President Trump broke campaign finance laws when overseeing Michael Cohen’s payments to buy the silence of two women he had sex with, infers Paul Seamus Ryan of Just Security. It becomes clear when analyzing the closest precedent: 2008 presidential candidate John Edwards overseeing a payment of almost $1,000,000 to cover up that he had a pregnant mistress. During his trial, Edwards made several cases that he had paid the sum, not to influence the election, but to keep the secret from his wife. Trump does not have that excuse, it was clear he sought to secure his presidential run, having waited several years to silence the women.

Michael Cohen’s guilty plea, alleging that Donald Trump oversaw illegal payments made to women he had affairs with, is a lot murkier than the media has presented it as, believes Alan M. Dershowitz of The Hill. Lots of political campaigns fail to report campaign contributions. Normally such offenses are punished with a fine. Additionally, the blame is put on the campaign as a whole, not the individual candidate. Cohen is also not the most reliable source of information, seeming to have few aversions to lying. All of this looks bad for Trump as a politician, but there no solid legal case that he broke the law or should be impeached.