Paying Off Women You’ve Had Sex With…

It’s kind of a sleezy subject, but this isn’t the first time it’s reared it’s ugly head in terms of politics. In case you haven’t heard, the Department of Justice is now investigating President Donald Trump for paying off women with money, and they are debating whether or not that is something that violates campaign finance laws. OK, while I’m not a lawyer, and never played one on TV, let’s get into the weeds on this one, shall we?

When a person runs for office, especially federal office, there are a bunch of new rules and regulations and laws they must follow. For instance, you can’t pay for your kids’ babysitter with campaign money sent in by donors. You can’t payoff your deadbeat brother in law’s mortgage with money sent in by donors. You can’t buy yourself a new mansion in Beverly Hills, and buy that new Bentley you’ve had your eye on. Those have nothing to do with the campaign, and could land you in hot water.

So, what about paying off women you’ve screwed around with just to make sure they don’t open their mouths and blab to the world that you had an affair? 

I don’t think there’s anyone out there, certainly not the Lone Cactus, that would doubt for a minute Donald Trump had screwed around on past, and maybe even present wives. That’s like saying Bill Clinton never cheated on Hillary. And, I wouldn’t doubt for a minute that Donald Trump paid some, or even all of those women off so they wouldn’t talk about the dalliance. I be most Americans would agree with me on that one as well. That isn’t the question here. The question is, is it a violation of campaign finance laws?

Well, to answer that question, from a legal perspective, we only have to go back in presidential politics to the point of one John Edwards running for the office from the Democrats’ side of things. During the primary, it came out that he had an affair with a campaign worker named Reille Hunter. This was back in 2007. Yes, historians, that was the campaign between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Edwards was to finish third in that one, with only about a million votes nationally. However, he was indicted on paying off Reille something along the lines of $1 million to hide their affair (his wife, Elizabeth was dying of cancer at the time). 

The DOJ hit him with with six felony charges, including four dealing with campaign finance law. He was found innocent on one of the charges dealing with campaign finance…and precedence was set that no…you can’t be found guilty of a violation of campaign finance laws if you pay off someone for sex. The other five charges were declared a mistrial and DOJ announced they were dropping the case.

So, the legal precedence is, even IF Donald Trump were to have paid off someone for his sexual affairs, it isn’t a violation of campaign finance laws. You’d think the DOJ would have done more homework than me on this one. Go figure!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!