Trump campaign, tabloid publisher hatched plan to bury damaging stories, 




WASHINGTON POST


Yet legal experts interviewed Wednesday said such cases are difficult to prove and they thought it unlikely that prosecutors would pursue campaign finance charges against AMI or its executives. The prosecution of former senator and presidential candidate John Edwards on similar campaign finance allegations fell apart in 2012, as many jurors doubted the government had proved that he and an aide tried to cover up his extramarital affair simply to protect his presidential campaign. Edwards’s attorneys said that he worked to conceal the relationship to protect his marriage.
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In 2011, Edwards was indicted on six counts of conspiracy and campaign finance fraud. He was accused of violating election law, criminally conspiring with donors to protect his presidential campaign by accepting hundreds of dollars in donations above the federal contribution limit to conceal his extramarital affair and his mistress’s pregnancy. The money was used to pay for her living and medical expenses, prosecutors alleged.

But jurors were not persuaded that the payment was an illegal campaign contribution. Edwards was acquitted on a charge of accepting illegal campaign contributions that were related to payments made after he dropped out of the race, and the jury deadlocked on the rest of the charges.