Daily Beast: Time Is Running Out to Indict Trump for His Sex Hush Money Payment to Stormy Daniels

Daily Beast: Time Is Running Out to Indict Trump for His Sex Hush Money Payment to Stormy Daniels

“It seems that if the Department of Justice were going to charge Trump, it would do so this month before the statute of limitations on the most significant charges related to the illegally large contribution runs,” said Paul S. Ryan, vice president of policy and litigation at the government watchdog group Common Cause. Ryan’s signature is on two complaints, one to the Federal Election Commission and another to the DOJ, that tried to hold Trump accountable for the hush money payment.

Later this month, on October 27, it’ll officially be five years since then-presidential candidate Donald Trump had his personal lawyer secretly pay hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels. And more than an incredible mark of how time can move both fast and slow, it’s also something of an important legal deadline.

Federal prosecutors at the Southern District of New York successfully locked up the Trump fixer who orchestrated the deal, Michael Cohen, who was sentenced to three years in jail for charges related to the payment. But they never went after Trump himself, even though the government made it clear in the Cohen case that Trump was behind it all.

The government’s now-infamous sentencing memo says Cohen “acted in coordination with and at the direction of Individual-1,” meaning Trump. And subsequent disclosures and two tell-all books made that crystal clear.

But there’s a five-year statute of limitations on violations of federal elections law—and some think it’s starting to get too late for the feds to indict Trump. …

“It seems that if the Department of Justice were going to charge Trump, it would do so this month before the statute of limitations on the most significant charges related to the illegally large contribution runs,” said Paul S. Ryan, vice president of policy and litigation at the government watchdog group Common Cause.

Ryan’s signature is on two complaints, one to the Federal Election Commission and another to the DOJ, that tried to hold Trump accountable for the hush money payment.