I'm sure they wouldn't feel that way. I'm sure they'd just assume that Daniels was a sinister liar who threatened to derail Trump's campaign as part of a Deep State/George Soros campaign to keep the Swamp in power. I'm sure they'd say that, as a canny master of the Art of the Deal, Trump concluded that he had to write a check to Daniels because he was determined to Make America Great Again and that -- alas -- was the price he had to pay to make that happen.
Really, go to Hooterville and ask them. I bet that's what they'll tell you.
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UPDATE: The Washington Post's Aaron Blake explains why the payment in question probably isn't related to the Daniels scandal. Oh well.
Crossposted at No More Mr. Nice Blog
