Tag

#campaign-finance

2 incidents

Grade 1 of 5: Significant Democratic Concern

Hush-Money Scheme: Cohen's Guilty Plea Names Trump; Trump Convicted on 34 Counts (2024)

Cohen's guilty plea was not just his own conviction — it was Trump's implication. Cohen stated in federal court that the campaign finance crimes (the Daniels and McDougal payments) were committed 'in coordination with and at the direction of' a candidate for federal office. Federal prosecutors' filings repeated that the payments were made in coordination with and at the direction of 'Individual-1', understood to be Trump. Cohen was sentenced to 36 months; he served about a year in prison before release to home confinement in May 2020, and completed his sentence in November 2021. Trump was never charged federally over the payments; he was convicted on 34 state felony counts in May 2024 and received an unconditional discharge on January 10, 2025, and is appealing.

Grade 2 of 5: Major Abuse of Power

Catch and Kill: National Enquirer's AMI Suppressed Stories to Protect Trump's 2016 Campaign

The National Enquirer's 'catch and kill' program operated by buying the rights to stories from people with negative accounts of Trump — paying them for exclusives and then killing the stories. AMI purchased stories involving alleged sexual affairs and other damaging material. Federal prosecutors concluded the scheme constituted illegal campaign contributions; AMI entered a non-prosecution agreement admitting this. David Pecker's cooperation was central to the conviction of Michael Cohen and the eventual conviction of Trump himself.