Rep. Ted Lieu: Tapes don't lie. Even if the president does. 'The payment by American Media Inc. constituted an in-kind contribution that benefited the Trump campaign.'

USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Trump on recordings: 'Your favorite president did nothing wrong' President Trump speaking out, claiming that the revelation that his former lawyer Michael Cohen secretly recorded one of their conversations involving an alleged hush payment to a former Playboy model is quote, “inconceivable.” For more on the story here is Zachary Devita.

An audio recording of a conversation between President Donald Trump and his former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, about a payment to a former Playboy model was played on CNN on Tuesday night.

We can't just write this off as another Trump scandal

It wasn’t too long ago when the release of a tape that featured a candidate discussing paying for the silence of a former mistress would be the sort of scandal to end a political career. Instead, we have a president who has so frequently and aggressively breached norms, and potentially laws, that we’re becoming accustomed to the chaos. We can’t let that happen, and we can’t write this off as just another salacious political scandal that Donald Trump can lie his way through.

As a former prosecutor, I want to be clear: We should be outraged that President Donald Trump might have committed a felony by knowingly allowing American Media Inc. to pay $150,000 to silence Karen McDougal. The payment by AMI constituted an in-kind contribution that benefited the Trump campaign. That’s why, in March, Rep. Kathleen Rice, D-N.Y., and I called on the FBI to investigate these payments.

Campaign-finance laws prohibit a federal campaign from accepting contributions above $2,700 during the general election.

Willfully violating this law, when the contribution exceeds $25,000, is a felony.

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In the recently released audio recording, we hear Trump and former personal attorney Michael Cohen allegedly discussing buying the rights to McDougal’s story from AMI. If Trump’s current attorney Rudy Giuliani is to be believed when he said there was no payment ever made by Trump to AMI, the president is in deep trouble. That would mean Trump knowingly accepted an in-kind campaign contribution that is more than 55 times above the federal limit. That is a felony.

We’re now seeing a debate about whether Trump suggested paying for the story in cash. That misses the point. The rights for McDougal’s story were never purchased, but Trump and his associates appear to demonstrate in the taped conversation that they believe having it buried by AMI is beneficial to Trump. A story like McDougal’s or Stephanie Clifford’s (Stormy Daniels) becoming public could have swayed the election against Trump’s campaign. It appears Trump and his associates were well aware of that risk.

Though Trump might have committed or conspired to commit a felony, it’s ultimately up to our country’s law enforcement to prosecute. Trump and his associates have repeatedly lied to the American public to defend themselves. Recently, Trump told a room of veterans, "Just remember: What you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening."

What Trump misses is this: Tapes don’t lie, even if the president does.

Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., serves on the House Judiciary Committee. You can follow him on Twitter: @TedLieu.

What our readers are saying

Again, no one cares about the women Donald Trump dated a decade ago. CNN and its leakers think it's a "big" deal, though.

— Dan Smith

Well, let's see, Michael Cohen talked about cash on the tape, not Trump. Trump probably said "check." And if Trump's legal team didn't claim privilege, then they obviously weren't scared of the tape. So what is Cohen's lawyer, Lanny Davis, talking about?

And what attorney does this to a client? Unless you're confessing to a crime to your attorney, he's supposed to have your back all the time. The only people done here are Cohen and Davis. Worst lawyers in America.

— John Tortorici

If Trump cared about this audio, he would have not let it be released. He could have easily claimed attorney-client privilege, which his legal team chose to waive.

I don't really know what this tape proves or doesn't. I think most people believe that Trump never really has had the moral high ground when it comes to things like this, which makes him just another politician. I'm a Republican and I think Bill Clinton was a good president, but he obviously had his share of moral problems. Same can be said about John F. Kennedy.

— Tyler Puttick

What others are saying

Jonathan Turley, The Hill: "In the end, the president has good defenses unless (Michael) Cohen flips, though those defenses are stronger with (Stormy) Daniels than (Karen) McDougal overall. As a married man implicated in an affair, Trump had a nonpolitical motivation to silence both women. The problem is that McDougal was done through a third party who does not appear to have received any real value from the payment other than silencing McDougal. ... Cohen has done everything short of going (on) Tinder to try to hook up with special counsel Robert Mueller. He has stripped away any references to Trump from his social media and posted biting comments like a despondent teen. It is a quite a change from a man who, among an impressive array of Trump sycophants, stood out for his proclamations of love and loyalty."

Greg Sargent, The Washington Post: "The newly released audio shines a light into yet another corner of the netherworld of how Trump conducted business, and if prosecutors now focus on (Allen) Weisselberg (chief financial officer of the Trump Organization), that could produce still more revelations. And by the way, on ABC this morning, Cohen’s lawyer Lanny Davis said there are more tapes of Cohen and Trump. Perhaps they will amount to nothing. But after all we’ve seen, does anyone want to bet good money on that?"

Virginia Heffernan, Los Angeles Times: "What's this stupid bedroom farce have to do with the fate of the nation? If no one but a prude like me is feeling scandalized by the president's ritual humiliation of his wife and infliction of trauma on his young son, maybe all this prurient chatter should stop here. Instead, you can approach the president's perfidy through the indictments of Russian military intelligence commanders for undermining American democracy."

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