Name:   MartiniMan - Subject:   Former FEC Chair Date:   8/22/2018 2:01:51 PM

Bingo.  And even that was worse because the people who made the payments were not reimbursed by Edwards.  Had he reimbursed them with his personal funds, no violation.  Had he reimbursed them from campaign funds he would have been convicted.  The way the law is written, dual purpose payments do not fall under the purview of campaign finance laws.  As Mark Penn wrote so well in the Hill, if a candidate spends money to have his teeth fixed to help him in a campaign, that is not against the law.  And neither is paying off former sex partners, unless they use campaign funds.

But here is the reality.  Cohen has thrown his lot in with Clintonista's and they are going to use him as long as he remains a useful idiot.  And it may get him a lighter prison sentence but at the end of the day his pleading guilty to a non-crime does not make it a crime.  And the left that has themselves all lathered up are going to be disappointed.  This is about politics and trying to overturn an election result they did not like and stupid stunts like this are not going to help.  In fact, it will have the opposite effect in the midterms because we will be doubly motivated to vote.