Everyone has heard about it. Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, under specific direction of Candidate Donald Trump, paid hush money to two adult porn stars with which Trump allegedly had affairs. That money was Campaign money. How do we know that? The Media said so, of course. And Democrats make the same claims. So what happens now?
Let’s dig down into the nitty-gritty of all this:
- Did Trump actually have affairs with the two women? President Trump says he did not. Of course, his saying so means nothing to Leftists. Anything he is accused of is factual in their eyes. Nevertheless, he was accused. Then why did Cohen under Trump’s direction pay the money? Remember this: Trump was running for President. Both of those women apparently came forward at a critical time in the campaign cycle. Having “bimbo leaks” at that particular time would be deadly to any campaign. Stopping their stories from hitting the news was critical.
- We don’t know that Donald Trump actually had those affairs. He says he didn’t — they both say he did. To my knowledge, no evidence has been presented proving either had any involvement with Donald Trump. But even if he did, he did so prior to being a candidate for any office, and therefore his doing so would have been purely a personal matter. But the President maintains there were NO affairs with either woman.
- Why would they both say it happened if it really didn’t happen? Come on! Both proved by the way they came forward at the time they came forward their purposes in doing so: MONEY and FAME. Democrats and their media puppets all took the bait and have incessantly beat the drum of “bimbo payoff” since the revelations. And with the Cohen admission of making the payoffs as campaign funds payout — which if true would be illegal — just stoked the liberal fires again.
- The payoffs DID happen. Confirmation of that is not in dispute. However, were campaign funds used? Apparently, Michael Cohen provided no hard documentation showing the payoff methods and their details. But it is surely certain that if the Trump Campaign wrote checks or wired money, the Federal Election Commission would have stepped forward with that information. Cohen actually initially stated that he paid both women himself. As Trump’s personal attorney, Cohen was on a monthly retainer for legal services. It is commonplace for people of financial substance to have attorneys and accountants under contracts in that exact fashion. They pay for the operating expenses of their clients and bill clients for services provided above what those retainers cover. In that manner, Cohen’s paying them was normal.
- “Those women were paid hush money to keep their stories from impacting the 2016 election results. The public would have NOT voted for Trump if they knew. Therefore, the payoffs were campaign fund violations.” That’s the story being passed around by Democrats. But their story doesn’t stop there. “Experts” are actually all over Mainstream Media outlets stating that this rises to the level of an impeachable offense. But there is precedence and irony here. And both past such events point to these payments — IF they were made to coverup Trump sexual impropriety and not just to thwart blackmail, which is what they seem to have been — are NOT criminal and probably were not at all improper.
Let’s examine those two precedents.
John Edwards is a former United States Senator from North Carolina and a Democratic Party vice-presidential and presidential candidate who, in August 2008, admitted to having had an extramarital affair. The affair was initially reported in late-2007 by The National Enquirer but was given little attention outside the tabloid press and political blogosphere. The Enquirer cited claims from an anonymous source that Edwards had engaged in an affair with Rielle Hunter, a filmmaker hired to work for his presidential campaign, and that Hunter had a child from the relationship.
Edwards vehemently denied the affair and that Hunter’s child was his. But after much media pressure, on January 21, 2010, Edwards issued a statement admitting the affair and that he was the father of Hunter’s child.
On June 3, 2011, Edwards was indicted by a North Carolina grand jury on six felony charges. The charges? They came from Edwards’ use of campaign funds to cover up the affair and the subsequent birth of the child. (Sound familiar?) Edwards faced a maximum sentence of thirty years in prison and a $1.5 million fine, or a USD $250,000 fine and/or five years imprisonment per charge. The indictment came after the failure of intensive negotiations for a plea bargain agreement that would have required Edwards’ guilty plea to the misuse of campaign funds.
After delays, due to John Edwards’ medical condition, jury selection for the trial began on April 12, 2012. Opening arguments began on April 23, 2012. A verdict (not guilty on one count and a mistrial on the remaining five) to the trial was reached on May 31, 2012.
As Democrats, (who are about to take control of the House of Representatives, which is where impeachment proceedings would begin) mull over the constant cries of many Congressional Democrats and also from many big campaign donors to impeach President Trump, they have something much bigger than John Edwards’ conundrum with Rielle Hunter to deal with. “IF” they push forward with impeachment, they must deal with the 900-pound gorilla that lives in “their” house: a Congressional Sexual Settlement Hush Fund.
