TIME: The New Cohen Recording Doesn’t Alone Incriminate President Trump, Experts Say

TIME: The New Cohen Recording Doesn't Alone Incriminate President Trump, Experts Say

“I just think it again affirms what we filed in our complaint; that it sounds like Donald Trump knew about the hush money payment to McDougal before the election,” said Common Cause Chief of Strategy and External Affairs Stephen Spaulding. “I just think this is more of another log on the fire that these are campaign finance violations and that the thread continues to unravel.”

With the release of a recording of President Donald Trump and his former attorney Michael Cohen discussing a deal to bury a onetime Playboy model’s allegations of an affair with Trump, questions about obscure campaign finance rules are once again front and center. …

Pecker could also find himself in legal trouble if it can be proven that he made the decision to buy McDougal’s story with the intention of never running it after consultation with the Trump campaign. Common Cause, a non-partisan watchdog group, filed complaints with the Federal Election Commission and the Department of Justice in February requesting an investigation into exactly that.

“I just think it again affirms what we filed in our complaint; that it sounds like Donald Trump knew about the hush money payment to McDougal before the election,” said Common Cause Chief of Strategy and External Affairs Stephen Spaulding. “I just think this is more of another log on the fire that these are campaign finance violations and that the thread continues to unravel.”