Former official: The plain fact is that neither the FEC (Federal Election Commission) nor former chairs of the commission believe that paying hush money is a campaign-related expense. It’s a personal expense. It’s the same as a business expense of a business owner. It’s not related to the campaign…that was certainly the attitude of the FEC towards John Edwards when his contributors actually paid a million dollars to his mistress. So, it’s not a campaign-related expense no matter what the U.S. attorney in New York has persuaded [Michael Cohen] to plead guilty to.

Second guest (Democratic attorney Julian Epstein): …the statute isn’t clear, and further, the regulations that the FEC has adopted are also really not clear…There has never really been a successful criminal prosecution for the payment of hush money, which could be a personal expenditure, maybe a campaign expenditure, it’s very vague and not defined…as to whether it is a violation of criminal law, I am very skeptical as to whether that would stand up in a court of law.

Wow.  Either these two guys are crazy (which I suspect is not the case) or there is some serious gaslighting of the public going on.  On NBC, Trump heading to prison is pretty much a done deal.  They both can’t be right.

The Best of Dale Steinreich