Bruce Green was quoted in The Atlantic about President Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen’s claims that he secretly taped President Trump discussing payment to a former Playboy model.
[I]n a recording released Monday evening, the then-candidate Donald Trump is heard speaking with his former personal attorney Michael Cohen about making a payment to prevent the story of an extramarital affair with the model Karen McDougal from emerging.
“I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David,” Cohen says on the recording, apparently referring to David Pecker, a longtime Trump ally and the CEO of American Media (AMI). “We’ll have to pay.”
“Pay with cash,” Trump replies.
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As a media organization, AMI benefits from an exemption in campaign-finance law, which states that an “expenditure” does not include any news story “distributed” through a publication by a press entity acting in its “legitimate press function.”
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The legal implications for Trump and AMI hinge on their intentions, which can be hard to prove absent direct evidence.
“A lot turns on Trump’s motivation for discussing a payment to AMI. Was the purpose to reimburse AMI for purchasing McDougal’s story as a favor to Trump? If so, that’s unhelpful to AMI and Trump,” said Bruce Green, a law professor at Fordham University and a former federal prosecutor. “On the other hand, if Trump did not know that AMI bought the story to help him and his campaign by taking it out of circulation, and he was worried that AMI might publish the story, that may tend to exculpate AMI. And, on that version, Trump is off the hook because he never made the purchase.”
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“There’s a pretty clear implication in Davis’s statement that Cohen was lying before, or at least covering up. Why would Davis so clearly imply that his client was lying until now? And why suggest that Cohen is now forthcoming when he obviously has not come anywhere near to telling the whole truth?” Green said. “If Cohen had a course of dealing with Trump concerning covering up Trump’s sexual affairs, the public would be interested to hear, but Cohen hasn’t told the story. Can he tell it, given attorney-client privilege and confidentiality? Perhaps not, but then why say he is pressing reset? Is Davis trying to bait Trump into waiving attorney-client privilege and confidentiality?”
“Two white-collar heavyweights are litigating against each other in the court of public opinion,” Green added. “Who’s the jury?”