Bradley Smith: "Michael Cohen Pled Guilty to Something That Is Not a Crime"

 The prosecutor is twisting campaign-finance law.  Read the whole thing.

So what does it mean to be “for the purpose of influencing an[] election”? To understand this, we read the statutory language in conjunction other parts of the statute. Here the key is the statute’s prohibition on diverting campaign funds to “personal use.” This is a crucial distinction, because one of the primary factors separating campaign funds from personal funds is that the former must be spent on the candidate’s campaign, while the latter can be used to buy expensive vacations, cars, watches, furs, and such. The law defines “personal use” as spending “used to fulfill any commitment, obligation, or expense of a person that would exist irrespective of the candidate’s election campaign.” So a candidate may intend for good toothpaste and soap, a quality suit, and a healthy breakfast to positively influence his election, but none of those are campaign expenditures, because all of those purchases would typically be made irrespective of running for office. And even if the candidate might not have brushed his teeth quite so often or would have bought a cheaper suit absent the campaign, these purchases still address his underlying obligations of maintaining hygiene and dressing himself.

To use a more pertinent example, imagine a wealthy entrepreneur who decides to run for office. Like many men and women with substantial business activities, at any one time there are likely several lawsuits pending against him personally, or against those various businesses. The candidate calls in his company attorney: “I want all outstanding lawsuits against our various enterprises settled.” His lawyer protests that the suits are without merit — the company should clearly win at trial, and he should protect his reputation of not settling meritless lawsuits. “I agree that these suits lack merit,” says our candidate, “but I don’t want them as a distraction during the campaign, and I don’t want to take the risk that the papers will use them to portray me as a heartless tycoon. Get them settled.”

The settlements in this hypothetical are made “for the purpose of influencing the election,” yet they are not “expenditures” under the Federal Election Campaign Act. Indeed, if they were, the candidate would have to pay for them with campaign funds. Thus, an unscrupulous but popular businessman could declare his candidacy, gather contributions from the public, use those contributions to settle various preexisting lawsuits, and then withdraw from the race. A nice trick!

But in fact, the contrary rule prevails, because the candidate’s obligation to resolve the business’s lawsuits exists “irrespective” of the campaign. Similarly, any payments made to women by Mr. Trump or his associates are independent of the campaign.

The Coming Collusion Bloodbath

... while the Russians attempted mass chaos. The more serious scandal appears to have covered up criminal behavior, illicit manipulation of the FISA process, and an attempt to undo the quite serious results of an election.
Is there anything more sacred in our representative republic?

The scandal that goes mostly unmentioned began before the election had even occurred but appears to have continued well past the final results of election night, with one candidate winning 30 of 50 states, and racking up a 304 to 227 victory in the electoral college.

A victory that looks increasingly historic in light of what increasingly appears to be the collusion of the then current administration with one campaign, and in instance after instance attempting to push their thumb on the scale of the outcome.

The Democrats’ illicit partnership with the Obama Justice Department and what appears to be an increasingly corrupted leadership at the Federal Bureau of Investigation was yet one more logistical hurdle that President Trump would have to overcome in his surprising and transformational win.
Few remember, though my radio show discussed at length, the reports that surfaced in October of 2016. In reaction to the bizarre July 5th announcement by then FBI director James Comey, FBI officials revealed that members of the DOJ and FBI investigative teams that had worked the Hillary email case were “angered & disgusted” that the co-opted DOJ and FBI leadership ignored the very real analysis of evidence and decided against bringing criminal indictment against Hillary Clinton for the handling of top secret information. More than 100 FBI agents that worked the case, and more than 6 DOJ attorneys expressed their disgust, according to a source within the group.

This might be the worst campaign ad of all time. Cringeworthy!

Miami Trump crowd frenzy...

From the Daily Mail:

Donald Trump unveiled a new visual campaign theme in Miami on Friday – a mashup of the Broadway musical 'Les Misérables' and an epithet Hillary Clinton leveled at his supporters one week ago.

He took the stage, introduced by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, as the 'Les Mis' anthem 'Do You Hear the People Sing' blasted through loudspeakers.

The video screen behind the podium flashed to an artistic rendering of 'Les Deplorables,' complete with USA and 'Trump' flags replacing the French colors, and a bald eagle soaring over the revolutionary scene.