The “Hush” Fund
You may have heard whispers about this fund. You may have at the time you heard of it wondered who in Congress was involved, how long the fund has existed, who was paid out of the fund and for what, and what was the source of dollars IN the hush fund.
If you wondered those things then — two years ago — you STILL wonder about all of those! NOTHING HAS BEEN RELEASED.
Here are the details:
If you’re a victim of sexual harassment and you work for Congress, you can’t complain to the human resources department.
You can’t file a lawsuit, either — at least not until you’ve gone through months of mandatory counseling and mediation designed to keep such complaints out of court. And out of the public eye.
That’s all spelled out in the laughably named Congressional Accountability Act, a special set of rules designed to protect the people who wrote them.
Instead of HR, claims are handled by the congressional Office of Compliance. It receives allegations of sexual harassment, salary discrimination, and other workplace issues, and pays out settlements — with money supplied by the U.S. Treasury — if the parties reach an agreement. Since 1997, taxpayers have shelled out $15.2 million.
Think of it as the Taxpayer Hush Money Fund. You pay, and the complaints go away. Those records aren’t subject to the federal Freedom of Information Act. The compliance office doesn’t disclose the names of congressmen or their aides who reach settlements with their accusers. A case becomes public only if mediation fails and the victim later wins a favorable ruling in federal court or through an administrative process.
So, in the midst of such an outrageous and egregious system in place in Congress, who is responsible for it? And who funds it? The answers: it is part of a bill that Congress passed itself. Who pays for it? WE DO — EVERY DIME! Taxpayer money in — sexual harassment by members of Congress committed — victims get paid by those taxpayer dollars WITH NO ACCOUNTABILITY.
Surely there is some member of Congress who saw the horrors of this process and the outcry that would certainly come from Americans if revealed. Surely some member of Congress would blow the whistle and take action to expose this law and shine the light of revelation on all the wrongdoers who had wasted taxpayers dollars to pay off their sex victims. Well, there WAS such a lawmaker: Florida Governor-elect, Ron DeSantis.
I have pasted the bill above. It is not really lengthy, but it is too long to post here. Click on it to read.
The bill was NOT intended to do away with the fund, but rather to force total transparency for Americans to see not only who in Congress were guilty of using unapproved taxpayer funds to pay off those abused by members of Congress, but to chronicle the dollars of every incident going forward.
The bill was introduced in Committee in the Fall of 2017 by DeSantis. It’s current status? More than one year later it is still in Committee: no hearings, no amendments, no discussion. Basically, it is dead.
Summary
Democrats in the House have a tall hill to climb if they choose to take the Trump “Bimbo Eruption” to the door of Impeachment. First, there’s the precedent set by federal courts in the John Edwards campaign funds charges in which that court determined Edwards was not guilty of campaign violations.
Then, Democrats would be forced to throw open the doors of sexual improprieties of dozens (if not hundreds) of current and past members of Congress. Why would they do that? Think about the current allegations against Trump in the Cohen revelations in federal court: he paid two women who accused then “private citizen” Trump of having affairs AND paid them with campaign funds. If any federal court went against the Edwards precedent and ruled against the President, that would mean the Congressional Hush fund and those who benefitted from hush payouts from the fund would be guilty of the same wrongdoing Trump is accused of! Every member of Congress who benefited from those hush fund dollars would have had them paid from — by the definition of “campaign fund disbursement rules” as determined and published by the Federal Election Commission — campaign funds paid out for personal purposes. The reasoning for THEIR payouts could only be to hide their personal wrongdoing to thwart the possible negative impact of the news of their wrongdoing IN THEIR CAMPAIGNS. Members of Congress run every two years for election and re-election — they are always campaigning.
Let’s face it: Democrats are simply posturing for political purposes. Their lapdog messaging merchants — the Mainstream Media — simply parrot those claims over and over. They hope an American public that is growing weary of all the political posturing and the necessity to fact-check every bit of news seen or heard, simply turn a deaf ear to this entire process and simply cave to the hollow and false allegations by Democrats and fall in line — their line — against the President.
Democrats and the Media are praying that facts will be forgotten, emotions will rule, and Trump will be driven from office.
They really, really pray that Robert Mueller will miraculously uncover Russian collusion on the part of Trump and that Trump criminality will do the dirty work for them!
Donald Trump is guilty of one thing for sure: his policies have made everything he has tackled politically better — much better — than as he found them.
Will that be enough to keep him in the White House for two more years and possibly six? The truth has worked in the past. Most Americans hope the truth will work this time, too.
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