[EL] ELB News and Commentary 8/22/18

[Rick Hasen]

"Cohen Implicates President Trump. What Do Prosecutors Do Now?"<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100746>
Posted on August 22, 2018 7:44 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100746> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Adam Liptak and Jim Rutenberg for the NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/us/politics/cohen-trump-indicted.html?rref=collection%2Fbyline%2Fadam-liptak&action=click&contentCollection=undefined&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection>

Although there is no explicit prohibition in the Constitution against indicting a president, the Justice Department has long taken the position that sitting presidents are not subject to criminal prosecution.

That would suggest that the extraordinary admissions and accusations from Michael D. Cohen, President Trump's former lawyer and fixer, will not result in criminal charges against Mr. Trump while he is in office. Mr. Cohen admitted to arranging payments to women to buy their silence about what they said were affairs with Mr. Trump, and he said Mr. Trump instructed him to pay the money to influence the election.

If all of that is true, Mr. Trump committed serious crimes.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


"How the campaign finance charges against Michael Cohen implicate Trump"<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100744>
Posted on August 22, 2018 7:40 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100744> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo:<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/08/21/how-the-campaign-finance-charges-against-michael-cohen-may-implicate-trump/?utm_term=.5061d014b12f>

Lawrence Noble, former general counsel for the Federal Election Commission, suggested that Trump's actions put him at risk.

"If Trump on his own, or through Cohen, coordinated with AMI to buy her story to prevent it from coming out and hurting his campaign, then he solicited and accepted an illegal corporate contribution from AMI," Noble said. That's a violation<https://www.fec.gov/help-candidates-and-committees/candidate-taking-receipts/questionable-contributions/> of federal law.

Moreover, Noble noted, the reimbursement by the Trump Organization for the Daniels payment was itself problematic.

"If Trump authorized or coordinated the Trump Organization reimbursing Cohen for the Daniels payments," Noble said, "then he is liable for the company making, and his campaign accepting, illegal corporate contributions."

Richard Hasen, election law expert at the University of California at Irvine, agreed. Hasen said that Cohen's violations could pose "liability on behalf of the campaign and liability on behalf of the Trump Organization, but there's potential that Trump himself could be personally liable for conspiring to engage in this activity."

"If the Justice Department were dealing with an ordinary case not dealing with the president, it sounds like he [Trump] could potentially be charged with a crime," he added.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>



North Carolina: "Court gives Roy Cooper a win on constitutional amendments, at least temporarily"<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100742>
Posted on August 22, 2018 7:35 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100742> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

News and Observer:<https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article216880225.html>

A panel of Superior Court judges on Tuesday blocked two North Carolina constitutional amendments from statewide ballots.

The order from a three-judge panel said ballots should not be printed that ask voters to make changes in the state constitution on how state boards and commission members are appointed and how judges are selected to fill vacancies. The order said those ballot questions did not fully inform voters of the changes that would result if the measures passed.

The court order gives Gov. Roy Cooper a victory, at least temporarily, in his lawsuit against legislative leaders.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


"Rep. Duncan Hunter and his wife indicted in use of campaign funds for personal expenses"<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100740>
Posted on August 22, 2018 7:34 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100740> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

CNN:<https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/21/politics/duncan-hunter-campaign-charges/index.html>

Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter and his wife, Margaret, routinely - and illegally - used campaign funds to pay personal bills big and small, from luxury vacations to kids' school lunches and delinquent family dentistry bills, according to a stinging 47-page indictment unsealed Tuesday.
The charges of wire fraud, falsifying records, campaign finance violations and conspiracy were the culmination of a Department of Justice investigation that has stretched for more than a year, during which the Republican congressman from California has maintained his innocence.
The detailed indictment <http://www.cnn.com/2018/08/21/politics/read-duncan-hunter-indictment/index.html> portrays the Hunters as living well beyond their means and said they "knowingly conspired with each other" to convert campaign funds to personal use.
Federal prosecutors contend that the Hunters repeatedly misrepresented what their expenses were for - in one instance buying personal clothing at a golf course so that the purchase "could be falsely reported to the treasurer as 'balls for the wounded warriors,'" the indictment says.
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>


"Michael Cohen's Guilty Plea Directly Implicates Donald Trump in a Felony"<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100738>
Posted on August 21, 2018 5:22 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100738> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

I have written this piece<https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/08/michael-cohens-guilty-plea-directly-implicates-donald-trump-in-a-felony.html> for Slate. It begins:

For the first time since the Trump presidency began, President Donald Trump is in some real legal jeopardy, providing potential grounds for his eventual impeachment, if not indictment.

Most people watching the investigations involving Trump and his orbit have been focused on whether Special Counsel Robert Mueller is going to bring charges related possible illegal coordination between the 2016 Trump presidential campaign and Russian government entities. But Tuesday brought news of a different kind of campaign collusion: between Trump and his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. Cohen's guilty plea to campaign finance violations related to hush money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal bring the president front and center in a conspiracy to violate federal campaign finance laws.


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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>


--
Rick Hasen
Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science
UC Irvine School of Law
401 E. Peltason Dr., Suite 1000
Irvine, CA 92697-8000
949.824.3072 - office
rhasen at law.uci.edu<mailto:rhasen at law.uci.edu>
http://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/full-time/hasen/
http://electionlawblog.org<http://electionlawblog.org/>

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