News Clips

“That is an explicit acknowledgment that this payment was about the election and was about hiding information from voters immediately before the presidential election,” said Paul S. Ryan, vice president of policy and litigation at watchdog group Common Cause, which filed a legal claim over the payment. “That’s what makes all of this a campaign finance violation.”... Ryan, of Common Cause, said Giuliani’s comments suggested a willful violation of campaign finance law.

Paul Seamus Ryan, vice president for policy and litigation at Common Cause, said the latest explanation of the payment — that Mr. Trump reimbursed Mr. Cohen — does not eliminate the possibility that the payment violated campaign finance laws. “A lot of contradictions coming out of Team Trump this morning,” Mr. Ryan said in an interview with The New York Times. “This payment was to influence the election,” he added. And he said new details about the payment and repayment could raise additional legal problems because it might violate campaign finance laws about straw donors that prohibit making a donation in the name of another person.

“The deck is certainly stacked against regular Marylanders,” said Damon Effingham of the Maryland chapter of Common Cause. “It’s not the power of your ideas that’s winning the day. It’s your outsized wealth.”