Michael Cohen plea turns campaign donations into slush fund for bad behavior

Published December 14, 2018 6:46pm ET



One welcome casualty of the #MeToo movement is the practice of using taxpayer funds to settle sexual harassment suits against members of Congress. Over the last two decades, the Congressional Office of Compliance has paid out some $17 million to settle sex harassment suits against lawmakers, but Congress is on the verge of passing legislation to end that practice.

But if the government is no longer going to pay these settlements, who is? If the idea is to hold members accountable, as lead Senate sponsor Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., says, then we would expect members to pay out of their own pockets. Seems simple enough.

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