Trump paid illegal hush money to Stormy Daniels because he had sex with her and wanted to keep her quiet

Echo OPINION //EDITORIALS published in the Houston Chronicle

Trump’s felony conviction over porn star hush money recalls a simpler time – when sex scandals mattered | Editorial

Manhattan after the #Trump34 jury's guilty verdict 

There was something almost quaint about the particulars of the Donald Trump hush-money case that ended Thursday with a guilty verdict: a time capsule from a bygone era when political candidates assumed their transgressions still carried consequences.

After all, Trump’s rationale for paying off porn star Stormy Daniels was that their lurid affair — which she reportedly was shopping around to news outlets and that he denies took place — would do irreparable damage to his 2016, presidential campaign. His former fixer Michael Cohen confirmed as much. Cohen testified that the payments to Daniels were made shortly after the leak of the Access Hollywood tape of Trump boasting about grabbing women’s genitals, suggesting the campaign feared Trump could not withstand another “October surprise” in a close race against Democrat Hillary Clinton.

So in the final days of his campaign, he sought to bury the Daniels tryst the same way any wealthy lout would: with cold, hard cash. 

He directed Cohen to funnel $130,000 to Daniels by siphoning the cash from his family business and falsely labeling the transactions as legal expenses. We’ll never know whether doing so saved him from defeat that year, but it’s fair to say this was just the beginning of Trump corrupting the electoral process behind the scenes.

Four years later, his attempts at election interference would be far more grandiose. Armed with the power of the presidency, a legion of supporters in denial about his decisive loss to Joe Biden and an inner circle of obsequious aides and advisers eager to overthrow democracy, he would hatch an insidious plot to keep him in the White House. What happened next — a violent insurrection at the Capitol — was one of the most disgraceful events in American history and put the danger of a possible second term in stark relief.

How far would he go if he got another crack at leading the country?

That we even had to entertain such a hypothetical speaks to the steady erosion of norms and values that both parties once claimed to cherish. In no sane universe should Trump have a second chance. Congress had two opportunities to extinguish his flame, send him back to Trump Tower with his tail between his legs, a disgraced president that the annals of history would frown upon as a cautionary tale for our fragile democracy.

Of course, those impeachment attempts failed, giving the Republican Party a chance to test just how short our collective memories are. The party leadership easily could’ve disavowed him in favor of a fresh face for the GOP, one who could ably take on Biden, who, despite a mountain of accomplishments, is perceived as weak.

Alas, the GOP’s pact with Trump is apparently signed in blood. 

Even the few Republicans who spoke out against him in the wake of January 6th, quickly came running back. Now it’s as if they never left.

Combing through GOP politicians' statements after Trump’s conviction is to witness an exercise in delusional sycophancy. You’d expect the shameless boot-lickers such as Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham to spin the verdict as the result of a sham trial in a rigged system. When respected voices in the so-called “party of law and order” — looking at you, John Cornyn — parrot these ridiculous statements, it’s fair to question just how far Republican leaders are willing to debase themselves just to regain power.

Even those clinging to the prospect of a reversal of the verdict based on the lack of specificity in jury instructions are tethering their integrity to a technicality, not any evidence exonerating Trump or proving wild conspiracy theories that he was framed by the Biden administration. And no, this verdict isn’t based solely on the word of confirmed liar Michael Cohen. It was based on reams of documents and corroborating testimony.

Still, you don’t have to be a political pundit to understand that the gravity of the hush money case was far less than Trump’s other alleged crimes. For those of us waiting on real accountability for Trump, the New York verdict provides cold comfort. The felonies he was convicted of are all of the low-tier, non-violent variety, each carrying a maximum sentence of four years. The fact that this is Trump’s first conviction, he’s old, and he’s running a national campaign for president will likely weigh on the scope of Judge Juan Merchan’s sentence. One thing both presidential campaigns, and constitutional scholars, agree on: Trump can return to the White House with a felony conviction.❗😡😠

If there’s any hope to be gleaned from Trump’s conviction, it’s that the myth of the Teflon Don has shattered. For all his bluster that he could murder someone on Fifth Avenue and walk away scot-free, it had to be humbling for him to be treated like any other perp in a Manhattan courtroom, with no TV cameras for him to preen for. Only his frumpy visage immortalized by bizarre courtroom sketch caricatures. Even Trump’s post-conviction statement lacked his usual bite, a low-energy burst of recycled Trumpisms — “rigged, disgraceful trial,” “country gone to hell,” etc. — which played like a sad trombone.

And yet, this verdict isn’t the death blow his opponents have longed for. It remains to be seen whether our justice system can navigate the absurd uncharted territory of a felonious ex-president fighting off 54 other criminal charges across three jurisdictions. It’s an open question whether Biden will even attempt to weaponize Trump’s criminality. After all, if there’s anyone who can spin a felony conviction as an act of martyrdom, it’s Trump. Naturally, within minutes of his conviction, his campaign sent out a fundraising pitch on his TruthSocial platform. And he claims the money is rolling in, more than $34 million since the verdict.

“I am a political prisoner!” Trump’s post read.

Not really, Donald.😒 Chances are you won’t see the inside of a prison cell at all. Maybe not ever. But one can dream. And we do.