It just got far harder to reject the idea that Trump is violating campaign finance laws

[Dennis Donovan]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/10/03/it-just-got-far-harder-reject-idea-that-trump-is-violating-campaign-finance-laws/

By Philip Bump Oct. 3, 2019 at 2:53 p.m. EDT

One reason that Donald Trump Jr. wasn’t indicted by the grand jury assembled as part of former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election is that Mueller’s team didn’t think it could prove Trump Jr. didn’t know that what he was doing might be illegal.

At issue was Trump Jr.'s June 2016 embrace of an offer of dirt ostensibly coming from the Russian government. “If it’s what you say I love it,” Trump Jr. said of the offer, an undoubtedly honest reaction. Information undermining Hillary Clinton would be of substantial use to his father’s campaign as it transitioned into a general election fight against the eventual Democratic nominee. That it was coming from Russia doesn’t appear to have been much of a damper, despite the fact that accepting electoral assistance from a foreign actor is a violation of federal law.

“The investigation has not developed evidence that the participants in the meeting were familiar with the foreign-contribution ban or the application of federal law to the relevant factual context,” Mueller’s report reads (Vol. I, p. 187). “The government does not have strong evidence of surreptitious behavior or efforts at concealment at the time of the June 9 meeting” — and efforts to hide the meeting in 2017 may have been linked to political, not legal, considerations.

This wasn’t the only reason that Trump Jr. wasn’t charged. Mueller’s team also questioned whether what was being offered was demonstrably worth more than the minimum set in the statute. So Trump Jr. skated.

By July 25 of this year, though, it’s hard to see how Trump Jr.'s father, President Trump, wouldn’t have been aware of the legality of soliciting, accepting or receiving “a contribution or donation of money or other thing of value” from a foreign actor. Contribution here doesn’t just mean money; it includes “any gift, subscription, loan, advance, or deposit of money or anything of value made by any person for the purpose of influencing any election for Federal office.” “Anything of value” includes information.

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Good read...

[catbyte]

1. I thought ignorance of the law was no excuse if you break it.

[magicarpet]

2. That applies only if you are part and parcel to the unwashed commoner division of society,...

But if you are attached to the rich elite a far wider birth if offered so you have ample space to park your yacht without any chance of damage or any invasions to your precious privacy.

Row boats and kayaks fly economy class while big ass expensive yachts customarily receive five star - first class treatment of the law, and ordered about ever so gingerly.

Societal stations matter. The monarchy due to embarrassment and shame was forced underground, but since the advent of the King of Orange has proudly surfaced and risen once again in America. Rejoice that we are over ruled/ruled over by our own royalty, and forever grateful that they daily do our heavy thinking for us so we need not be burdened.