Buried in the Justice Department’s sentencing announcement of President Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen is a brief aside that may threaten Trump’s legal defense if he gets charged with violating campaign finance laws.

American Media Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer that enabled Cohen’s payouts to former Trump flings Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, asserted that “its principal purpose in making the payment was to suppress the woman’s story so as to prevent it from influencing the election.”