Marener
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And do you have any examples?Ummmmmmmmmm, just about everyone, but they were never charged.
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And do you have any examples?Ummmmmmmmmm, just about everyone, but they were never charged.
Three examples. Good job!Ummmmmmmmmm, just about everyone, but they were never charged. The following is just presidents, which does not included zillions of others running for office. From NPR, not Fox News:
NATIONAL
A history of U.S. presidents and hush money payments
APRIL 5, 20235:05 AM ET
Vanessa Romo
Former President Donald Trump is arraigned in New York on Tuesday over charges of falsifying business records with "intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof." The allegations stem from a scheme to silence an adult film star who said she was having an extramarital affair with Trump. Past presidents have also been accused of making hush money payments.
Seth Wenig/AP
Former President Donald Trump is now the first president in U.S. history to be arraigned on charges of falsifying business records as part of a cover-up of payments to an adult film star with whom he allegedly had an extramarital affair.
Or, a hush money scheme.
It's a concise shorthand for a practice that's sometimes legal: One person tries to persuade another through the use of cash or goods to keep quiet about something unsavory.
Trump may be the most recent U.S president implicated in hush money scandal — but he's not the first.
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In terms of its origins, most scholars attribute the two-word phrase to Richard Steele, a politician, playwright and journalist who often wrote about morality and how people should conduct themselves in respectable society.
"I expect hush-money to be regularly sent for every folly or vice any one commits in this whole town," Steele wrote in a 1709 article about London.
The term has been in linked to U.S. presidents for nearly as long as the United States of America has been a country.
Thomas Jefferson
The country's third president, Thomas Jefferson, wrote about his part in an alleged hush money scheme to his friend, James Monroe.
In the 1801 letter, Jefferson said he'd given money "from time to time" to journalist James Thomson Callender, "a man of genius suffering under persecution."
But Callender was now telling people that the gifts were actually payments for writing articles defaming John Adams and George Washington as well as others exposing an extramarital affair involving Alexander Hamilton.
According to Jefferson, Callender told a messenger he received the money "not as a charity but a due, in fact as hushmoney."
The move infuriated Jefferson, and he swore never to send Callender any more money.
"Such a misconstruction of my charities puts an end to them for ever," he wrote to Monroe.
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About a year later, Callender wrote an article publicizing Jefferson's relationship with Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman on his estate, and the existence of their children.
HISTORY
2018: Jefferson's Monticello makes room for Sally Hemings
Warren Harding
A batch of letters released by the Library of Congress revealed that the 29th president, Warren Harding, was embroiled in at least two hush money agreements.
"To escape ruin in the eyes of those who have trusted me in public life — where I have never betrayed — I will, if you demand it as the price — retire at the end of my term, and never come back to [Marion, Ohio] to reside," Harding wrote to Carrie Fulton Phillips, his longtime lover, in a 31-page letter dated Feb. 2, 1920.
"I will avoid any elevation but retire completely to obscurity."
THE TWO-WAY
2015: Warren Harding, we hardly knew ye
But, he added, if Fulton Phillips believed he might "be more helpful by having a public position and influence ... I will pay you $5,000 per year in March each year, so long as I am in public service."
He added: "I will, I must abide by your decision."
Ultimately, he paid her that money to stay silent about their affair while he was president from 1921 to 1923. In today's dollars, that would be the equivalent of nearly $260,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics calculator.
Harding also made regular payments to woman named Nan Britton, with whom he had a child.
In a tell-all book called The President's Daughter, Britton wrote about her yearslong relationship with Harding, which she said lasted until he died. She provided details about coming to an agreement with the politician to have her sister and brother-in-law adopt the child.
"I produced a small piece of paper on which my sister had entered necessary monthly expenses," Britton wrote. "He agreed to the amount, saying if such an arrangement would make me happier than would an arrangement such as he had suggested ... he was agreeable to it."
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Richard Nixon
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Watergate, The Tapes & The Fall Of The Nixon White House
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On March 21, 1973, Richard Nixon — president No. 37 — was recorded discussing hush money payments related to the Watergate cover-up — although whether the phrase was actually uttered on some of the recordings was central to several legal battles.
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He and his lawyer, John Dean III, are heard talking about collecting money to pay off the men who broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Washington, D.C., Watergate Office Building.
The recordings ultimately led to Nixon's resignation — making him the only president in U.S. history to leave the office in such disgrace.
