Trevor Potter Comments on the Law Behind Michael Cohen Case

Michael Cohen, President Trump's former personal lawyer, pleaded guilty this week to eight federal crimes, including tax evasion, making false statements to a bank and campaign-finance violations. The plea capped a month’s long investigation into his business dealings and implicated the president in the campaign-related payments.

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"Under the theory that then-candidate Donald Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen violated campaign finance laws by arranging hush-money payments to women accusing Trump of affairs, the answer would seem to be yes. We should probably think twice before accepting that answer."

Trevor Potter, another Republican former chairman of the FEC, countered Mr. Smith in an interview: "The problem with his argument that this is inherently personal and should not be considered to have anything to do with the campaign is that it depends on the facts. Here we have sworn testimony in court by the lawyer involved in making it all happen that it was done expressly for the purpose of influencing the election."

He added that other evidence, such as the timing of the payments a decade after the alleged affairs, and just weeks or days before the election, provides more support that campaign-finance violations occurred.

Mr. Potter also leads the Political Law Group at Caplin & Drysdale.

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Excerpt taken from the article “Q&A: The Law Behind Michael Cohen Case” by Julie Bykowicz for Dow Jones.