Tuesday, May 15, 2018 was the deadline for Donald Trump and White House personnel to submit their 2017 financial disclosure statements to the public. At the last minute, Donald Trump complied and his disclosure included at least one item that appears to be triggering a new criminal investigation: Donald Trump claims that he did, in fact, reimburse his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, $130,000 for the hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels (aka Stephanie Cliffords) in 2016. David Apol, the acting director of the Office of Government Ethics, acknowledged receipt of the financial disclosure and specifically flagged it in a letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
MSNBC justice and security Analyst Matthew Miller summarized the above letter as “essentially a criminal referral.”
In fact, if Donald Trump “knowingly and willfully” omitted the payment, he did break federal law. From NBC News:
Federal law requires White House officials, including the president, to "report liabilities owed to any creditor that exceeded $10,000 at any time during the reporting period." It is illegal to "knowingly and willfully" omit or falsify information on disclosure forms, a crime punishable by a fine and up to one year in prison.
As Miller noted, by releasing this letter publicly, the Department of Justice will now be forced to act, one way or another.
Of course, none of this would be a problem if Donald Trump were capable of telling the truth from the start. Shout out to Stormy Daniels for continuing her quest for the truth—and the right to tell her story.