Trevor Potter and Matthew Sanderson Talk to Washington Post on Possible Campaign Finance Violation Related to Stormy Daniels Payment

In interviews Wednesday and Thursday, President Trump’s attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani repeatedly asserted that a $130,000 payment to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels during the presidential campaign was legal.

. . .

“It was right before the election. Previously, he didn’t make the payoff when it was a mere embarrassment,” said Matthew Sanderson, who was a campaign finance lawyer for the 2008 ­McCain-Palin campaign.

Sanderson said the timing of the payment “strongly suggests it was related to the election, and therefore is either a contribution, or at least a reportable expenditure by the campaign.”

. . .

“He raises the exposure for the president, because Giuliani acknowledged that Trump and his campaign may have had a duty to report it,” Sanderson added, “which wasn’t necessarily the case under the prior narrative where Michael Cohen was the lone actor, giving from his own funds, didn’t run it by anybody before or after until it hit the press.”

Further, if the payment were a loan from Cohen, Trump may have had a duty to report it in his June 2017 financial disclosure form to the Office of Government Ethics, said Trevor Potter, a former Republican FEC commissioner and founder of campaign finance advocacy group Campaign Legal Center, in a statement.

“He didn’t disclose it and, if the omission was intentional, he could be subject to civil or criminal penalties,” Potter said.

Messrs. Potter and Sanderson are Members of Caplin & Drysdale’s Political Law Group in Washington, D.C.

For the full article, please visit The Washington Post’s website.

Excerpt taken from the article “Giuliani Said the Stormy Daniels Payment Was Legal. Here’s What Campaign Finance Experts Said.” Michelle Ye Hee Lee for The Washington Post.