[EL] Question about Cohen Reimbursement

[Douglas Johnson]

I believe the 1997 guilty plea of then-Representative Jay Kim (from California) involved exactly this issue (among others):

https://www.nytimes.com/1997/08/01/us/lawmaker-to-plead-guilty-in-campaign-case.html

 

*	Doug

 

Douglas Johnson, Ph.D.

Fellow, Rose Institute of State and Local Government

at Claremont McKenna College

douglas.johnson at cmc.edu

direct: 310-200-2058

 

 

 

From: Law-election <law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu> On Behalf Of Kogan, Vladimir
Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2018 6:30 PM
To: Trevor Potter <tpotter at capdale.com>
Cc: Election Law Listserv <law-election at uci.edu>
Subject: Re: [EL] Question about Cohen Reimbursement

 

Trevor, thanks for the response! Did the FEC articulate an anti-corruption interest to rationalize this distinction?

 


Vladimir Kogan, Associate Professor
Department of Political Science

2004 Derby Hall | 154 N. Oval Mall, Columbus, OH 43210-1373
510/415-4074 Mobile 

614/292-9498 Office

614/292-1146 Fax

http://u.osu.edu/kogan.18/
 <mailto:kogan.18 at osu.edu> kogan.18 at osu.edu

@vkoganosu <https://twitter.com/vkoganosu> 

 

 

From: Trevor Potter [mailto:tpotter at capdale.com] 
Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2018 9:26 PM
To: Kogan, Vladimir
Cc: Election Law Listserv
Subject: Re: [EL] Question about Cohen Reimbursement

 

The FEC has said that the corporate form makes all the difference— a candidate can take a distribution from a corporation he owns and use it for the campaign, but the corporation may not use its funds to do so directly.

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 23, 2018, at 9:23 PM, Kogan, Vladimir <kogan.18 at osu.edu <mailto:kogan.18 at osu.edu%3cmailto:kogan.18 at osu.edu> <mailto:kogan.18 at osu.edu>> wrote:

To clarify, my question is about the distinction between the candidate-owned corporation making a contribution vs. the candidate using the profits made from his corporation (his “personal wealth”) to then make the payment.

From: Kogan, Vladimir
Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2018 9:04 PM
To: Election Law Listserv
Subject: Question about Cohen Reimbursement

Hi Everyone,

I have a question about the Trump Organization’s “hush money” reimbursement paid to Cohen. Suppose that Trump Org is charged with making an illegal corporate contribution to a candidate’s campaign. Could the corporate contribution ban be challenged as unconstitutional as applied to this transaction on the grounds that, because the Trump Organization is owned by the candidate, there is no risk of quid pro quo corruption? Aside from the potential tax issues, why would a contribution made by a corporation owned by the candidate pose corruption risks that the same payment made directly by the candidate would not pose?

Thanks, happy to take responses and insights offline!

Vlad

<image001.png>
Vladimir Kogan, Associate Professor
Department of Political Science
2004 Derby Hall | 154 N. Oval Mall, Columbus, OH 43210-1373
510/415-4074 Mobile
614/292-9498 Office
614/292-1146 Fax
http://u.osu.edu/kogan.18/<http://u.osu.edu/kogan.18/>
kogan.18 at osu.edu <mailto:kogan.18 at osu.edu%3cmailto:kogan.18 at osu.edu> <mailto:kogan.18 at osu.edu>
<image002.gif>@vkoganosu<https://twitter.com/vkoganosu>


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