- warren harding
- hush money
- donald trump
- thomas jefferson
- richard nixon
And then there is this:Three examples. Good job!
They all predate modern campaign finance laws. Your most recent example is Nixon, over 50 years ago and he was pardoned, so if you’re wondering why he wasn’t prosecuted, you need to remember basic US history.
You do know that John Edwards was actually prosecuted, right?And then there is this:
Former presidential candidate John Edwards was accused of funneling nearly $1 million in donor contributions to support his pregnant mistress and criminally charged with a campaign finance violation. Here's how the case played out.
A grand jury indicted Donald Trump, likely over a "hush-money" payment to Stormy Daniels. A similar case unfolded in 2011 against John Edwards.
www.businessinsider.com
"It's not illegal to be a pig," Brett Kappel, a Washington campaign finance expert, told the Washington Post at the time. "Is what Edwards did slimy? Absolutely. Everyone will agree it was reprehensible. But it's not a crime."
He was found not guilty. Therefore, the precedent shows that this is NOT illegal, but they are prosecuting Trump for it anyway, knowing what the precedent is. And, Biden purposely kept his classified documents secret just before the 2020 election, to influence the election results, the very same thing they are charging Trump with.You do know that John Edwards was actually prosecuted, right?
This actually disproves your belief that there is selective prosecution. The only relevant example you can come up with was prosecuted!
And he was a Democrat too!
But that's not what you initially said. I'm going to have to throw your own words back at your face here:He was found not guilty. Therefore, the precedent shows that this is NOT illegal, but they are prosecuting Trump for it anyway, knowing what the precedent is. And, Biden purposely kept his classified documents secret just before the 2020 election, to influence the election results, the very same thing they are charging Trump with.
but, somehow, just somehow, Trump is the only one charged with a crime for doing it
Thanks for admitting the witch hunt against Trump, prosecuting him for a crime where there is a precedent that it was no crime. But, because he's Trump, they are going to prosecute him anyway.But that's not what you initially said. I'm going to have to throw your own words back at your face here:
That's not true, is it. Edwards was charge with a crime for doing it.
The precedent is that the DoJ prosecutes this.Thanks for admitting the witch hunt against Trump, prosecuting him for a crime where there is a precedent that it was no crime. But, because he's Trump, they are going to prosecute him anyway.
A shout out to Big Al for keeping copious records of the hush money payment. The prosecution's case is made a little easier. It kinda makes a mockery of Trump's denial he didn't schtoink Stormy. Sorry Melania, you married an unfaithful pig of a man.
There was no precedent made. Edwards case differs from Trump's...Thanks for admitting the witch hunt against Trump, prosecuting him for a crime where there is a precedent that it was no crime. But, because he's Trump, they are going to prosecute him anyway.
This genius thinks that jury decisions are precedent.There was no precedent made. Edwards case differs from Trump's...
All the parts that aren't your fantasies about HB's dick.Which part is a lie?
Crickets....
Of course. Why do you guys omit the important one?Is it possible to have more than one motive for doing something?
A shout out to Big Al for keeping copious records of the hush money payment. The prosecution's case is made a little easier. It kinda makes a mockery of Trump's denial he didn't schtoink Stormy. Sorry Melania, you married an unfaithful pig of a man.
A shout out to Big Al for keeping copious records of the hush money payment. The prosecution's case is made a little easier. It kinda makes a mockery of Trump's denial he didn't schtoink Stormy. Sorry Melania, you married an unfaithful pig of a man.
Oh, you're a coward. Well, I can't help you beyond to suggest you try using your head. And I don't mean your dick, you silly sally.All the parts that aren't your fantasies about HB's dick.
My not wanting to discuss HB's penis is not being cowardly but your insisting on discussing nothing but HB's dick says plenty about you Fancy Boy.Oh, you're a coward. Well, I can't help you beyond to suggest you try using your head. And I don't mean your dick, you silly sally.
How soon you forget. I asked which part was a lie, and your only response was to log how you're daydreaming about dicks. See previous posts if you need to, and be sure to see my applicable signature.My not wanting to discuss HB's penis is not being cowardly but your insisting on discussing nothing but HB's dick says plenty about you Fancy Boy.
Reimbursement for a hush money payment to keep Daniels' story from being published for the purposes of election interference.
Because Cohen illegally declared the reimbursement as income Trump eventually paid him extra money. Part to pay for the income taxes Cohen would incur and part as a performance bonus for a job well done.