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It just got far harder to reject the idea that Trump is violating campaign finance laws [View all]
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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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.
</snip>
Good read...
2 replies
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