Republican commissioners at the Federal Election Commission voted to quash charges against former President Donald Trump for allegedly accepting an illegal campaign contribution in relation to his controversy with adult film star Stormy Daniels.
The six-member watchdog commission split evenly, with three GOP commissioners voting to dismiss the allegations and a trio of Democrats seeking to pursue the case. The deadlock prevents the case from going forward.
Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to making an illegal contribution to the Trump campaign by paying $130,000 to Daniels just before the 2016 election to stop her from disclosing an alleged 2006 tryst with Trump.
Cohen admitted in his plea that he made an “unlawful” contribution to Trump’s campaign by setting up the payments. For this and other charges, he was ultimately sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay $1.39 million in restitution.
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The three Republican commissioners, all appointed by Trump last year, Allen Dickerson, James Trainor III, and Sean Cooksey, dismissed the allegations that Trump and his campaign broke campaign finance law.
Democratic Commissioners Shana Broussard and Ellen Weintraub acknowledged in a statement Thursday that the commission “did not have enough votes to pursue well-grounded charges that the former President of the United States knowingly and willfully accepted contributions nearly 5,000% over the legal limit to suppress a negative story mere days before Election Day.”
The commission’s nonpartisan legal team had earlier recommended to the six FEC commissioners that there was sufficient evidence to believe that Cohen, Trump, and the Trump campaign accepted and failed to report illegal campaign contributions.
In 2016, the campaign contribution limit for an individual was $2,700 per election. A campaign “contribution” is defined as anything of value made “for the purpose of influencing any election for Federal office.” Cohen admitted under oath that he made the payments to Daniels for this purpose.
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However, the Trump campaign argued in its response to the complaints that there was no violation of the law because the payments to Daniels were not campaign-related and therefore not illegal contributions.