'Welcome to all of you deplorables!' Trump boomed as thousands screamed 'Trump! Trump! Trump!' and 'We love you!'

Trump's ad shows Hillary barking like a dog

Former Staffer For California Republican Admits to Lies That Ruined Campaign

This is one of the ways Democrats cheat to win elections.

Dear Republicans: choose your staffers well.

Carl DeMaio is a California Republican who had a chance to win a house seat in 2014. Even though the race was happening in blue California, it was one of the state’s more conservative districts.

All hopes were dashed when one of DeMaio’s former staffers named Todd Bosnich accused him of sexual harassment in the final weeks of the campaign. He even produced threatening emails which he claimed were sent to him by someone in the DeMaio camp.

Democrats welcomed the scandal and although DeMaio strongly denied the charges, he was defeated by Democrat Scott Peters.

On Friday, the ex-staffer admitted in federal court that he lied when he claimed to have gotten an anonymous email threatening that he would never work again in politics if he revealed things about DeMaio.

Todd Bosnich, 29, pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice by lying to the FBI about the email. Until Friday, it was not known publicly that the federal government was investigating the email.

During the campaign, Bosnich had told reporters that he was ”positive” that the email, and others, came from DeMaio or someone close to him.

But in his guilty plea, Bosnich admitted that he sent the email to himself through a dummy account and then took the email to the Peters campaign who turned it over to the San Diego Police Department.

Bosnich’s actions “had the potential to affect a national election,” said Assistant U.S. Atty. Phil Halpern. “Mr. Bosnich, for whatever reason, had a great deal of hostility and personal animus toward Mr. DeMaio.”

The email, now known to be fraudulent, was meant to support Bosnich’s allegation that DeMaio had touched him inappropriately and masturbated in front of him.

Now the LA Times is reporting that the staffer Todd Bosnich made the whole thing up and has even admitted his lies to the FBI

Of course CNN broadcast the story and Talking Point Memo got it into the Internet.

A suggestion or four for how this can be stopped in the future:

• Republicans, choose your staffers well.
• Push to get this piece of garbage jail time.
• Make this an issue in the next campaign.
• Make sure that any legislation supported by Scott Peters does not pass.

Rubio vs. Clinton: "Yesterday is Over."

Welcome to the Hillary Show

The Weekly Standard's Jonathan Last reminds us what to expect from the Washington press corps as they cover "Hillary!"

Are you old enough to remember Dukakis, one of the most uninspiring political figures to ever run for president?  Here's an example of how it went.

Didion, who covered politics only sporadically, and as an outsider, wrote a fantastic piece for the New York Review of Books about the nature of press coverage during the '88 campaign. Her most telling example came on a morning in San Diego when Didion, as part of Dukakis' traveling press, witnessed the candidate briefly tossing a baseball on the tarmac, shortly after his plane landed. Here she is:

About this baseball on the tarmac. On the day that Michael Dukakis appeared at the high school in Woodland Hills and at the rally in San Diego and in the school-yard in San Jose, there was, although it did not appear on the schedule, a fourth event, what was referred to among the television crews as a "tarmac arrival with ball tossing." This event had taken place in late morning, on the tarmac at the San Diego airport, just after the chartered 737 had rolled to a stop and the candidate had emerged. There had been a moment of hesitation. Then baseball mitts had been produced, and Jack Weeks, the traveling press secretary, had tossed a ball to the candidate. The candidate had tossed the ball back. The rest of us had stood in the sun and given this our full attention, undeflected even by the arrival of an Alaska 767: some forty adults standing on a tarmac watching a diminutive figure in shirtsleeves and a red tie toss a ball to his press secretary.

The Hillary Movie, update

Hillary ditches Scooby van and flies to New Jersey after wrapping up three-day Iowa campaign tour - toting her own luggage!

United flight 3954 carried Clinton from Omaha, Nebraska to Newark, New Jersey on Thursday

Met by a Town Car and a police escort – on the tarmac – for what's likely a short trip back to her Chappaqua, New York estate

Follows Iowa campaign swing full of controlled interactions, staged conversations and little interaction with real people

Clinton was, however, photographed pulling her own suitcase down an airport concourse

Proving she's just like you and me.

A reporter with the liberal news outlet Vox tweeted a photo of Clinton toting her own luggage on Thursday in Omaha