President Richard Nixon famously tried to deflect the talk of impeachment in fall 1973 with an eminently quotable declaration of innocence in a televised news conference with the nation's newspaper editors. ""People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook," Nixon declared. "Well, I'm not a crook."
Nixon was facing accusations of political espionage and obstruction of justice far more serious than stealing from the government's cookie jar, but "I'm not a crook" was the dominant sound bite on the network newscasts that day and in newspaper headlines the next day. Nixon's effort to change the subject failed in the end only after the Oval Office tapes confirmed his deep involvement in the Watergate cover-up.
President Trump and his new wartime consigliere Rudy Giuliani appear to be borrowing from Nixon's subject-changing playbook to try to get rid of the controversy over Trump's alleged sexual affair with porn star Stormy Daniels a decade ago. For weeks, Trump had been denying the affair and in addition denying any role in the $130,000 hush-money payment to Daniels from his lawyer Michael Cohen three weeks before the November 2016 election.
Giuliani went off on a completely different tack this week [May 2] by announcing to Fox News' Trump-loving host Sean Hannity that Trump actually had reimbursed Cohen for the payment. Giuliani's claim, within days after Trump added him to his White House legal team, directly contradicted Trump's and Cohen's previous statements that Cohen had paid the money himself without ever having been reimbursed directly or indirectly by Trump or the Trump organization.
Any method behind Giuliani's startling claim appears to have been his specifying that Trump paid Cohen back from personal funds, not from his campaign treasury. "No campaign finance violation," Giuliani told Hannity. "Zero," he added with a wide Cheshire-cat grin on his face.
Hannity appeared to be totally satisfied. "I didn't know," he said matter-of-factly without noting the complete contradiction of Trump's prior statements. But legal experts on other cable news channels, CNN and MSNBC, pounced viciously on Giuliani's statements as implicating rather than exonerating Trump and Cohen.
From the initial disclosure, campaign finance experts viewed Cohen's payment as a campaign-related expenditure aimed at keeping a lid on Daniels' accusation at least until after the election. On that premise, the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) charging Cohen with a $130,000 contribution to Trump's campaign, well in excess of the $2,700 limit on individual contributions under federal law.
Appearing on CNN with host Don Lemon, former Clinton White House counsel Jack Quinn noted that Giuliani's seemingly exculpatory statements were completely off point. "'We never used campaign funds,'" Quinn said, paraphrasing Giuliani. "That's not the issue. That was never the issue."
Giuliani also tried to depict the hush-money payment as aimed at sparing Trump's wife Melania from embarrassment rather than protecting Trump's candidacy. With no regard for the evident implausibility, Giuliani went on in any event to contradict himself in a later appearance on Fox and Friends. "Imagine if that came out on Oct. 15, 2016, in the middle of the last debate with Hillary Clinton," Giuliani said, making the hush money's campaign-related purpose evident.
For FEC purposes, Trump's eventual reimbursement to Cohen is meaningless for the lawyer's legal exposure. FEC regulations make clear that a loan to a campaign is subject to the same limit as a contribution: "A loan that exceeds the contribution limitations of 52 U.S.C. §30116 and 11 CFR part 110 shall be unlawful whether or not it is repaid."
Far from exonerating the president, Trump's previously undisclosed reimbursement puts him squarely in legal crosshairs. If campaign-related, the expenditure needed to be included in spending reports with the FEC: it was not. If a loan or advance from Cohen, the debt needed to be included in Trump's June 2017 financial disclosure form: it was not.
Admittedly, the future of Trump's presidency is unlikely to hinge on violations of federal disclosure laws. But Giuliani added further to Trump's legal exposure with a new explanation of the president's decision to fire FBI director James Comey. Trump had muddied those waters months ago, first by linking his decision to Comey's supposed mishandling of the campaign-time investigation of Clinton's email server and then by acknowledging the connection to the special counsel's Russiagate investigation.
In the newest version of events, Giuliani claimed that Trump decided to fire Comey when the FBI director refused to make a public declaration that Trump was not a target of the Russiagate investigation. With a stronger link to the special counsel's investigation, the firing seemingly strengthens the case for charging Trump with obstruction of justice, if not in an indictment at the least in Robert Mueller's final report.
Practicing lawyers who appeared on CNN or MSNBC appeared to be unanimous in viewing Giuliani's comments as an unforced error by a spotlight-loving politician. Giuliani insisted, however, that he made the statements after conferring with Trump and with the president's blessing. In the end, the episode gives Trump's critics this consolation: Trump and those around him are simply too incompetent to pose a lasting risk to American democracy, despite their worst efforts.
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