https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entr...ted-federal-crime_us_5b7da81de4b07295150f49f6
Trump has it backward. Had he used his own money to pay off Daniels and McDougal and routed it through his presidential campaign, there wouldn’t be a legal issue. (Publicly disclosing payments to Daniels, an adult film star, and McDougal, a Playboy model, of course, would have undermined the purpose of the payments, which was to keep the allegations secret.)
The campaign is allowed to make large payments. But Cohen pleaded guilty to making one excessive contribution to the campaign by paying $130,000 to Daniels out of his own pocket and facilitating a $150,000 excessive and illegal corporate contribution from the publishing company American Media Inc. These payments constituted in-kind donations, according to Cohen’s plea agreement, and thus exceeded the $2,700 individual campaign contribution limit. One came from a corporation, which may not donate directly to presidential campaigns. Neither of these two illegal donations was disclosed by the Trump campaign.