A tape seized by the FBI that contains a secret recording by President Donald J. Trump’s longtime lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, of the two discussing payments to a former model just months before the 2016 election is “pretty clearly evidence” of federal campaign finance law violations, said Costas Panagopoulos, a political science professor at Northeastern with expertise in campaign finance.
The tape, seized by the FBI in a raid of Cohen’s office in April, was collected as part of a Justice Department investigation into Cohen’s involvement in paying off women in order to keep quiet embarrassing stories about Trump. News of the recording was first reported by The New York Times.
We asked Panagopoulos about what all this means for Trump and for the midterm elections.
